H&R Revolvers

Harrington and Richardson top-break revolvers area still-common firearm that could very possibly come into the shop. It’ll probably need work and that’s what this article is about. This author has observed that people seem to still like these revolvers; from the Internet, "These are cool old guns". I’ll cover performing a number of needed repairs on these early revolvers but disassembly and reassembly will not be covered as that information is readily available elsewhere.

This is to be (hopefully) the first of a number of articles on repair of older arms. There is a need for this as when older firearms are encountered they are often in need of gunsmithing to put them in order and working on them is a little different than working on a modern autoloading firearms. It’s described as an H&R small frame, five-shot, blued, Premier, or New model (per the Numrich Gun Parts Corporation listing), 1914- 1916 production (from the Internet) revolver.

Of these arms, they are said to be often first discovered in the bottom of an elderly relative’s dresser drawer and sometimes still loaded. Now whether "Saturday Night Special" or "diamond in the rough" is another descriptor, you the gunsmith get to decide; that is, how tore gard, whether to proceed, and how to treat a customer when someone brings one of these in. Some do not regard these arms very highly. The author proceeded as follows.

My customer said the H&R brought to me was acquired as an inheritance of sorts after its previous owner (her relative) was put in a nursing home. Your author has only one time previously encountered anything like this when a different customer offered a handgun for sale. He said his brother had been adjudicated and no longer able to legally possess firearms and the family didn’t want another handgun, hence the sale offer.

There has been some controversial news items lately about who can and cannot possess firearms and the above points out some of the situations those in the firearms business encounter. Back to the subject. The customer was very pleased to have acquired a small, concealable handgun, never mind the 32 S&W. Some ammunition in 32 Short Colt was also provided with it. She wanted to know if the revolver was in working condition and if the ammunition was correct for it.

Looks like a windfall acquisition so far, so it was given a check out. First the good. This revolver had about the tightest or best lockup ever seen by your author on any old similar top-break revolver. Interesting. No need to modify or try multiple barrel catches, which is the preferred repair when needed. The later models from H&R omit the push button on the side of the top strap, which when pressed holds the locking piece retracted.

This is a later model and more suitable for smokeless powder loads, which is a plus. Otherwise, use blackpowder loads only for safety’s sake. The cylinders and bore checked out satisfactorily for absence of excess pitting. The barrel cylinder gap was okay and at the minimum. Its grips were in good condition for its age and were the standard black hard rubber having the target in a circle logo.

The trigger sear hammer relationship appeared to be satisfactory in both single and double action; the flat main spring was good. Both notches on the hammer appeared in good condition and showing little wear. The safety notch held well. And there were a few rounds of that Short Colt caliber ammunition as well. Now for the bad. There was way too much excess end shake assumed to be due to wear. A riding line was scored on the cyl-

inder caused by the spring-type cylinder stop not retracting, there was insufficient carry up of the cylinder due to wear of the hand ratchet relationship, and an incorrect and poorly-fit pivot screw was in place. The hook and slide was missing meaning no ejection function and the spring-type cylinder stop was broken so there was no cylinder lockup when the trigger is in its forward position.

Upon disassembly, I found the cylinder stop screw head to be in bad condition as well as the trigger spring so that the trigger had to be manually reset during checkout. The last of the blue finish was only at about 50-75% with only slight rust. All not too good and some work was definitely needed to put things in order. After a call, the customer The correct one has a fine thread. gave the go-ahead if the expense would not be "too much money." A word about the ammunition.

The 32 Short Colt (formally, 320 Revolver) has a case size which is bullet diameter with a heeled bullet (0.315" case diameter) and is an obsolete cartridge no longer available through normal channels. The 32 S&W round has a larger diameter case with the bullet fitting completely within the case, about 0.333" diameter. The ammo furnished was much too loose in the chambers to work, so call it collector ammo for now.

The parts needed were a trigger spring, hook and slide, pivot screw, probably a hand, and the cylinder stop and its screw. Jack First (JackFirstInc.com) is local to me and was tried first. They only had the pivot screw, anew and very well made blued replacement which fit perfectly and was reasonably priced. Nothing else they had fit.

I next tried Numrich (Gun- PartsCorp.com) for everything else that might be needed and they had only the trigger spring (anew replacement) and an original cylinder stop screw, hook, and slide, so not everything wanted was yet in hand. Vintage gun parts, especially original ones, are getting very hard to find, hence newly-made replacements of some of them have become available along with the tedious option of flat out making new parts.

So the repairs needed would be to the hinge, end shake, cylinder carry up, ejection, trigger return, cylinder lock up, and possibly the finish. The first thing tried after receipt of the parts was to attempt to reassemble. The action would not close with the hook and slide as received but after a careful reduction of the hook nose by filing it did close and upon reopening the ejector did raise and snap back as it should. The hook slide fit and worked without any work needed.

Next, the excess end shake was reduced by carefully drilling the center button (one piece with the extractor star) in its exact center with a 0.060 gage drill through the extractor and press fitting apiece as shown here. This can be either press fit into the extractor star or threaded in if one is so inclined. Slightly flatten the rounded button with a flat file before marking with a center punch before drilling. After adjusting the added piece to minimum end shake, the excess end shake was thus repaired.

As stated above, barrel cylinder gap was already acceptable. The trigger spring fit as received and worked satisfactorily. Partial trigger pull with only the trigger spring (no sear or cocking resistance) measured 4#. The repair of insufficient carry up was more extensive and went like this. A hand had been ordered from Numrich even though marked by them as "O. O. S". It proved to be really not available and the invoice was so marked. Strike one.

The extractor star is serial numbered to the cylinder on this model so it was desirable to retain it. Peening the teeth on the star in the direction of increasing rotation of the cylinder works sometimes, especially on those models where the hand bypasses the star such as on S&W revolvers. However, this model is similar to a Colt revolver in which the hand presses against the star tooth to rotate the cylinder all the way into battery and doesn’t rise enough in operation to bypass the extractor star’s tooth.

Peening extractor star teeth is a risky operation as the peening is nearly impossible to reverse. Also, it lowers the "height" of the extractor star’s teeth which is not conducive to satisfactory operation and may not

work at all. The above risky nature of the work resulted in rejection of any modification of the extractor itself other than a thorough cleaning of it after removing it from the cylinder. One might also effect an insufficient carry up repair by working with the hand. The idea is to try to add to the length of the hand by welding, by stretching it, or adding to its length by peening. Welding on such a small part is risky and on the hand for this model there did not appear to be a good place to peen it longer.

In this area of repair, your author has failed at welding on both hands and extractor stars in the past. Peening has gone a little better but neither was chosen. Enough said. Another option exists. The hand has a bend or twist in the direction of greater engagement with the extractor. The danger here, as above, if the hand is brittle it could lead to breakage. It could still be reproduced of suitable material but only with much hand labor by making it sufficiently longer and then fitting to work properly.

On this inexpensive revolver the bending option was chosen for ease and least expense, but not until after a detailed drawing of the hand was first made. I firmly clamped the hand in a vise with its hand spring still in place, leaving about the top quarter inch exposed. How much to twist the hand is strictly a guess. Using a small adjustable parallel jaw wrench, the top 1/4" of the hand was twisted an estimated five degrees clockwise from top and in the correct direction as a first try.

Just a guess as to the amount and just twisted, not bent, to either side. Excess end shake had already been corrected so the cylinder can’t move except to rotate. This first try guess at the amount to twist did in fact serve to increase the hand’s rotation of the extractor sufficient to effect proper lockup of the cylinder upon full press of the trigger. Insufficient carry up no longer.

The cylinder now locked between the hand, rotating the extractor star and the cylinder stop on the trigger itself which has risen during full trigger press to engage the cylinder slot. Success was achieved on the first try. Wow, that almost never happens! Note also, the extractor star is worn on this revolver so all cylinders do not rotate exactly the same amount into battery.

Filing teeth on the extractor star to level them is an option and is usually done only on more enough to allow it to be twisted a slight amount. Operators are advised when doing this kind of work on old and worn revolvers that the extractor star is never as tight as is needed. It’s usually mounted on a five-sided post which rises out of the cylinder when extraction/ejection is taking place. Its post will invariably be loose in the five-sided broach in the cylinder.

This is bad for cylinder indexing and it makes for virtually impossible timing work to be performed on these arms. What gunsmiths do to get around this defect is to chamber tightly-fitting fired cases in each cylinder during timing work, effectively restricting the extractor from rotating in relation to the cylinder. The looseness in extractor rotation allows the cylinder to not range—that is, line up with the barrel.

This serves to makes things more like what would be the case with a factory new arm with no excess wear here. Your author had no fired cases on hand in this caliber so I added Scotch tape wrapped around unfired cases, building up the outside diameter of each until there was a fit snug in each chamber. Next needed was the cylinder stop. The part called a cylinder stop on this model serves to lock the cylinder in position with a chamber aligned with the barrel when the trigger is in the forward or carry position.

It is in the form of a spring-tempered stamped part that rises and locks the cylinder and retracts as needed. It seems to not be a particularly good design as evidenced by its broken condition and rather flimsy appearance. If the revolver is working correctly it is retracted at the very first press of the trigger early enough in the trigger’s travel so the cylinder can then rotate. Various repairs of the existing broken cylinder stop were tried, none of which were successful.

Notable was trying a "helper spring" to push the cylinder stop expensive revolver s but this was rejected on this inexpensive arm. Fortunate ly, the hand proved to be ductile

up into the notch during operation so it would function correctly; it did not work. Note that the revolver is operational without the cylinder stop but the cylinder is free to rotate when the trigger is in the fully forward position, not the best situation.

The safest carry option without an operational cylinder stop is to fully lower the hammer down on the cylinder between two rounds of ammunition, effectively locking the cylinder between two cartridge rims, a procedure often done when carrying old revolvers making them only more or less safe to carry. If the hammer is retracted to its safety notch, the cylinder is again free to rotate. Of course, this is not a fully satisfactory carry situation.

There is a video on You Tube showing replacement of this spring-type cylinder stop that is well done. Search for "H&R revolver repair Cylinder stop install 38 s&w ctge" on the Guns With Gage channel. Now to make and fit a replacement cylinder stop. The springtype cylinder stop was made as a stamped part of spring-tempered flat steel stock with across section measuring about 0.020×0.080".

Needed was some suitable material but that wasn’t hard to find as flat putty knives, drywall tools, and even clock springs can be cut up and used to make flat springs American Gunsmith Reader Services 1.

as they all are made spring tempered. What was chosen instead was apiece of broken spring-tempered street sweeper tooth which was picked up on the street. Anything else would have worked as well. Some are stainless and some are not—they rust. Your author has made a number of useful items from these broken sweeper teeth in the past. The piece chosen was 1/8" wide and a little too thick at 0.025" but was a start.

Attempting to bend the piece into the hook shape of the original part resulted in breakage, so despite being spring tempered was too brittle to be bent. A quick annealing using a propane torch along enough of the length of the piece to be bent was done without quenching. This allowed the piece to be bent to what looked like the correct hook shape and the part’s fabrication was then completed. Next was to carefully grind and file the replacement cylinder stop to shape followed by drilling the hole for its screw.

A #46 gage drill made a hole 0.081" diameter which snugly fit the screw ordered from Numrich. The screw appears to have a #2 diameter thread. Finally, a completed part if not very pretty. On to final fitting to the revolver. The cylinder stop worked but not until after much final fitting, adjusting the hook shape, and extensive polishing of the rear surface of the hook which needs to be retracted at the correct time by the trigger.

It must rise high enough to lock the cylinder when the trigger is released and lower soon enough during trigger press to unlock the cylinder and not jam the action. This stop was reduced to 0.020" thick as with the original and very carefully shaped as close as could be made to the size of the original part. The hook itself where it rises into the cylinder slots was made a little wider than on the original part being made more nearly the width of the cylinder slots. That was an improvement and the only change.

Fore and aft position of the hook shape at the rear end of the cylinder stop for proper operation is critical. After much fitting it functioned as it should. The annealed hook-shaped end of the replacement cylinder stop was left in an annealed condition. The arm was reassembled and given a function check. It was now in usable condition. When reassembled the single action trigger pull measured 6.5 pounds.

Tried was some trigger pull reduction work on the hammer only to try to lighten the single action pull but was unsuccessful. Let off was improved a little. The mainspring was left alone. No further work was done. The owner chose to delay refinishing work so the revolver was returned to its owner. In conclusion, I hope readers might reap some benefit from the techniques set forth herein when they encounter these types of old, vintage revolvers in the course of business. AG