A "Baby Russian" .38 S&W.
 

A while back I swapped for stuff and found an old looking S & W revolver with spur trigger (no trigger guard) in .38 S&W caliber in a cigar box in the bottom of a big box of stuff. I looked on the internet and in my books and posted here and did not get a positive ID.

On Monday I received the July 6, 2009 issue of "Gun Digest, The Magazine" and found on page 23 that my revolver is a Baby Russian 2nd Model made between 1877 and 1891. The article states 108,225 Single Action 2nd Models were made between 1877 and 1891. Mine has a serial number that places it in 1885 or 1886. I have fired the gun with factory ammo and now have retired this 132 year old arm. I cleaned it up and will donate it to the local historical society to go along with their other old arms on display.

Adam

I believe that S&W made a tone of Revelovers for Russia in the late 1800's. Sounds like you may have gotten one. I would suspect that many made it to the US market also.

buckhunter,

You are correct about S&W making many thousand revolvers for Russia in .44 caliber and the article addresses that subject, as well.

Adam