Smith & Wesson model one and a half.

[fairview]

So I've been told this is nothing more than a good looking paper weight. Took it down to cabelas. They said it is a. 22 blackpowder purse pistol. They also said it can't be fired even with a 22 short.

So are they on the up and up with that or is there a way for this to go back into service 122814

[John Boy]

Sounds like Cabela's was correct for no 22 Shorts unless they are black powder shorts. And it's a S&W #1 not a 1 1/2 which was a 32 rimfire

[Nobade]

You can fire it with BB caps or Aguila Colibri ammo. The kind with no gunpowder.

-Nobade

[fairview]

You can fire it with BB caps or Aguila Colibri ammo. The kind with no gunpowder.

-Nobade

OUTSTANDING!! This was definitely a situation of not knowing enough to ask the right question. I searched bb caps and ended up at a Chuck Hawks document and I copied this. Exactly what I had read about the pistol being verified by another source. Hard to believe that an authentic Civil War era weapon is so common to be only worth about $200.00

The common .22 Short cartridge dates from 1857. It is the oldest cartridge still being loaded today. It was the first American metallic cartridge, introduced in for the first S&W revolver, a pocket pistol developed for personal protection. It was popular during the American Civil War, carried as personal weapons by soldiers on both sides.

Thanks a lot

[Nobade]

Yes, it is strange they are worth so little. I suppose since it's difficult to shoot them, or they just made so many. I have one in the shop with a split cylinder that somebody fired a high speed short in. It's a shame, neat little thing but ruined now.

-Nobade

[Ballistics in Scotland]

The BB cap was a French invention, like the pinfire and centrefire metallic cartridge, and S&W developed it into the .22 short for their revolvers. Pinfire revolvers already existed, and had the interesting legal effect of preventing a patent like Rolling White's (cylinder bored all the way through, and thus usable with cartridges inserted from the rear) from being taken out in Europe.

It is true that the use of a modern .22 short is very unwise in the early Smith and Wessons. There have been fractures of the topstrap. I don't say it would always or perhaps even often happen, and it might be fairly safe for the shooter, but it means the ruin of a very attractive little antique if it does. My guess is that you would be all right with BB or CB caps, but it is a guess.

Mark Twain toured the West with a .22 S&W, and said it fired bullets like small homeopathic pills, of which it took six to make a dose for an adult. But in the days before antibiotics, a gun was a gun to the thinking variety of malefactor. Napoleon III, in the brief interval of history when these were the only non-pinfire cartridge revolvers, had a great admiration for the No.2 .32.

[fairview]

Yes, it is strange they are worth so little. I suppose since it's difficult to shoot them, or they just made so many. I have one in the shop with a split cylinder that somebody fired a high speed short in. It's a shame, neat little thing but ruined now.

-Nobade

Well someone before i inherited it could not figure out the action of the pistol and tried to coerce it with a hammer as evidenced at one spot on the cylinder. Other than that damage I think it would have been rated at about 90%. Shame but at least I can have fun and make some noise with it now. I was going to sell/trade it for whatever.

[John Allen]

Fairview, as others have said as long as the gun is solid. BB Caps and the colibri with no gunpowder will work. Colibri's come in two speeds with no gunpowder get the slower one.

[nagantguy]

This is a very good thread, and what a cool little pocket gun, a jewel for any collection.

[dtknowles]

Will Kolibri's chamber, I thought they used the long case?