I have one just like that with the hammer and 32 Cal. I stoned and polished it till it looked like new. I have an old ad from 1905 that shows the pistol with a young boy on it. If I remember right, they were made from like 1897 to 1906 or so.
Here is the add…
https://www.atticpaper.com/proddetai...er-ad-july-4th
I bought some cast bullet ammo and tried it in my 32. I had popped primers and had a piece of primer that stuck in my cheek! It worked its way out a month later. Got lucky and it missed my eye by an inch.
It almost seems like a nickel plating on top of whatever alloy they used on these pistols. Mine was corroded and bubbling off. I stoned, sanded, and polished all the remaining plating off along with the pitting till the pistol looked like bright shiny chrome. The long firing pin on my hammer caused pierced primers and blowups like I had in my face. I would never shoot that thing again without firing it down and wearing a football helmet with a sneeze shield. I would guess they’re all that way by design. I shot it quite a few times and could feel little pieces of primer on my hand and never thought anything and then like an idiot. I tilted the gun and shot it gangster style. That’s where it all went wrong and I had the primer stick in my cheek, serves me right for being stupid… thank God I didn’t lose my sight, or my eye, For being dumb. I don’t remember how the serial numbers worked on it again but I remember mine. I believe mine is a 1903 or an 1905? It also has about a 30 pound trigger.
That’s probably a 22 rimfire “black powder” FYI and you don’t want to shoot modern smokeless 22 lr cartridges in it. If it was made that late, then it probably is made for “super weak” smokeless rimfire cartridges. I think it was right around 1902 or 03’ when they converted them to smokeless, once again if I remember right, don’t quote me on it, but I’m pretty positive. I’m sure you know the first smokless 22 rim fire loads were a lot less powerful then todays modern ammo. I did some research on it years ago and my buddy gave it to me. He was about ready to toss it out because it looks so nasty and I said give it to me and I will make it look like new. He said I could have it!
I’m sure if I filed down the hammer striker and rounded it off so it would be a shallower primer hit it wouldn’t pierce primers. I did a post on it here a few years back with it piercing primers. I can see it’s not very powerful either I can shoot a board at about 10 to 15 yards and the cast bullet will stick into it barely…lol. The 32 cal loads I bought aren’t very powerful.
Here’s a good post. Basically saying that the octagon barrels were made in 1901’. And maybe around 20,000 at the most we made a year and that was a complete guess so yours is probably 1922 to 1924 according to what someone was guessing per your serial number.
https://thefiringline.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=615538