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While remodeling my grandparents house I found my great grandfather's Iver Johnson hammer-less 38 SW buried in the insulation in the attic. I saw this gun as a youngster over 50 years ago. I was told it belonged to my great grandfather. Surprisingly it is in pretty good condition. No shooting plans. Just want to clean it up and keep it for posterity. Any help in identifying this pistol would be appreciated.

Markings and characteristics are as follows:

*Top of barrel rib "Iver Johnson Arms & Cycle Works - Fitchburg, Mass, USA"
*Bottom of trigger guard "341XX"
*Under left side grip "J 341XX"
*Bottom of butt "Pat Pend May 10, 1887, Mar 13, 1888" (These dates were hard to read and may not be accurate)
*Top Break
*5 shot
*Main Spring is curved leaf
*Owl is looking to the barrel
*Cylinder is free wheeling at rest
*Blued

Thanks...
 
Here you go....

Thanks for the quick response! IMG_2505.JPG IMG_2506.JPG IMG_2507.JPG IMG_2508.JPG IMG_2509.JPG IMG_2510.JPG IMG_2511.JPG
 
I would be concerned about the "Free wheeling" aspect of the cylinder. That's generally a sign something's sticking or broken.
There's a very small cylinder friction spring shown on Numrich's schematics. That might be weak or broken.
 
It's been a treasure hunt.

When my great Aunt passed away years ago her massive book collection was boxed up and mailed to my sister and I with instructions to split equally. We put it into storage still in the boxes. 3 or 4 years latter we learned that there were photo albums mixed in with the books so we decided to go through the collections. While we were sorting and stacking the books looking for photo albums my wife stated looking through the books and asked if she could take a few to read. We gathered up the 10ish photo albums and put the rest of the books back into the storage unit. A few months later my wife got around to reading one of the books while we were camping in pacific city. I don't have pictures but it turns out that several of the books had cut outs like the picture I found here
IMG_2070.JPG

Hidden in the books was our inheritances :eek:
 
I have a friend who works laying carpet and they where doing a job for a guy who was sale his mom 's house after she died and when they pulled up the old carpet lol under the carpet in every corner of the house was a thousand dollars I think he said they found like seventeen thousand dollars lol
 
Best I can tell, yours is a 1904 model.

I have one. It operates perfectly, and is a surprisingly good shooter, although it's retired and I will never shoot it again.
GEDC0135.jpg

WAYNO.
 
Last Edited:
I would be concerned about the "Free wheeling" aspect of the cylinder. That's generally a sign something's sticking or broken.
There's a very small cylinder friction spring shown on Numrich's schematics. That might be weak or broken.

Trust me, Velsey can diagnose and fix that!
 
[QUOTE="bburns56, post:
I got a kick out of your Avatar. I've had this stick pin of Reddy Kilowatt since 1957:
IMGP0310.JPG
That was all I had to say, now back to Iver Johnson.

Oh, I have a couple Iver Johnsons and have found what is considered as average quality for them back then, is actually fairly fine quality when compared to many modern offerings today, maybe not so much in fit as in finish. Now a days they take a rough lost wax casting, put a parkerized coat on it and call it grip enhancing texture. I call it a job poorly done.
 
This is my S&W Safety Hammerless, from the same era. I'm planning on Velsey looking into it someday. Never enough cash and too many things things I'd like him to fix first! :) Sorry about krappy iPad photos!

IMG_0892.JPG IMG_0894.JPG IMG_0895.JPG
 
All the old Iver Johnsons freewheel and other brands with similar design. The only thing that locks the cylinder is the ratchet upon full cock. This gun is for black powder only. Many other old top breaks are built the same way. I have 5 old topbreaks, 1 is of the newer style with a cylinder bolt and it is the only one rated for smokeless powder. Wouldn't even think of firing your gun with smokeless powder.
 

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