BigSkyGuy Posted July 17, 2018 Share Posted July 17, 2018 Found this in a school yard of all places. Appears to be a small caliber, perhaps a 0.22. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bayard Posted July 18, 2018 Share Posted July 18, 2018 1 hour ago, BigSkyGuy said: Found this in a school yard of all places. Appears to be a small caliber, perhaps a 0.22. I believe that is a tip up Smith & Wesson .22, circa 1860s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerry in Idaho Posted July 18, 2018 Author Share Posted July 18, 2018 2 hours ago, BigSkyGuy said: Found this in a school yard of all places. Appears to be a small caliber, perhaps a 0.22. Was the school real old? Stunner of a find too and I appreciate you sharing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal_Cobra Posted July 18, 2018 Share Posted July 18, 2018 Glad you were able to ID the pistol, that's cool. I have to say though, I'm surprised that rimfires were still being made/sold in the 1880's, always figured they were a bit older. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsb Posted July 18, 2018 Share Posted July 18, 2018 still make in .22 or .17 calibers☺️ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bayard Posted July 18, 2018 Share Posted July 18, 2018 8 hours ago, Cal_Cobra said: Glad you were able to ID the pistol, that's cool. I have to say though, I'm surprised that rimfires were still being made/sold in the 1880's, always figured they were a bit older. Rimfire ammunition (larger than .22) was commonly available and in production up until the start of WWII. The tooling to make the larger caliber rimfires was scrapped or discarded during the frenzy of war production during WWII. Demand for larger caliber rimfires was not great enough for the major ammunition factories to recreate the necessary production tooling after the war. I have a 1940s park near my home. Earlier this year I dug up a complete round of .32 Long Rimfire. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigSkyGuy Posted July 18, 2018 Share Posted July 18, 2018 Thanks Bayard for taking the time to ID this. Much appreciated. It is nice to have gun experts to rely on. Gerry The school dates back to perhaps the 1880s or so, but my oldest coin find so far there was from the teens to 1920s. I found the pistol at about 11-12", which is a challenging depth for coins, so it is likely older than the teens or 1920s. It is also possible that it was an antique when it was lost. Congratulations on your pistol find as well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal_Cobra Posted July 18, 2018 Share Posted July 18, 2018 7 hours ago, NAGANT said: still make in .22 or .17 calibers☺️ I should of specified in larger calibers, but yeah the peashooters are still rimfires. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal_Cobra Posted July 18, 2018 Share Posted July 18, 2018 5 hours ago, Bayard said: Rimfire ammunition (larger than .22) was commonly available and in production up until the start of WWII. The tooling to make the larger caliber rimfires was scrapped or discarded during the frenzy of war production during WWII. Demand for larger caliber rimfires was not great enough for the major ammunition factories to recreate the necessary production tooling after the war. I have a 1940s park near my home. Earlier this year I dug up a complete round of .32 Long Rimfire. That's interesting. I guess I should've researched them better, I've always been under the impression (mostly from other detectorists) that the rimfires we find at the relic sites we hit were indicative of mid 1800's or older sites. I think the "Henry's" rimfires we find are old, but I haven't really researched it much. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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