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IDing the make and model of this revolver isn’t going to present TTAG’s Armed Intelligentsia with much of a challenge. It’s hardly an exotic firearms. The mystery here: who owned it? And once you’ve got that sorted, what other guns did he own?

47 COMMENTS

  1. Is that the Iver Johnson .32 Automatic Safety revolver that Leon Czolgosz used to assassinate President William McKinley?

  2. Looks like an S&W Model 3. Wyatt Earp used one or more of these, not sure who else.

    My dad has one of the .44 Russian versions of these guns.

    Edit: I take that back. I think PeterC is correct. The grips weren’t right for a S&W and a little more digging pretty much confirmed it.

  3. Looks to me like a S&W Model 3, no ideawho owned it.

    I do see what appears to be a 7 scratched above the grip, that intrigues me.

  4. Agreed on the Iver Johnson Safety Revolver.

    As far as owner, I’ll venture a guess Teddy Roosevelt probably added one of these to his collection as one directly lead to his presidency.

    Since you mentioned ‘other guns’ owned, TR seems like a logical guess as he had a vast collection. The most notable in my opinion was the Holland & Holland .500/.450 Double Rifle used in his expedition stocking the smithsonian.

    • I was just at the newly opened NRA museum in the Bass Pro shop in Springfield MO. They have on display TR’s Holland and Holland double rifle and his engraved, pearl handled Browning model 1900 White House bedside pistol. (Those were different times!).

  5. I own an almost identical revolver, only it has a hidden hammer. I believe a gun like that was used by Jack Ruby to kill Lee Harvey Oswald. Is it Jack Ruby’s gun?

  6. An early model Armalite used by Alexander Hamilton in the charge up Pikes Peak against the Spanish. In full auto mode it provided devastating fire at the squad level. Currently classified as a crew served Class 4 device by the ATF.

  7. I own a US Revolver clone of that basic design (I see only one or two details differences) in .22 LR. It’s so rough that I don’t trust firing it (I removed the firing pin, just to make sure). But it belonged to my grandfather – so in the safe it stays.

  8. Is this the revolver Lee Harvey Oswald owned and shot the Dallas Police man with?

    Edit: Nope. I looked it up. He had a snub nosed revolver

  9. “Compared to iconic names like Smith & Wesson and Colt, Iver Johnson is not much more than a historical footnote except for very recently). However, if you’re going to be a footnote in U.S. arms manufacturing history, being an infamous one certainly makes things more interesting, a feat Iver Johnson achieved as a result of its revolvers being used to assassinate both President William McKinley in 1901 and Senator Robert Kennedy in 1968.”

    From http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2010/03/don-gammill-jr/gun-revieww-iver-johnson-32-sw/

  10. I don’t know all the guns he allegedly owned but he is supposed to have owned a Carcano Model 91/38.

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