This is a great, scarce collectors piece. he is also the designer of the little known 'warner arms' top break revolver of about 1910Īnd this from a closed gun auction for one similar to yours:Īndrew Fyrberg was a gunsmith who worked for Iver Johnson and made a few guns under his own name. the correct spelling of his last name is FYRBERG. his earliest work is for iver johnson in 1886 and his latest was with warner arms in 1915. he like others was never able to duplicate the simple safe revolver that he patented in 1896 for iver johnson, the "hammer the hammer". most of his patents are for revolvers, single barrel shotguns and double barrel shotgun. he even patented a semiauto that was manufactured by the davis warner co called the 'Infallable' it was not one of his best. all of fyrberg's good patents were used by other's like H&R and F&W and of course iver johnson. i can't help you with the parts because i have never had one of his revolvers apart. the patent dated in 1903 is most likely #728896 which is for a cylinder retainer. he worked for iver johnson and is the real inventor of the 'hammer the hammer' action but none of the revolvers he manufactured could use it because he assigned the patent to iver johnson. fyrberg is one of the mostly unknown person of the gun industry from the early cartridge era. he made single barrel shotguns and top break revolvers mostly sold by sears roebuck & company. It sold for $150, and I’ve seen the same H&Rs in online sales go for $200.I did a little googlefoo for you, and found this forum threadĪndrew fyrberg opened his own business sometime early in the 1900's about 1902 to about 1907 probably. Even worse, the hinge pin appeared to be plastic or some sort of polymer. The forearm wood was fatter on the right side, and the plastic hinge plate on the forearm consequently was offset from the receiver. Felt like painted barrel, and definitely a painted receiver rather than case hardened. But I really love this Champion i bought, and think it exhibits way more style than my Savage 94s and 220Aīy comparison, I saw a “new” H&R Pardner 12 gauge, new in the box, at the auction, one of the last examples made in their New England plant. I don’t know a whole lot about Iver Johnsons, as I previously favored Savage single barrels. Iver Johnson did make Excels that sold at Montgomery Ward, but also made the same model engraved as Western Field for Montgomery Ward. The barrel on mine is marked “choke bore” in the old way they usually designated “full” choke. 70 caliber in the muzzle, actually looked about 6.8 to 6.9, which is really tight, like a turkey choke. The battery is dead in my digital caliper, so I have not yet verified this, but I manually got under. Take the barrel loose before using solvents to avoid damage to the wood finish.
But after a good scrubbing with a brass brush, especially in the chamber and forcing cone, i swabbed out a lot of dark brown residue, and the bore looked like a mirror. The bore of the Champion model i bought at auction this month looked nice and shiny after only a swabbing with a brake cleaner. If really 2.5 inches, I suppose I would refer to a hand loading manual, or search Google for reliable info. I would have a competent gunsmith verify the capacity of your chamber whether 2.5 or 2.75-inch, and if 2.75, use only light field loads.
#Iver johnson top break revolver trigger doesnt reset serial
Is it possible to have a post-1909 “I” serial # smokeless model 3, with both a free-spinning cylinder and single latch top-break? Thanks for any insight you might have!ġ920 – 1929: Arabic numerals plus a single alphabetic letter suffixedġ930 – 1939: Arabic numerals plus two alphabetic letters suffixedġ940 – 1957: all alphabetic characters only using “Fitchburg” and ” X” corresponding to 1 through zero. Wikipedia says version 3 post-1909 smokeless have double-latch top breaks – Mine is single latch.Īnother “Expert” says versions 1 & 2 (black powder) have “Patent Pending dates” stamped on top of the barrel rib underneath the “Iver Johnsons Arms & Cycle Works.” – Mine says “Iver Johnsons Arms & Cycle Works on top, and “Fitchburgh Mass, USA” under it, but no “Patent Pending” stamps. One Internet “expert” says that any serial # starting with the letter “G” or higher is version 3 post-1909 smokeless, but will never have a free-spinning cylinder – Mine is higher than G but spins freely. I’m trying to see if its safe to fire smokeless cartridges, but have found conflicting info everywhere I look. Serial #: I “eye” 45320 (stamped on the frame under the left grip, owls facing in, and on the inside of the trigger gaurd) 32 safety top-break revolver might have been made maybe one of you can help? I came across this message thread while searching for approx when my IJ.