Serial Number Lookup For Guns
H&a Revolver Serial Number Lookup For Equipment
H&a Revolver Serial Number Lookup 2327976
H 26a Revolver Serial Number Lookup Online
H&a Revolver Serial Number Lookup Model

These gun were not marked with an R-series number. Armscor called it the Model P and the right side of the gun was stamped with P followed by the serial number. In 1957 a snub-nose model of the Sentinel was introduced, with a rounded butt on the grip. Serial numbers for the Military & Police ranged from number 1 in the series to 20,975. Most of the early M&P revolvers chambered in.38 Special appear to have been sold to the civilian market. 4 By 1904, S&W was offering the.38 M&P with a rounded or square butt, and 4. A new serial number system. The new system consists of four sets of digits separated by a hyphen. The first set is the manufacturers code, the second designates the type of firearm, the third set is the firearms chronological number, the fourth set shows the year of mfg. AYA 1995-2006 Year ser. # end 199516-03-001-95 16-03-800-95. When H&A was formed in 1868, it took over production of Bacon Manufacturing Co. Later, it acquired other makers such as Davenport Firearms (1901) and Forehand & Wadsworth (1902). The high-quality Merwin Hulbert & Co. (q.v.) revolvers produced in the 1870s and 1880s are usually found marked with the Hopkins & Allen name on the barrels.

The High Standard Sentinel Revolver

by Ed Buffaloe

J.C. Higgins Model 88

High Standard introduced their Sentinel revolver line in 1955, probably at the request of Sears Roebuck, which was a major customer and owned quite a bit of High Standard stock. Sears wanted a low-cost kit gun or “tackle box” revolver to sell under their J.C. Higgins brand. It was sold by Sears as the J.C. Higgins Model 88 . The J.C. Higgins guns were given distinctive grips, cylinder flutes, and cylinder release pins. Private label versions of the Sentinel were also made for H%26a Revolver Serial Number Lookup

Western Auto (the Revelation Model 99) and Armamex (Colonel Rex Applegate’s company in Mexico).

The Sentinel was a 9-shot .22 revolver. It was advertised to have an anodized aluminum frame, high-tensile carbon steel barrel and cylinder, single-stroke multiple ejection, a swing-out counterbored cylinder, a movable square-notched rear sight, a non- slip scored trigger, a diamond-checkered grip (though they didn’t mention it was plastic), and target accuracy.

The innovative design was completed by Harry Sefried, High Standard’s young design engineer, in a mere six months. Sefried wasn’t afraid to incorporate good ideas wherever he found them. The squared-off grip on the first model was modified from the Colt New Model .36 Pocket Pistol of 1862, and one shooter was said to remark that it was “the first decent grip on a revolver since the Civil War.” It remains to this day one of the most comfortable revolver grips I have ever encountered. The simplified cylinder lock design was taken from Hugo Borchardt’s experimental revolver of 1876, which he designed while working for Winchester and which was observed by Sefried during his own five years at Winchester. The gun, like the Broomhandle Mauser, is screwless but for the grip screw.

These two are R-101 Sentinel revolvers made in 1958.
The top revolver is an R-106 Sentinel Deluxe from 1965, and beneath it is an R-103 Sentinel from 1961.

Sentinel Disassembled

There is an integral thumb rest molded into the frame behind the cylinder housing on each side, making the gun feel quite natural in the hand. The grip section and frame are die cast from aluminum. There is no cylinder thumb release to interrupt the smooth frame or complicate manufacture and assembly. The gun can be broken down into four main component groups: (1) the cylinder and crane, (2) the trigger-guard/grip, (3) the barrel and frame assembly, and (4) the hammer, trigger, and other lockwork components. Everything is held together by the hammer pin, which runs through both the trigger-guard/grip and the main frame. Coil springs are used throughout.

Sefried designed a unique ratchet mechanism that utilizes nine holes drilled into the rear of the extractor, worked by a traditional pawl that extends from the frame. The holes give the pawl a positive interface, providing flawless cylinder rotation and reducing the machining necessary on the frame and cylinder. The design also reduces wear to the ratchet mechanism that eventually causes problems with more traditional designs. The nine-hole ratchet mechanism was abandoned in later-production Sentinels.

The Sentinel has an extended forcing cone that nearly eliminates lead shaving as the bullet enters the barrel. I hate it when a revolver spits hot lead out the side when I’m standing next to the shooter--it could be a fatal distraction in a fire fight.

The Sentinel was originally available in a so-called blued finish (which was actually a selenium black). The nickel finish was available in April of 1956. The early nickeled guns cost $5 or $6 more than the blued guns. The MSRP for the blued gun in 1955 was $37.50. The Sentinel had a one-piece wrap -around plastic grip. Originally the blue guns had a brown grip and the nickel guns had a white grip, but that scheme was not retained throughout production.

R-101 Dura-Tone Sentinel
R-104 Sentinel Imperial
R-105 Sentinel
R-106 Sentinel Deluxe