In 1880 S&W added a double-action top-break chambered in .38 S&W center-fire, and a year later, its first .44 cal. (.44 S&W Russian and .44-40 Win.) double-action model. The .38s were virtually identical to the .32-cal. DA revolvers and followed the same design changes and improvements over the years. The .44-cal. double-action S&Ws looked like oversized .38s, right down to the reverse-curve trigger guards. With six, instead of five chambers, the big six-shooters were offered with barrel lengths of 4, 5, 6 and 6 1/2 inches. Like the .38s, the .44s had checkered, hard-rubber grips and were offered with either blued or nickel-plated finishes.
As to popularity, the entire production run of .44 DA S&W top-breaks (1881-1913) amounted to around 71,000 guns in four variations, while the S&W 3rd Model .38 top-break alone accounted for more than 203,000. The 4th Model .38 introduced in 1895 featured mechanical improvements to the trigger mechanism, the availability of target sights with an adjustable rear sight and were available with extra-cost target grips.
The 4th Model was manufactured through 1909 with sales totaling over 216,000. This was followed by the 5th Model in 1909. Almost a continuation of the 4th, it featured barrel lengths as short as 1 1/2 inches, and standard lengths of 3 1/4, 4, 5 and 6 inches. The 5th Model was short-lived, just 15,000 produced, as S&W was about to introduce one of the most important design changes in its early history: the c. 1909 transitional Double-Action Perfected.
The .38 cal. Perfected was to be S&W’s last top-break and the only one to have an additional side thumbpiece release, which had to be pressed forward in order to break open the action, eject cases and reload. This device would not be used on the first c.1896 Hand Ejector models with swing-out cylinders, but would appear shortly after the turn of the century, beginning in 1903 with the new Hand Ejector S&W revolvers.
The most famous of these early thumbpiece-release, swing-out cylinder six-guns would be the 1st Model .44 “Triple Lock” Hand Ejector introduced in 1908. While a 20th century gun, the Old West was still very much “wild,” particularly in Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, and parts of California, and lawmen and outlaws alike were quick to recognize the advantages of a .44-cal. double-action with a swing-out cylinder.
Colt’s had actually preceded S&W by introducing its first swing-out cylinder DA in 1889. The new Colt Navy Revolver was chambered in .38 Long and Short Colt. These were followed by the Models 1892, 1894, 1895, 1896, 1901 and 1903, with calibers up to .41 Long and Short Colt. Hartford’s first large-frame .45 double-action revolvers with swing-out cylinders would begin to appear right before the turn of the century.
The famous Colt “New Service” made its debut in 1898. By then S&W had the 1st Model Hand Ejector in calibers up to .45 Colt (including .44 Spl., .44 Russian, .38-40 Win., .44-40 Win., .45 S&W Spl., and British chamberings of .455 Mark II and .450 Eley). Colt’s was offering the New Service in calibers ranging from .38 Colt to .45 Colt along with comparable British chamberings. By the end of the 19th century, when it came to a double-action .45 with a swing out cylinder, Colt’s and S&W left no one wanting.
Merwin, Hulbert & Co.: Most Practical Double
Colt’s and S&W may have had the corner on double-action revolver sales in the late 19th century, but no company built a better or easier-to-use double-action revolver in the 1880s than Merwin, Hulbert & Co. The quality of machining of its guns was so precise that, when opened and closed for loading and unloading, a vacuum was actually formed, which caused the guns to draw themselves part-way closed.
After its first double-action models were introduced in the early 1880s, particularly the Pocket Army DA, Merwin, Hulbert & Co. expanded its product line with a variety of smaller-caliber double-action models. Offered in .32 MH and .38 MH (.38 S&W) chamberings, the .32s had the advantage of being offered in five-shot and seven-shot models (the latter beginning in 1889), while the larger .38s were limited to five-shots.
There were variations of both models that could be had with a unique folding hammer spur, square butt (saw handle) or bird’s head-style grips, and elaborate engraving. For double-action shooting the folded hammers made it easier to retrieve the gun from a coat or vest pocket. The folding hammer was even offered on the larger .44-40 Win. Pocket Army models. The .32-and .38-cal. Merwin, Hulbert double-action revolvers virtually eclipsed the maker’s earlier single-action spur-trigger models. The .38-cal. DAs were particularly popular with law enforcement and orders were received from Portland to Miami to Boston. Both the Cincinnati and Detroit Police Depts. ordered double-action .38-cal. models with 3 1/2-inch barrels. One of the examples with a slightly cut down (possibly by the factory) barrel was reputed to have been carried in the 1880s as a back-up gun by a New Jersey police chief.
