HANDGUN: German .22 lr SA revolver Question....

[Alexander Eichener]

On Fri, 3 May 1996 CAI...@aol.com wrote, answering to an earlier
quest of his in rec.guns (22nd April, I think):

<about an alleged "Schmitt pistol" from Germany in .22 cal>
> The single action revolver.
> thanks for any info.

Fine; I chose to cc rec.guns and mailing lists as well because a lot of
these revolvers have been imported into the USA in the past, and a
potential interest might exist.

1) The manufacturer was Herbert Schmidt, located in Ostheim/Rhoen.
Their orginal trademark is "HS" in circle, often on the grips.
They made single action revolvers (mainly in .22 lr with an alloy
frame, but also in .357 and .45 LC with steel frame, if I remember
correctly), a rather unoriginal pocket pistol in .25 ACP, and a
charming little SA revolver for 2mm pinfire blanks. As of lately, a
very interesting 3" or 4" .38 Sp. DA revolver with a .22 lr exchange
barrel set has been launched; this one is also advertized in "Shotgun
News" and seems to be a rather good bargain, unless one wants to shoot
a continuous diet of .38 Specal +P+ loads.

2) The old Herbert Schmidt company claimed bankrupty last year, I
believe, but has been bought by a gunsmith who now continues the
trade (I am not sure whether they still produce). If someone need
their mail address, I can look it up.

3) Thus I am certain that spare and replacement parts can still be acquired.

4) The .22 SA revolver (marketed under many different designations and
brand names) is much better than its low price would suggest. The
German gun magazine "Visier" tested it a few ago together with other
medium-price .22 revolvers. While they were not entirely satisfied
with the quality of worksmanship wrt interior parts and with the
wood-metal fit of the grip (the revolver seemed to fulfill current
American "quality" standards rather than traditional German ones ;-),
and while the trigger needed a bit of rework to achieve target quality,
they were most surprised by the _excellent_ accuracy of this demure
handgun: groups below 1 inch at 25 metres were easily achieved.

5) As a recommendation to the original questioner: have the trigger
stoned by a reliable gunsmith (won't be expensive, I think) and
then try it on the range with high-quality target ammunition,
e.g. RWS R 50, Eley Tenex, Lapua Midas etc. I think you could be
in for a very pleasant surprise, if you as the shooter do your part
as well ... :-)

Regards,
--
Alexander Eichener
c...@ix.urz.uni-heidelberg.de (for rec.guns and rec.hunting stuff)
aeic...@ix.urz.uni-heidelberg.de (everything else)
The old VM address (c...@vm.urz.uni-heidelberg.de) is no longer valid !