Had no idea what it was, or how old it was, but the price seemed fair. It belonged to a friend I worked with over 40 years ago, and he was given this pistol because he helped a neighbor lady numerous times, and never charged her for his time. She told him it was her late husband's, and she didn't want or need it around. He has been divesting himself of a bunch of guns, and has no heirs to pass them along too, so we agreed on a price.
Got it home and began doing some research on it, and discovered it's from around 1932. It is marked ".22 SPECIAL" on one side of the barrel, and ".22 Long Rifle Ctg." on the other. It's a 9 shot .22RF, with top break, and automatic extractor. The info I found said that H&R was transitioning from the ".22 SPECIAL" model to the 944 Model in this time frame. SO this gun has the 944 grips, but still the earlier barrel marking.
The holster is a flap style, and in very good condition. Doesn't seem to have seen much use.
The little brass stud is purely decorative, and serves no other function. The holster has some tooling, but just a border. The cool part is the markings on the back side! There's an oval with the mark, "Browning Bros. Co. Ogden, Ut." inside the oval! The 4 Browning brothers included John Browning, and ran their shop in Ogden for many decades! These Browning marked holsters weren't made in their shop, but were made by another famous saddlery and holster maker. H.H. Heiser! Heiser was the largest leather company in the world at one point, and located in Denver, Co. Their holsters are highly desirable, and those built for Browning are too!
Pretty happy with the little H&R, and although it's not in my area of collecting single shot rifles, and S&W pistols; it still will fit in here just fine.
