Harrington and Richardson's Model 929

by A K Church, Sunday, July 09, 2023, 06:55 (439 days ago) @ Creeker

a mildly more refined cousin of the rod ejector jobs.

This was what Mark, my best friend in high school had. A 4" with some yellowish-brownish-greenish marbleized plastic factory grips. I've only rarely seen those grips since.

In the mid 70s, it was still somewhat common for folks to slaughter their own steers come late fall. I'm told folks now mostly hire folks to kill and dress them...but in 1975 or so, his family was still DIY.

The little H&R, loaded with Montgomery Wards house label hi-speed shorts, was fired into the bovine's noggin from a range of a little over a foot. They might stay upright a few seconds, but most fell immediately. None, best I could tell, were still alive when they hit the ground.

Like a lot of H&R's revolvers, they were mechanically not much much more complex than a Zippo lighter. But a t-total pain to detail strip and reassemble. So they often were not fully cleaned or otherwise maintained, and malfunction when found.

Mark and I went off to college in 1977, and fell out of touch. He fell into bad ways, did some white collar crime, got mowed down by the IRS after the crimes, and died of heart disease before he was 43. Sad, but to me he is still my best friend in my mid-teens, when friendships are more intense than they will ever be again. I miss him.

More than likely that revolver went away for a pittance at his 1990ish tax auction.

If someone in his family still had that revolver, and offered it to me for $1000, I'd buy it.