H&R 1871, LLC (Harrington & Richardson) is a manufacturer of firearms under the Harrington & Richardson and New England Firearms trademarks. Single-shot target pistols. Single-shot, pump-action, and semi-auto shotguns.
![]() The T marked guns have been seen in the 18000 – 19400 or so serial range.Revolver kits have a ‘0’ (zero) in front of an otherwise standard serial number. 19347).Ramirez was an employee of the FerroCast Great Western operation at their Venice foundry over 1957-58. The T mark has also been encountered on factory wood grips Ramirez fitted to T marked guns she assembled (eg, revolver with ser. Rather it was briefly say the proud build mark of an individual assembler in the factory, Toni Ramirez. Great Western resumed use of the bottom serial by revolver 13279.The Blue Book article on Great Western (written by John Dougan) mentions the “T” mark found at times on revolver trigger guards.When encountered, the T is usually on one of the small front side flats of the trigger guard oval, just below the oval’s junction to the frame.This T was not a procedural step in Great Western’s manufacturing process. He still owned it when I interviewed him in 2011.Examples known are revolvers with F prefix and four digit numeric identifier, eg F1242. The 400_ coding bears some resemblance to ledger or accounting control numbers, and a first hand anecdote has corroborated that guns in this serial series were those built by employees for themselves with the GWA company’s permission.Duane Kastrup was a millwright at GWA in 1956, and he built GW400013 for himself. The collector’s dilemma with these has been authenticity, as there seems to have been one or several brief, ‘unauthorized’ lots of Great Westerns assembled outside the factory.Note the following remarks on odd serial ranges:This is a valid factory serial range with a few examples having been observed. They disappear shortly before Great Western closed, at about GW21500.The cruder kits seen over the 13000-19000 production range have only a serial on the cylinder frame.The later kits, those with more factory spec machining and polish, will have number matching barrels, trigger guards, and back straps.A few other short serial ranges are known. As kits were to be assembled by the buyer, the factory only covered them for material defects.Kit serials start appearing in the production range after 13000. Is there an overdrive app for macIn the early 60’s E&M could source these parts domestically from its subsidiary, Great Western Arms, and this included the stripped cylinder frame component. A few nice F revolvers have been spotted however.Throughout its operation and continuing through today, E&M (EMF) has retailed a complete line of replacement parts useful for building out a Colt single action type cylinder frame. Fit and finish is generally deficient, and amateurish in ways greater than those production problems Great Western is known for during its ‘low quality’ eras. When torn down, parts are often found to have serials from a mix of guns built at the end of Great Western’s standard serial range. These revolvers have been seen by collectors on numerous occasions. American Gun Company S Trial Space OnThe Great Western Arms endeavor shut down immediately.Multiple persons have shared the same basic anecdote, that when Moore’s shop closed he had perhaps a few hundred machined frames and parts to build them out. Then Don Moore had a debilitating heart attack in 1963. The basic problem of the Great Western’s price against cheaper import competitors remained, but the Moore / Oliver effort seems to have done consistent business at about 500 units annually over two years. The F serial guns are parts guns, with fit and finish having depended on the skill of the assembler.“The last Great Westerns” – Hy Hunter built, the H prefix rangeBy 1962 ‘Great Western Arms’ had devolved into a low-volume side business for Moore Engineering and WJ Oliver Knife Co, two machining practices that shared industrial space on Alameda St in west Los Angeles. Buyers could buy a Great Western cylinder and barrel as well to build out these projects, and it seemed they often did.With this understanding, the ‘F’ prefix probably merely stands for ‘frame’.It’s to say also, these are not factory guns, though they were usually built out with surplus Great Western parts also purchased from E&M. These are machined, but rough as cast with no polishing. When done, they were sold at Hunter’s retail shop in Burbank.Actual number of these ‘Hy Hunter Great Westerns’ is probably far less than a ‘few hundred’ (and these are not at all to be confused with Hy Hunter’s lineup of revolvers imported from Germany). Former GWA service manager John McCormick was by now operating a gunsmithing shop, and he blued them. Google shows he was granted a 1951 patent for a kind of fast draw target). Varney was able to put together some number of working revolvers (he was plenty qualified to do this. Hunter’s friend Rey Varney was employed to sort through it all, this done in the garage or maintenance building of the mini-golf course / fast draw range he operated in this same west LA neighborhood. Example is a revolver with no factory finish, akin to one of the kits.Great Western Arms was struggling in 1960-61, and ads at the time show E&M engaging in various campaigns to liquidate revolver inventories. The researchers have no explanation for why this revolver and its lot would have been made for Hunter.One example known, WA followed by 3 digits, eg, WA103. This serial is far outside the standard serial range, but exhibits features of 1956 manufacture by GWA (thin front sight, parkerized finish, type 2 grips).
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