.22 Top Break Iver Johnson

[femurphy77]

I recently received grandmas old .22 Iver Johnson break top revolver and was wondering about the loads this thing can shoot. Are they safe/designed to handle a .22 magnum? I ask because it accepts the magnums as if designed for them but haven't been able to confirm it. I'm at work and can't really answer any questions about it right now other than it had a patent date on the butt that reads 1937. Neat old pistol in good shape that had such a stiff trigger I think granny would have been better off throwing it at you rather than try and shoot it!

 

[steif]

iver

it would depend on the date of manufacture. If older, it could be chambered for 22 wrf, these were usually reamed all the way through the cylinder, so a magnum might actually chamber.
Is it stamped somewhere on the revolver with a caliber? If it is actually 22 magnum, I would not have a problem shooting it. Some of the newer Ivers were actually nice guns.
Of course if it is in good condition, and I was sure of the caliber chambering I would shoot it.

There was a guy named Bill Goforth on the thefirearmsforum.com that wrote the book on Iver's but I have not seen him post in a while. Of course, he knows most everything on Iver's and H+R's.

 

[longhuntr]

I really don't believe any of the break top ivers are modern enough to shoot with any 22 cartridge other than maybe the lowest powered cb caps or the little hummingbird loads. the cylinders were often bored straight thru to save money.this design was outdated before WW 1.Even then,they often sold for less than $10.00 new.The lockwork is fragile by todays standards.They are a neat piece of U.S. firearms history, and now are being collected by a few people.Personally, I would value it for just that, and hang it on the wall, or sell it to a collector.When I was in my teens, a well meaning elderly neighbor gave me one of these, with a handfull of 32. Smith and Wesson cartridges that had belonged to her father, a railroad guard of the 1920's. On the first shot,the frame let go,blowing forward and off.The cylinder blew out both the fired cartridge and the 2 on either side.I thre the remainder as far as I could out into the wabash.It took a long time to get rid of that flinch. Good Luck.