"The Sportsman"
1934 H&R Sportsman Model 999 (United States) .22LR
Harrington & Richardson's top-of-the-line Top-Break, Double-Action, Adjustable Sight, Nine Round revolver produced from 1932 to 1986. Examples like this, with the single piece walnut grip, were only made until 1952.
A masterfully crafted revolver from a bygone era of American commercial small-arms that paid no mind to the concept of "self-defense" and focused entirely on you and your buddies heading out for an afternoon of good old-fashioned backyard plinking and terrorizing the local squirrel population.
For decades, humble "sporting" rimfire handguns like the H&R Sportsman, Colt Woodsman, Ruger Mark 1, and High-Standard HD series dominated a segment of the American pistol market that was more focused on blasting tin cans off fence posts rather than being kept on the nightstand to blast holes in errant home-invaders.
H&R's Model 999 never fought in any wars, and never served with any military, but its top-break design and sturdy wood and steel construction takes you back to a fascinating era where auto-loading pistols were still seen as untrustworthy and unreliable novelties when compared to the tried and tested double-action revolvers of yesteryear.
Even at 91 years old with most of its original finish and bluing long-gone, this revolver still functions like it's the summer of 1934. When the same sun shined upon a completely different world.
