By Jim Dickson | Contributing Editor
Flush from the success of their .44 Russian single action revolver S&W turned their sights to the lucrative pocket pistol market with a scaled down version of their .44 Russian.
The Baby Russian, as it was called was made in .38 S&W caliber. It had a spur trigger as the trigger guard added bulk to a pocket pistol and was considered unnecessary in a single action. Even in the 20th Century, Colt’s famous handgun expert, Henry Fitzgerald, popularized double-action revolvers with the front of the trigger guard cut away. Called Fitz Specials, these were popular for a while for hide-out guns as some people thought the trigger guard could get in the way of fast use of the gun. I never found that to be the case but evidently it was a problem for some or the Fitz Specials would not have existed.
The high cost of manufacturing the ejector system of the first model of the Baby Russian led to it being redesigned by D.B. Wesson and J.H. Bullard. The new system had a shortened extractor housing that held a rack and gear extractor activated by a pivoting pawl that struck the bottom of the frame when the gun was opened.
In 1880 the famous S&W cylinder removal system was patented. Now you could remove the cylinder for cleaning by lifting the barrel latch, dropping the barrel down, and turning the cylinder while holding the barrel latch partially up until the cylinder could be lifted off. This made cleaning much easier and was especially important in the days of black powder which had to be cleaned with hot soapy water.
This is the gun that popularized the top break .38 S&W and opened the door for all the double action variants and imitators that followed. In the coming years the top break would be the most popular revolver of its day serving as primary carry guns, back-up guns to .45s, and bedside burglar pistols. Their virtues make them as useful today as they were back then.
Production of the new and improved Baby Russian, now called the 2nd Model S&W Single Action .38, began in July of 1877 with serial number 1 and continued until 1891, by which time 108,225 had been made. The S&W double action on the Model 2 frame size had come out in 1880 and had grown so popular that the earlier single action pocket pistol on the Model 2 size frame was eclipsed in sales. From then on the double action top break revolver was king.
It had a hammer that was well designed for single action use, unlike most double action revolver hammers today, so the user had a genuine option of which mode of fire to use.
Ultimately the top break S&W’s morphed into the S&W Safety Hammerless top break .38 which many people consider the finest pocket .38 of all time. The modern swing out cylinder hammerless S&W .38/.357 is noticeably heavier which is bad for pocket carry. It needs this for the more powerful cartridges but now we are moving away from pocket pistols into the calibers more suited to open carry weapons.
The 2nd Model S&W Single Action is often incorrectly called the Baby Russian Model and/or the Model 1&1/2. Only the 1st Model S&W Single Action is called the Baby Russian and the Model 1&1/2 is the frame size of the .32 S&W revolvers of that day.
The single action S&W was by no means inferior to the later double action versions though. Then as now most people did not invest the time and ammunition necessary to truly master double action shooting. As long as you took time to point with each shot there was no real difference in speed. The average man simply hit better shooting single action. Double action guns were a new and exciting concept but the public had grown up shooting single action and that’s what they knew how to do.
Light and Compact
The S&W single action .38 is lightweight, compact, accurate, and most of all, easy to hit with.
Unlike today’s micro-mini ultra-lightweight .380 double-action-only autos that rank as some of the hardest to hit with pistols, the users of the top break S&W had no problem doing precision shooting. Rats in the corn crib, foxes after the chickens, as well as two-legged chicken thieves were dispatched with the little gun. Back in the days when chickens were all many families had to eat, it was legal in many places to shoot a chicken thief.
Small game also fell to the little pocket pistol such as squirrels and rabbits. Country folk in those days were well versed in pistol shooting in the South. I well remember one of my female cousins whose new husband had bought her a new pistol and was going to teach her how to use it. While he was setting up the traditional tin can target a few yards away she spied a squirrel high in a tree she wanted to add to the dinner menu. One quick shot and it was in the bag. Her new husband called off the shooting lesson declaring that there was nothing he could teach her about shooting that she didn’t already know.
Tramps and hobos were a part of the landscape in those days and some were all right but some were low down thieving varmints who did their clothes shopping off other peoples clotheslines as well as taking anything else they could lay hands on. A pocket pistol pulled by the housewife sent many of the latter packing without what they were in the process of stealing.
Crime in the cities has always been a problem but the honest citizens could keep it in check as long as the good people in a town were packing a pistol. You didn’t have to be a John Wesley Hardin to pull a pistol on a gang of muggers and put a stop to their depredations. Back then the law was on the side of the honest citizen instead of trying to criminalize those who fought back against crime and the streets were a lot safer for that.
The Colt Single Action Army may be the revolver that won the West but it was the pocket revolver that won the East, keeping the criminals at bay as long as everyone was armed. Requiring permits to carry and prosecuting those who defended themselves against violent criminals enabled politicians to increase budgets for police.
When police are the only defense against crime they will inevitably grow until the area they control becomes a police state and the politicians become little tin pot gods. The Founding Fathers understood that and wanted everyone to be armed and the elected Sheriff to be in charge of the law instead of politically hired police chiefs.
The idea of prosecuting people for defending themselves from violent criminals was inconceivable even to King George, much less the Founding Fathers. Today it is another means of intimidating people into subjugation by big government while anti-gun laws prevent them from having the means to resist if they ever dare try as big government just gets bigger and more dictatorial. If the government is the only source of protection, then people will cower before it and beg it to save them. That’s not compatible with the concept of freedom this country was built on. That’s why they are demonizing the Founding fathers in the schools and tearing their statues down. The memory of them and the freedom they established doesn’t sit right with those who want communism in this country.
This time the communists have something far worse than the terrors of Stalin and Pol Pot’s purges planned. This time they want the one world government of the Beast the Bible warns is coming in the Book of Revelation in the Bible.
The S&W .38 single action shown in this article was carried long and hard in the 19th and 20th Century but is still in perfect timing. The last of the original finish disappeared in the 19th Century. Despite constant firing and the inside being as rough as the outside its accuracy hasn’t suffered. It shot better than a S&W Model 2 frame double action with a mint bore. The old gun planted its shots in 2 inches at 25 yards while the newer gun shot 2 & ½ inch groups.
Like most pistols, the Baby Russian is particular about the way it wants to be held. Here is the key to getting the best speed and accuracy from this weapon. The little finger should be under the grip acting as a rest. Engaging the trigger with the hook of the finger instead of the tip will give stronger grip with better control and this will be further increased if the tip of the trigger finger is pressed against the tip of the thumb as shown in the photo. Squeeze the thumb and the base of the trigger finger against the sides of the pistol to align it with what you are pointing at. While still squeezing the sides push the tip of the trigger finger against the tip of the thumb to fire the weapon.
The little gun has negligible recoil and is most pleasant to fire. It was designed to be the best balance of power, recoil, and compact light weight for the average man or woman to be able to use comfortably. The top break ejection is fast and foolproof with no possibility of a fired case getting between the extractor and the cylinder as can sometimes tie up the later side swing cylinder revolvers if the muzzle is not held vertical when the cases are ejected. It is very easy to hit with and that means everything in a pistol. Only hits matter in the real world. I love a gun that is easy to hit with and I despise one that is difficult to hit with. One should not stack the deck against themselves on something as important as the weapon their life may depend on.
The S&W .38 single action is light and easy to carry. You are hardly aware it is there but it is ready at a moment’s notice.
People that want a true manstopper need to carry a .45 Colt or .45ACP. Most people put ease of carry and concealment first. They carry “Just in case” and any gun is better than no gun when you need it. That is and always will be the pocket pistol’s niche and the top break .38 still fills it very well. I would rather have its easy to hit with five shots than more shots from a modern double action only miniature .380 that is almost impossible to hit with past point blank range. Like the Colt Single Action Army, the S&W single action still delivers the goods in the 21st Century.
