IN the late 1850s,
Smith & Wesson become successful making high-quality, small-bore, tip-up barrel loading, single-action handguns with bored-through cylinders designed for metallic, rimfire cartridges. The factory used numbers to designate the frame sizes of their various guns. The No. 1 was .22 caliber, the No. 1-1/2 was .32 Short, and the No. 2 was .32 Long. The No. 3 was their largest frame and served as the basis for several popular models, of which the American was the first. When Smith & Wesson’s large-frame No. 3 American revolver hit the market in 1870, it was a watershed moment in firearms history. Chambered in .44 Henry Rimfire or, more often, their newly contrived centerfire .44/100 (.44 American) cartridge, it was the first successful American big-bore revolver designed from the start…