I am probably beating a dead horse but I found some more information on the Polish Gward revolvers I bought. The 3 additional ones I bought from CDNN came in today for a total of 4. I'm keeping 2, 1 goes to a son-in-law and 1 to a good friend who good dealed me recently on a $250 Garand...both deserve a nice Christmas gift.
The info I found was from a Russian site and it translates into rough Engrish:
From
www.bratishka.ru :
"38 revolver "GWARD" revolver is developed on the commission of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Poland by the designers of military technical academy By g. glovitsky, By v. koperskiy, By s. tsepel'skiy and by the engineers of combine 38 revolver "GWARD" concerning the long stem of textile machines By r. khelmitsky, T. podgurskiy and 4. dudek. In the beginning of 1990 were prepared test models with five different stems, which were subjected to intensive tests. After this, in 1991 were designed and prepared two versions of this weapon, designated as Rsp (reduction from the "revolver of special designation"), that were being characterized by only length it was trunk (with the threaded channels). Production of both revolvers by the name "GWARD" was mastered in 1993. Revolvers find in arsenal of the Polish police and special-purpose subdivisions. "GWARD" is the samovzvodnym nonautomatic model of small arms, intended for self-defence and destruction of kinetic energy at a distance, which does not exceed 50 m. for the shooting from it they adapt cartridges 38 Special, including complete set of special ammunition, developed by the association of the designers of military technical academy and metallurgical plant Me.sko. Revolver is created according to the usual design concept, with which the stem rigidly is connected with the framework on the suxarno- screw landing, and drum for loading and razryazhaniya of weapon throws out itself to the left. The extraction of cases from the drum occurs with the aid of the manual extractor, located in the axis of drum. Open type sight mechanisms are calculated for the firing distance to 25 m and consist of rectangular fly and rectangular cut with the possibility of adjustment of the horizontal plane. In the weapon is used the fast and well- trigger mechanism of double action, which after the pressure of trigger cocks and revolves drum, and then returns cock to the initial position and is fired a shot itself."
A 'tear gas'/'signaling' model:
"On the base of revolver with the short stem is also developed 38 the gas revolver Rg (reduction from Rewolwer gazowy, i.e. gas revolver) together with the gas cartridge NUMBER SYSTEM it is intended for self-defence and neutralization of enemy with the aid of the tear gas at a distance from 1 to 5 m. his device and operating principle the same, as in prototype, and differences concern the construction of stem and drum. In revolver Rg are used smooth stem and insert. Inside in the muzzle end face of stem threaded, which makes it possible to screw cap for the shooting the signal bullets (with the use of noise cartridges). The construction of stem and drum does not make it possible to use revolver Rg for the shooting live cartridges."
The ones I got today are 1994, 1995 and 1997 production. They made a total of 525 of these and it sounds like they made about 100 a year. The 3 I got today are used but in pristine condition.
I know. I know. TMI. But now we can all be Gward Rewolwer Experts.