[johnm1]

I would have thought there was more information on H&A but my searches are turning up very little on the XL series. Picture is of an H&A XL No 1 I bought recently. Inexpensive and black powder 22 short. What I can’t find is a possible date of manufacture. One site suggested the XL series was between the 1870s and 1880s. But H&A wasn’t consistent with the XL series name. This would have been right up Bill Goforth’s alley. But our hobby has lost so much knowledge recently.

I did all of the common google searches with the obvious results. Does anyone have any inside information on H&A or the XL series? The company name on the roll mark is ‘Hopkins & Allen Mfg. Co’. This dates it prior to the name change in 1898. I have found the basic history of the company fro the 1960’s pdf posted on the American Society of Arms Collectors.

Full roll mark reads Hopkins & Allen Mfg. Co., Pat Mar 23 1871. Serial is M 928

I know it isn’t valuable and loading 22 short black powder is going to make it a pain to shoot. But it was inexpensive ($69) and is functional and pretty good looking. I just want to know as much as I can about it.