diff --git a/object-name.c b/object-name.c
index 3a2ef5d680..511f09bc0f 100644
--- a/object-name.c
+++ b/object-name.c
@@ -1034,6 +1034,15 @@ static int get_oid_basic(struct repository *r, const char *str, int len,
 						len, str,
 						show_date(co_time, co_tz, DATE_MODE(RFC2822)));
 				}
+			} else if (nth == co_cnt && !is_null_oid(oid)) {
+				/*
+				 * We were asked for the Nth reflog (counting
+				 * from 0), but there were only N entries.
+				 * read_ref_at() will have returned "1" to tell
+				 * us it did not find an entry, but it did
+				 * still fill in the oid with the "old" value,
+				 * which we can use.
+				 */
 			} else {
 				if (flags & GET_OID_QUIETLY) {
 					exit(128);
diff --git a/refs.c b/refs.c
index f9261267f0..c6d412877d 100644
--- a/refs.c
+++ b/refs.c
@@ -1039,55 +1039,40 @@ static int read_ref_at_ent(struct object_id *ooid, struct object_id *noid,
 			   const char *message, void *cb_data)
 {
 	struct read_ref_at_cb *cb = cb_data;
-	int reached_count;
 
 	cb->tz = tz;
 	cb->date = timestamp;
 
-	/*
-	 * It is not possible for cb->cnt == 0 on the first iteration because
-	 * that special case is handled in read_ref_at().
-	 */
-	if (cb->cnt > 0)
-		cb->cnt--;
-	reached_count = cb->cnt == 0 && !is_null_oid(ooid);
-	if (timestamp <= cb->at_time || reached_count) {
+	if (timestamp <= cb->at_time || cb->cnt == 0) {
 		set_read_ref_cutoffs(cb, timestamp, tz, message);
 		/*
 		 * we have not yet updated cb->[n|o]oid so they still
 		 * hold the values for the previous record.
 		 */
-		if (!is_null_oid(&cb->ooid) && !oideq(&cb->ooid, noid))
-			warning(_("log for ref %s has gap after %s"),
+		if (!is_null_oid(&cb->ooid)) {
+			oidcpy(cb->oid, noid);
+			if (!oideq(&cb->ooid, noid))
+				warning(_("log for ref %s has gap after %s"),
 					cb->refname, show_date(cb->date, cb->tz, DATE_MODE(RFC2822)));
-		if (reached_count)
-			oidcpy(cb->oid, ooid);
-		else if (!is_null_oid(&cb->ooid) || cb->date == cb->at_time)
+		}
+		else if (cb->date == cb->at_time)
 			oidcpy(cb->oid, noid);
 		else if (!oideq(noid, cb->oid))
 			warning(_("log for ref %s unexpectedly ended on %s"),
 				cb->refname, show_date(cb->date, cb->tz,
 						       DATE_MODE(RFC2822)));
+		cb->reccnt++;
+		oidcpy(&cb->ooid, ooid);
+		oidcpy(&cb->noid, noid);
 		cb->found_it = 1;
+		return 1;
 	}
 	cb->reccnt++;
 	oidcpy(&cb->ooid, ooid);
 	oidcpy(&cb->noid, noid);
-	return cb->found_it;
-}
-
-static int read_ref_at_ent_newest(struct object_id *ooid UNUSED,
-				  struct object_id *noid,
-				  const char *email UNUSED,
-				  timestamp_t timestamp, int tz,
-				  const char *message, void *cb_data)
-{
-	struct read_ref_at_cb *cb = cb_data;
-
-	set_read_ref_cutoffs(cb, timestamp, tz, message);
-	oidcpy(cb->oid, noid);
-	/* We just want the first entry */
-	return 1;
+	if (cb->cnt > 0)
+		cb->cnt--;
+	return 0;
 }
 
 static int read_ref_at_ent_oldest(struct object_id *ooid, struct object_id *noid,
@@ -1099,7 +1084,7 @@ static int read_ref_at_ent_oldest(struct object_id *ooid, struct object_id *noid
 
 	set_read_ref_cutoffs(cb, timestamp, tz, message);
 	oidcpy(cb->oid, ooid);
-	if (is_null_oid(cb->oid))
+	if (cb->at_time && is_null_oid(cb->oid))
 		oidcpy(cb->oid, noid);
 	/* We just want the first entry */
 	return 1;
@@ -1122,14 +1107,24 @@ int read_ref_at(struct ref_store *refs, const char *refname,
 	cb.cutoff_cnt = cutoff_cnt;
 	cb.oid = oid;
 
-	if (cb.cnt == 0) {
-		refs_for_each_reflog_ent_reverse(refs, refname, read_ref_at_ent_newest, &cb);
-		return 0;
-	}
-
 	refs_for_each_reflog_ent_reverse(refs, refname, read_ref_at_ent, &cb);
 
 	if (!cb.reccnt) {
+		if (cnt == 0) {
+			/*
+			 * The caller asked for ref@{0}, and we had no entries.
+			 * It's a bit subtle, but in practice all callers have
+			 * prepped the "oid" field with the current value of
+			 * the ref, which is the most reasonable fallback.
+			 *
+			 * We'll put dummy values into the out-parameters (so
+			 * they're not just uninitialized garbage), and the
+			 * caller can take our return value as a hint that
+			 * we did not find any such reflog.
+			 */
+			set_read_ref_cutoffs(&cb, 0, 0, "empty reflog");
+			return 1;
+		}
 		if (flags & GET_OID_QUIETLY)
 			exit(128);
 		else
diff --git a/refs.h b/refs.h
index 895579aeb7..0bd3fab468 100644
--- a/refs.h
+++ b/refs.h
@@ -440,7 +440,20 @@ int refs_create_reflog(struct ref_store *refs, const char *refname,
 		       struct strbuf *err);
 int safe_create_reflog(const char *refname, struct strbuf *err);
 
-/** Reads log for the value of ref during at_time. **/
+/**
+ * Reads log for the value of ref during at_time (in which case "cnt" should be
+ * negative) or the reflog "cnt" entries from the top (in which case "at_time"
+ * should be 0).
+ *
+ * If we found the reflog entry in question, returns 0 (and details of the
+ * entry can be found in the out-parameters).
+ *
+ * If we ran out of reflog entries, the out-parameters are filled with the
+ * details of the oldest entry we did find, and the function returns 1. Note
+ * that there is one important special case here! If the reflog was empty
+ * and the caller asked for the 0-th cnt, we will return "1" but leave the
+ * "oid" field untouched.
+ **/
 int read_ref_at(struct ref_store *refs,
 		const char *refname, unsigned int flags,
 		timestamp_t at_time, int cnt,
diff --git a/t/t3202-show-branch.sh b/t/t3202-show-branch.sh
index 6a98b2df76..a1139f79e2 100755
--- a/t/t3202-show-branch.sh
+++ b/t/t3202-show-branch.sh
@@ -4,9 +4,6 @@ test_description='test show-branch'
 
 . ./test-lib.sh
 
-# arbitrary reference time: 2009-08-30 19:20:00
-GIT_TEST_DATE_NOW=1251660000; export GIT_TEST_DATE_NOW
-
 test_expect_success 'error descriptions on empty repository' '
 	current=$(git branch --show-current) &&
 	cat >expect <<-EOF &&
@@ -187,18 +184,6 @@ test_expect_success 'show branch --merge-base with N arguments' '
 	test_cmp expect actual
 '
 
-test_expect_success 'show branch --reflog=2' '
-	sed "s/^>	//" >expect <<-\EOF &&
-	>	! [refs/heads/branch10@{0}] (4 years, 5 months ago) commit: branch10
-	>	 ! [refs/heads/branch10@{1}] (4 years, 5 months ago) commit: branch10
-	>	--
-	>	+  [refs/heads/branch10@{0}] branch10
-	>	++ [refs/heads/branch10@{1}] initial
-	EOF
-	git show-branch --reflog=2 >actual &&
-	test_cmp actual expect
-'
-
 # incompatible options
 while read combo
 do
@@ -264,4 +249,38 @@ test_expect_success 'error descriptions on orphan branch' '
 	test_branch_op_in_wt -c new-branch
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'setup reflogs' '
+	test_commit base &&
+	git checkout -b branch &&
+	test_commit one &&
+	git reset --hard HEAD^ &&
+	test_commit two &&
+	test_commit three
+'
+
+test_expect_success '--reflog shows reflog entries' '
+	cat >expect <<-\EOF &&
+	! [branch@{0}] (0 seconds ago) commit: three
+	 ! [branch@{1}] (60 seconds ago) commit: two
+	  ! [branch@{2}] (2 minutes ago) reset: moving to HEAD^
+	   ! [branch@{3}] (2 minutes ago) commit: one
+	----
+	+    [branch@{0}] three
+	++   [branch@{1}] two
+	   + [branch@{3}] one
+	++++ [branch@{2}] base
+	EOF
+	# the output always contains relative timestamps; use
+	# a known time to get deterministic results
+	GIT_TEST_DATE_NOW=$test_tick \
+	git show-branch --reflog branch >actual &&
+	test_cmp expect actual
+'
+
+test_expect_success '--reflog handles missing reflog' '
+	git reflog expire --expire=now branch &&
+	git show-branch --reflog branch >actual &&
+	test_must_be_empty actual
+'
+
 test_done