Michael Tinker Pearce
Member
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2016
- Messages
- 1,579
I was recently given a S&W Model 1905 round-butt as a donation to my You Tube Channel. I shot it some, did a video about it and then contemplated what to do with it. These guns are currently not particularly collectible or valuable in this condition so modifying it didn't bother me. After thinking it over though I decided I've pretty much 'been there and done that' with old K-frames and decided to leave it alone.
I posted something to that effect on social media and a gunsmith friend said, 'Hey, I've got some big heavy-barrel stock. Want to do a 3" heavy barrel?' Realizing fate was working against me and I haven't done a custom heavy barrel before I agreed. He cut threads on one and and sent me the blank. I fitted it to the frame, then turned it down to size, relieved it on the bottom to accommodate the ejector. I also turned down the mushroom-head of the ejector to fit. At a friend's suggestion I made a shotgun bead front sight, installed it and then mounted and pinned the barrel. I had to open up the tiny rear sight into a half-round to work with the bead. Gives pretty fast sight acquisition.
Then I decided, 'In for a penny, in for a pound' and bobbed the hammer, modified the trigger guard and installed an American Holly grip adapter I made the other year.
There's still a lot to do; I need to make a crane detent, cut 40 lpi. checkering on top of the hammer, do a trigger job, make some antler grips and then refinish and rust blue the gun. So far I am really happy with how it's coming along.
I posted something to that effect on social media and a gunsmith friend said, 'Hey, I've got some big heavy-barrel stock. Want to do a 3" heavy barrel?' Realizing fate was working against me and I haven't done a custom heavy barrel before I agreed. He cut threads on one and and sent me the blank. I fitted it to the frame, then turned it down to size, relieved it on the bottom to accommodate the ejector. I also turned down the mushroom-head of the ejector to fit. At a friend's suggestion I made a shotgun bead front sight, installed it and then mounted and pinned the barrel. I had to open up the tiny rear sight into a half-round to work with the bead. Gives pretty fast sight acquisition.
Then I decided, 'In for a penny, in for a pound' and bobbed the hammer, modified the trigger guard and installed an American Holly grip adapter I made the other year.
There's still a lot to do; I need to make a crane detent, cut 40 lpi. checkering on top of the hammer, do a trigger job, make some antler grips and then refinish and rust blue the gun. So far I am really happy with how it's coming along.