Need help with this Brasser .44

[jgh4445]

Found this today and a friend bought it. He wanted me to look it over and tell him if it is safe to shoot or if it is a wall hanger. Well, has the best timing I have ever seen on a revolver of any kind. The timing is perfect! Not a mark on or in the cylinder notches and since the cylinder is stepped, no turn line. The loading lever is in tight and has not been used much since the notches are razor sharp. The trigger is awesome! The nipples look pristine. It has a few handling marks but no rust or gouges anywhere. The only problem I can find is that is has a hole in the barrel! Its right where the barrel screws in under the loading lever. Its in the recessed area of the barrel. Makes it a wall hanger huh? Why would anyone do this? Its a Pietta, date code is BL and its a Navy Arms import. Can it be salvaged?

 

[jgh4445]

Here is the revolver

 

[BHP FAN]

that's going to make a sweet snubby! There's been several threads on ''Avenging Angels'' like Porter Rockwell the Morman Gunman used to carry. VTI gunparts has the barrel, if you want to restore it.since the barrel assembly just pops off the front, you can have both, and have two guns in one!

 

[BHP FAN]

 

[kBob]

jgh,

That barrel does not screw in to anything. The round part is just machine turned to a round shape and the barrel is everything forward of the cylinder.

Did the person selling this gun to your friend point out this hole before the sale? I would imagine there was the potential for serious injury had your friend fired the gun without noticing this hole.

Look around THR for threads on Avenging Angles, Mormon Avengers, or "Snubbies" to see how folks have handled 1851 Colt type revolvers when it comes to shortening. Some folk leave them with no front sight and others put a sight like was on the full length barrel on the stubbie barrel, still others get creative and do everything from sodered on slivers of coins to driftable dove tailed front blades.

Your revolver seems to be a reproduction of a Griswold and Gunnerson CSA revolver much as the originals were made in Griswoldville, Georgia during the ACW, except the originals were all .36 caliber with a straight cylinder and no .44 stepp or water table cut. I usually get sad on seeing these shortened but in your case it is either shorten it or as you say hang it on the wall never shot.

Have fun and be safe, whatever you decide.

-kBob

 

[jgh4445]

Yes, the seller showed my friend the hole. I took it apart and it is for certain unfired, or at least that cylinder and arbor appear never to have been in contact with BP. Manufacture date seems to be 1998 if I read the chart correctly. Yes, I looked up the barrel on the VTI web site. $125 I believe. There is a new brass framed 44 on sale at Cabelas now for $149. Buying another barrel doesn't seem economically smart. As far as a snubby goes, I've never been a fan of them. If you look closely you'll see that the hole is so far back toward the cylinder, that half of the hole, actually a rectangular cut out, is inside the flat shroud the round part of the barrel goes into. There would be absolutely no round barrel at all on an "angel" made from this one. Don't know why anyone would have cut that slotted hole in it. I'll give it back to my friend. He can either part it out or hang it on his wall.

 

[Malachi Leviticus Blue]

As a snubbie I'd expect you to cut it off where the round barrel starts.
You can find a replacement barrel on EBay sometimes for a lot less.
If you don't want a snubbie, someone else does. You should be able to sell off that barrel for just such a use to help finance the replacement.

 

[jgh4445]

True Malachi, hadn't thought of that.

 

[Hellgate]

Or you could keep your eyes open for a "shot loose" "stretched frame" brasser that is now junk and buy it for $25 or $50 or less and attach the barrel from the junker. It is the brass frame or arbor that goes bad on the brassers but not the barrel, cylinder or internal parts. Just make sure you get the same caliber and make as yours is to swap out parts.

Maybe a buddy could weld up the hole. So what if there's a divit in the barrel afterward, it would likely shoot just fine.

 

[jgh4445]

If anyone has one of these revolvers, does it have the machined out place under the rear of the loading lever as this one does? Thats the area where the hole is and I cannot see a need for such a "sculpted" out area. I'm wondering if this was done at the factory and got by QC somehow. At any rate, I'll be on the lookout for worn out one as Hellgate suggested.

 

[BHP FAN]

I have had two of those [sold them about two years ago], and they both had a machined spot just there ... no holes, though. I'm thinking they might have been for clearance for the loading lever, even though it's not really needed.

 

[jgh4445]

I also thought the machined spot was there to provide clearance for the lever, but like you said, it really does not even come close to needing it. Perhaps I can look into the welding option. Probably cost prohibitive, especially if re-bluing is a requirement.