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Old 07-31-2014, 09:29 AM
Hondo44 Hondo44 is offline
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Originally Posted by Engine49guy View Post
I see this is an old thread but I have been debating a similar project.. wondering ,

Did S&W cut back your 53 barrel shoulder or did you use a 53 aux cylinder as the Model 53 barrel is meant to work with a longer magnum length cylinder.
Also did the underlug overhang the frame by the yoke?

Do you have this gun still and any pics ?

Best regards
Brad
Hi Brad,

Great questions. I had to mount the barrel in my lathe and cut the barrel shoulder back for almost one full turn because it tightened up past 12 o'clock. That was OK because it also solved the problem of the barrel/cyl gap which was way too large with the Mod 18 shorter cyl, so I killed two birds with one stone.

And yes, the shroud hung way over the flat front face of the frame. But there's quite a bit of metal on the bottom of the shroud under the cutout for the Extractor rod. I carefully removed metal and re-contoured the bottom of the shroud on my son's knife maker's belt grinder; a wonderful machine! It came out very close and looks good. Of course I had to re-blue the barrel, but I had to anyway.....read on.

The biggest issue is the wide rib on the Jet barrel did not match up with the front of the top strap either! So I had to mill down the sides of the barrel rib to match. Fortunately, the grooves in the rib don't go all the way to the edge of the rib because the rib tapers to the muzzle! By milling off the sides right up to the grooves, the rib is now straight like the original M 18-4 barrel and matches the top strap perfectly.

What I really wanted is the tapered barrel look of the of the '50s and the M 18 before it was discontinued and came out with the full lug as a M 17 4". But that was too much hand work and I'd have lost the roll stamp on both sides of the barrel. Although I could have spent a few bucks to have Fords blue it and re-roll stamp both sides.

Plan B: I hardly ever shoot Mags, but since the barrel is roll stamped .22 Magnum, I'd like to find a M 48 .22 WRM cyl or spare .22 LR cyl to ream out to WRM and make it a convertible....just because. But in no real hurry with so many other irons on the fire.

Frankly, if I had it to do over again, I believe I'd start with the original tapered barrel, mill off the lug, cut the shroud from a scrap barrel, and silver solder in place. But still have some re-contouring of the bottom of the shroud. No lathe work and no milling of the rib.

It's usually mistaken for a M 19. My son takes pictures and loads them into Foto time for me but he's so busy making his custom folders, I have to bug him 'til he gets it done.
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