It seems to me that vintage 5 inch N frame holsters aren't easy to come by. I just purchased what appears to be an early Bianchi Cyclone for a 5 inch S&W 44, without the full lug. There doesn't seem to have been many 5 inch 44s made that weren't full lug. What can you leather gurus out there tell me?

At Bianchi we simply used a 5" N frame that I recall was a tapered barrel Model 27. The full lug is a recent 'thang' compared to 'those days' (which would be before 1990 in the case of the Cyclone). On the other hand, if it's moulded to a full diameter barrel as on the Model 29, then we would've just used the 6-1/2" because we had full-length sight rails installed on all moulds, and Cyclone is open muzzle for the extra length to stick out (presently I used a tapered sight rail so it is barrel length dependent).

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Red Nichols The Holstorian

Thanks Red. It is molded, but it's tough to tell if it is for a full diameter barrel. It is stamped 5" S&W 44 on the back, which leads me to believe it is not for the 27. I'll post pics later. It doesn't work well with my tablet.

Again, you're guessing :-). '44' is how we designated N frame in those days; later we switched to 'large revovler'. Imagine the difficulties in having holsters in stock for excellent customer service, if we made one for 27s and another for 29s -- and then had to stock each in plain black and plain tan; basket black and basket tan; lined and unlined; and then all of those in right hand and left hand! We even provided the 4" for the 3-1/2" and the 6-1/2" for 6" on the N frames. Mind boggling otherwise.

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Red Nichols The Holstorian

Thanks for the insight. Makes sense to me. Thanks Red.