A gunsmith who had been an NYPD armorer back in the '50s and '60s once told me that he converted quite a few Terriers to .38 Special after the introduction of the Chief's Special. The guys who had Terriers for backup guns suddenly felt they were obsolute. A .38 Special cylinder will fit, but must be shortened (thus precluding the use of some of the longest bullets, but most common loads fit just fine).

What it is: A Terrier that came to me with some wear and a modified (ground off) front sight. I just happened to have a NOS half-moon sighted early Baby Chief barrel laying around. The cylinder is from a Model 36 which a friend turned on a lathe to barely fit the frame window.

It will be a carry gun so I just touched it up with some cold blue for now. It looks presentable. I decided to install the post-war non-magnas just to keep with the minimum size theme.

I put 10 quick rounds through it (125gr JHP). It went bang every time. I was hitting about 2" left at 7 yards, but that might just be me not being used to the tiny grip feel yet.

Here it is pictured between a Baby Chief (top) and a Terrier (bottom)


It's about 1/4" shorter overall than the Baby Chief


It's substantially smaller than my wife's 337!

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Chris
SWCA #2243 SWHF #292

that looks like a fun project!

Really nice! The love child of two classic snubbies

Very cool, thanks for the post. Love it with the service grips, they make it look miniscule.

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Regards,
Brian.

Very very nice. I love my Baby...just found some old Jay Scott Pearl laminate grips on e bay for it...

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John 1:17
NRA Life Benefactor

What a nice modification!

I really like that.

If this was the early 1950s, I'd have that Armorer make me up a couple of them.

The best of both Worlds, definitely.

Very cool! Do you pocket carry, or have you had a holster made for it?

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Even older, even crankier....

Interesting modification, but I'm curious... will it chamber a standard 158 grain RN factory load? I would have to use that length as the basis for whether it would be a practical conversion or not. One thing for sure, the forcing cone is about fully contained in the frame, so it is definitely well supported. I don't think I would start with a nice 60 year old gun just to be able to say I have the smallest carry gun out there, but if a beater became available to work from, it might make me give the project consideration. Meanwhile I guess I'll just have to stumble along tripping over my "huge" Baby Chief and hope it doesn't get noticed by the wrong eyes!

Froggie

I have a couple holsters that it fits in pretty good.

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Chris
SWCA #2243 SWHF #292

Nope. The 158 LRN's protrude just a little too far. Looks like I'm stuck using SWC, flat points, or hollow points.

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Chris
SWCA #2243 SWHF #292

Thats a really neat project,
While looking around for a half penny FS Baby Chief (without luck) I stumbled on the two Baby Chief half penny barrels below,
Ever since have had the "Itch" to do a similar project .

Suppose the reason the factory never made up any 38 special I frames was because of the ammo length limitations ,
That and the fact that they could just make up a bigger frame to solve the problem.

Thanks for sharing ,


PS,
Your not by chance retired FF from Hollywood Fl?

Lots of fun & an interesting piece of history. Seems eminently practical to me, for standard pressure loads that fit the cylinder. With 158g SWC as a heavy option, 125g Nyclads as a medium option, and Win 110g STHP as a lightweight choice, you now have better options than most people had access to in the '50's.
I generally carry a 32-1 and a 33-1, unaltered from original caliber. They're J frames, but next month I will get to play with a pre-32 I frame :-)

Very nice project. I always find it interesting to see the 'hot set-ups' or shortcuts from back in the day to take advantage of new technology w/o having to buy a new gun. Kinda like getting a 32 H&R Mag revolver rechambered to 327 FM, nowadays.

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Jim
S&WCA #819