This is an update to an earlier thread I had posted about winning auction for a 28-2 that was converted to 44 special. I have the box all papers and reciept of conversion in 1977. Done at Warrens custom gun shop in Illinois. This gun is probably the dirtiest gun I have ever recieved. I was shocked with the amount of lead everywhere. It looked like it hadnt been cleaned since 1977. Not much lead inside barrel but all over outside of forcing cone and smattered on cylinder. The topstrap was beginning to blush with rust speckles. Took me 3 days using various slvents to finally get it lead free and dispatch any trace of rust. It is in otherwise great shape with tight lockup. I was a bit surprised as there is no sleeves, it was rebored and re-rifled as well as cylindrr being rebored. I tried a 44 mag cartridge and it will not fit in cylinder. They must of reamed out original cylinder as the back of extractor star has matching serial number. I thought they would have just bought a new recessed 44 mag cylinder but they did not. It shoots slightly high with rear sight all the way down but I can easily adjust to this. As the picture of target from yesturday shows. This gun is fun to shoot and a definate keeper! It has an S serial number just like my other 28 that has target grips in picture. The serial starts with an S 234 so it was made in 1964,1965 time frame and was probably carried by an officer for its first 12 or 13 years before it was converted. The grips fit pretty good and are in nice shape but not original, it should have diamond magnas I believe.

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The chamber and shoulder for the rim recess are in the white from the conversion machining. That's not how Smith would have left it. As I stated in your last thread concerning this revolver, I watched its auction but didn't bid. Wish I had. Would be cool to have a P&R .44 Special.

Well, I'm afraid we've waited about 25-30 years longer that we should have on this deal... the days of $150 used H-Ps and cheap but well done conversions is far in the past. Even the building of the two K-frame customs I have had done in the last 10 years have gone up very significantly, and the latest was a bunch more expensive than the previous one 6-8 years earlier. If you wanted to have something built inexpensively, that ship has, if not sailed, at least started pulling up the gangplank. I foresee the value of the custom guns of the '70s through '90s going up as people who are looking for "original" begin to see those "lesser" guns as desirable due to their increasing demand. This will be interesting!

Froggie

Froggie, couple two years ago bought one of the Israeli HP's for about $550. Could not afford a new model. CDI had a bad fire which was where I got my HP. Completely destroyed their inventory. So no more HP's from them truly sad as they were great to deal with. Now Browning/FN has stopped making the HP. Even some of the major gun manufacturers have stopped selling certain models in their product line. Sig stopped making the very nice P239 of which I own only one in 40 S&W. I own a Remington 40x in 308/7.62Nato. Again bought used cause I couldn't afford new. Think new ones close to 3K today. Closest I came to a semi custom if you could call it that was a bubba'd 1903A3 that was found in a local gun shop. Furnished a new bbl, steel Lyman SME 57 rear sight and Redfield banded front sight. I did all the removal of parkerization on the barrel including many hours by hand removing the tool bit markings on said barrel and a bunch of hand and buffing wheel work. That rifle I take pride in as that was a lot of work. total cost way back then was the magnificent sum of $200. No way you'd get that done for less than at least $500 maybe more. So Totally agree with you. Wonder what a M27 or M28 total cost to 44 special would cost today??. I have two 24-3's and one 624 and you'd have to pry them out of my cold dead hands. Frank

Dave Clements did a pre 27/.44 Special conversion for me about 4 years ago. Clearwater punched out the 3 1/2” barrel. Everything else Dave did in house. Total cost was $900.

A s&W big bore that looks great and shoots great. Whats not to like?

I am a converter myself.

That is definitely a keeper congratulations on a very good acquisition .

Thanks for every ones positive responses. I was wanting something in 44 special and there just are not many 24-3's out there for sale and pretty much everybody wants a grand for a descent one. I seen this gun as a good viable substitute, and its recessed so just could not pass on it. Had it not had the original receipt for conversion along with target proving the guns accuracy after conversion, I don't know if I would have trusted enough to purchase it with holding and checking it over. It is a winner in my book.

It's pretty amazing how quickly things have changed in just the last 4-5 years. Barrel reboring by Clearwater is no longer available as its owner, Jim Dubell has passed away. That was a big source for those rebored 44 barrels and of course I also had him do my 22 to 32 rebore for Project 616. Hamilton Bowen has quit working on S&Ws for these types of conversions (at least that's what I've been told) and every gunsmith who is a good enough machinist to do this kind of work is swamped and tends to command top dollar for his work (and rightfully so.) Yes, I'm afraid the "Golden Age" of caliber conversions in S&W revolvers is over. This would suggest even more strongly that daddio202 was a lot smarter than the others following that auction and got himself even more of a deal than was obvious. Congratulations to him again!

Froggie

Very nice! My dad used to do that back in the early 70's. His cylinder recesses weren't left in the white either!

When David Sams (http://www.samscustomgunworksusa.com) converted a K-22 cylinder to a K-32 cylinder for me recently, he had to mill the rear face of the cylinder to the depth of the 22 rim recess (if not deeper) to provide clearance for the 32 S&W rims and then of course rebore the chambers. This necessitated rebluing the chamber since there was a lot of bare metal showing. I could see the chambers being left bare inside, but all the rest of whatever bare steel is exposed certainly needs finishing.

The longer this discussion goes on, the more obvious it becomes that these conversions, even when done regularly by a gunsmith, were not a small undertaking and the work involved, if done properly was extensive and would therefor be expensive to duplicate today. These already completed customs are looking more and more attractive with each comment posted!

Froggie

"... the days of $150 used H-Ps and cheap but well done conversions is far in the past."

"Froggie, couple two years ago bought one of the Israeli HP's for about $550."

I do believe Froggie was talking about "Highway Patrolman" revolvers while Frank was talking about Browning "Hi-Power" semi-autos.

__________________
John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

^^ This ^^
Our conversation was about converting S&W revolvers and back in the day, if you wanted a modern N-Frame, you probably bought a Highway Patrolman (H-P) aka Model 28 and you were good to go with high S&W quality in a utility finish. For K-frames, you probably started with one of the BAZILLION or more M&Ps or Model 10s unless you needed a set of adjustable sights, then Model 14s and 15s were your meat.

Frank, although I've never owned a Browning High Power or any of its clones, I recognize the fertile ground they represent for customization as well... but that's another thread for another day!

Froggie