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S&W Revolvers: 1961 to 1980 3-Screw PINNED Barrel SWING-OUT Cylinder Hand Ejectors WITH Model Numbers


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Old 10-21-2020, 07:52 PM
fortyshooter fortyshooter is offline
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Default 28-2 converted to 45 Colt?

Looking at a 28-2 Highway Patrolman that has been converted to .45 Colt. The cylinder length appears to be short maybe like for .45 ACP with a good gap between it and frame cutout.

It has the .357 logo on barrel stamped over with "xxx" and .45 LC stamped above it. I have read where S&W did convert some of these in house. Might be a local smith job too.

If it was a .357 cylinder is there enough material left where the bolt notches are cut? Looks quite thin there.
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Old 10-21-2020, 08:45 PM
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Definitely not a factory conversion, they don't rebore barrels or cyls.

The .357 cyls are shorter, similar to 45 ACP/45 Colt cylinders for the Model 25, except for the longer 45 Colt cyls used in the Model 25-5.


The diameter of the .357 cyl is the same as all N frame cyls. So your cyl reamed to .45 will have the same amount of material behind the cyl stop notches as a factory .45 Colt cyl.
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Old 10-21-2020, 09:52 PM
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Thanks for your reply Jim.
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Old 10-21-2020, 09:54 PM
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With the short cylinder the barrel must have been set back to maintain BC gap. The best conversion uses the 357 cylinder and Model 25 barrel. With the funky cylinder and rebored barrel with funky stampings I would look for a 25-5.

Yes, the thickness of the metal in the cylinder notch gets pretty thing on a 45 caliber N frame. That's why I cringe when I read guys with 25s talk about hot rodding their hand loads.
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Old 10-21-2020, 10:29 PM
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It might not be as horrific as some are making it sound. IF the gunsmith rechambered the original cylinder and IF the original barrel was bored and rifled, the parts should fit together well like they originally did. The fun is finding loads that will fit in the cylinder and not be so long as to tie up cylinder rotation. Lyman did not help by building at least three(yup 3) version of 454524. One of the versions is longer than the others from the nose to the crimp groove. So, if using 260 cast bullets is what you want to do, you might need a different bullet, perhaps one of the wide flat nose bullets. Or crimp on the leading edge of the bullet.

Let us know if you get it.

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Old 10-21-2020, 10:36 PM
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Your barrel has been rebored and your cylinder has been reamed to .45. No other parts are required and the cylinder is standard length before the M-29 was made in the mid 50s. The models 29, 57, 58, and 25-5 all have a longer cylinder. I have seen a few of those kind of conversions and I have an old M-28 with a 4" relined barrel that has 2 cylinders. .45Colt and .45acp but that is another story from another life It is in storage along with a lot of other stuff from back then. The .357 cylinders usually have deeper locking bolt cuts than the big bores, not always. lf done right, a gun like that is worth having but resale value can be lower than a factory. Check the cylinder throats with a .451 jacketed, a .452 cast and if you can find it a .454lead bullet so you have a good idea before you buy it. There were a lot of big bore conversions done while S&W only made .357, .41 and .44 Magnums and the M25-2. Skeeter shook loose the first of the M24-3s then the M25-3 and there have been quite a few more available. In the 70s you had to be resourceful to shoot Big bores and M29s and M57 sold used for twice list price.............
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Old 10-22-2020, 10:49 AM
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Well that revolver is a good ways away so can't personally check it out. Looking at a another SW 45 shooter now.
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Old 10-22-2020, 02:43 PM
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My Bowen Model 28-2 he converted to .45 Colt and he also installed a taller front sight.
[img]https://i.imgur.com/lLzNX**.jpg[/img]
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Old 10-22-2020, 03:38 PM
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Ditto on the danger of the cylinder wall at the bolt notches being too thin. A friend had a Model 28 converted to 45 L.C. and the first time he shot it one of bolt wall gave away and blew a hole through it.
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Old 10-22-2020, 09:05 PM
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This one was built on a pre-27 by David Keith (keith44spl). I shoot it all the time with 250-255 gr factory loads or handloaded equivalent. Never had a problem. If I want to shoot magnums, though, I’ll get a magnum handgun.
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Old 10-22-2020, 09:21 PM
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I built one in '81. I bought a cheap 28 at a gunshow and when I got home I noticed a shadow in the bore, ran a wire down and it disappeared in the shadow. Evidently someone had a stuck bullet and tried to drill it out and got into the barrel, So a cheap price on the gun. I checked before I bought it but didn't notice the defect at the show (Wonderful lighting at gunshows). At the time you could send a barrel and cylinder off to a gunsmith in Delaware and for $80.00 he would re-chamber the cylinder and bore/reline the barrel. got it back and it shot great with semi-wadcutters but factory round nose would protrude from the front of the cylinder. I kept it until Smith started to make 25-5s. One thing for sure, with the skinny original barrel there was not much weight and it kicked like a mule.
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Old 10-24-2020, 06:02 PM
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Default A Keith style bullet for short cylinder S&W .45 Colts

If you have a S&W N-frame .45 Colt with the short cylinder, whether it is a 25-3 or a conversion the 454424 will be too long for the cylinder, if crimped in the crimp groove. The 4cavity mold I have drops at 263gr from COWW. The Lyman 452423 is a similar bullet designed by Elmer Keith for the .45 Auto Rim. It has an even thicker drive band to better grab the shallow 6 groove rifling used by S&W for their .45acp revolvers and a shorter nose which will fit in the shorter S&W cylinders when crimped in the crimp grooves. This bullet weighs 252gr from COWW. I'm getting a little long winded here but some of the younger folks may not know about the short cylinder guns...........
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Last edited by ddixie884; 11-02-2020 at 01:54 AM. Reason: punctuation and spelling........
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Old 10-24-2020, 10:36 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ddixie884 View Post
If you have a S&W N-frame .45 Colt with the short cylinder, whether it is a 25-3 or a conversion the 454424 will be too long for the cylinder, if crimped in the crimp groove. The 4cavity mold I have drops at 262gr from COWW. The Lyman 452423 is a similar bullet designed by Elmer Keith for the .45 Auto Rim. It has an even thicker drive band to better grab the shallow 6 groove rifling used by S&W for their .45acp revolvers and a shorter nose which will fit in the shorter S&W cylinders when crimped in the crimp grooves. This bullet weighs 252gr from COWW. I'm getting a little long winded here but some of the younger guys may not know about the short cylinder guns...........
On a similar note, the .455 revolvers that were converted to .45 Colt also had short cylinders. I owned one and I loaded the Keith bullet for it. I had to deep seat the bullet and crimp over the front band. The bullets came right to the front of the cylinder. Looked mean as H--l from the front!
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Old 10-26-2020, 12:40 AM
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Originally Posted by austintexas View Post
I built one in '81. I bought a cheap 28 at a gunshow and when I got home I noticed a shadow in the bore, ran a wire down and it disappeared in the shadow. Evidently someone had a stuck bullet and tried to drill it out and got into the barrel, So a cheap price on the gun. I checked before I bought it but didn't notice the defect at the show (Wonderful lighting at gunshows). At the time you could send a barrel and cylinder off to a gunsmith in Delaware and for $80.00 he would re-chamber the cylinder and bore/reline the barrel. got it back and it shot great with semi-wadcutters but factory round nose would protrude from the front of the cylinder. I kept it until Smith started to make 25-5s. One thing for sure, with the skinny original barrel there was not much weight and it kicked like a mule.
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Old 10-26-2020, 06:48 AM
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Richard Nickel rebored my barrel when i converted the Model 28-2 to 45 ACP.

Andy Horvath did or still makes conversions to 44 S&W Special.

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Old 10-28-2020, 07:53 PM
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I've built a couple and bought a couple and I'd rather have a big bore conversion than not have a big bore..........
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