I have a 32-1 that belonged to my great uncle and was wondering if there was any reason I could not use the cylinder and yoke from a m36 in the 32-1 frame ? I really am not much interested in shooting or carrying it as a .38 S & W .


Eddie

__________________
Grumpy Old Man With a Gun

You can, they are both J frames, but:

1. Of course as you likely realize, the barrel to cyl gap will need to be re-set and a new forcing cone cut in the end of the barrel because so much will be removed.

2. The 38 S&W barrel has a slightly larger bore, although accuracy is not usually affected that much.

3. Consider changing barrel and cyl which will eliminate machining the original barrel and also lower gun smith costs. And you may want to tackle the swap yourself. One other advantage is you can always swap back to restore great uncle's gun to original as a family heirloom.

4. My recommendation: just pick up a Model 36, they're everywhere. The Model 32-1 is quite scarce, few were sold and therefore discontinued way back in 1974.

__________________
Jim
S&WCA #819

Thanks for the info Jim . Guess I will just leave it as is and work on a slightly better than factory load for it . Might want to change the barrel out anyway though , uncle JR was a bag man for you know who in Detroit and Nashville from the late 40's till sometime in the 90's .

Eddie

__________________
Grumpy Old Man With a Gun

Whoa, that gun has history!

The hot load for 38 S&W back in the day before S&W chambered their small frame in 38 Special, was the 38 S&W Super Police load using a 200 gr bullet. Look for loading data for that round.

__________________
Jim
S&WCA #819