Originally Posted by Green Frog

I found myself in about the same state of affairs about 8 years ago when I had my Faux Model 16-3 built. I was fortunate enough to obtain a NOS K-32 barrel and built the gun from there. At the time, differences between pre- and post War cylinders was discussed and the general consensus was that about an equal amount of fitting would be required to install it in a pre War frame. Take it as a given that to make the rim fire cylinder “correct” in a CF frame, the rear face must be milled off toe lei instead the rim recesses used only in rim fire and magnum chamberings. With this don, fitting the cylinder to a pre War 38 target frame should require minimal work.

Gary, if you have the proper barrel, the biggest part of your project is already done. Any decent revolver smith should be able to alter a 22 cylinder to 32 and marry all of the parts into the complete copy of the pre War K-32 Target you seek. If you would like, I’ll text you the article I wrote for the CBA Journal documenting the building of my faux Model 16-3. Send me a PM with your e-mail address and I’ll dig it out for you.

Froggie

PS If you’re making a K-32 Magnum of some stripe, it’s simpler to keep the recessed chambers... that’s what I did on Project 616. OTOH, sleeving any chamber for a smaller cartridge, while do-able, is a lot of work. I’d only do that as a last resort.