27-2 in 44 SPECIAL

[50 target]

I have a group of friends I shoot with twice a month and tell lies, aggravate one another; have lunch and then a bit of show and tell
At our last gathering our most prolific collector had this 27-2 in 44 Special. Unusual in that frame marked 27-2 with a 44 Special barrel and cylinder. Not refinished and all parts the bluing matches. Now the really unusual part; the top of barrel rib and rear sight were checkered as proper for the 357 mag 27-2. No rework or stamps. Nice gun that was bought in the New England area. Anybody seen another?
Would be nice to know the story. I started to offer an opinion until I saw the checkered barrel rib. An odd one for sure.

 

[walter o]

THAT ONE deserves a letter to prove it i think.

 

[CH4]

Sounds like a 27 conversion with a 44spl barrel that was checkered - not difficult to do.

 

[luvsmiths]

Sounds like a 27 conversion with a 44spl barrel that was checkered - not difficult to do.

They were common conversions when the 44s were hard to get in Dirty Harry time. The 27 & 28's were not.

I had similar in 45 Colt, and 44 Magnum. Beautifully done by.. I forgot his name, but he was in Cali and very well known in the 70s for his gunsmithing. Not with us for a long time now.

Mine were like the old Colt blued- Beautiful deep Blue- with Jeweled triggers and hammers. Presentation stocks. 100% guns! Bought them both right here about 15 years ago.

I'm in New England, BTW.


...... No letter necessary!

 

[Patrick L]

OP, one thing was not clear in your post. Is the barrel MARKED .44 Special? If so, that means 1. someone physically applied checkering to a .44 barrel, like a Model 24 barrel. Not impossible, but that really is going the extra mile. Or 2. Someone changed the marking and expertly refinished. Again not impossible.

If the barrel is not marked .44 Special, than just a simple conversion. As was already said, this was common back in the day, thanks largely to Skeeter.

 

[Muley Gil]

Has the barrel been lined?

 

[ken158]

Lined barrel and bored cylinder most likely but we all know it is not factory. Get your group to chip in for a hundred dollar letter but the deal is the owner pays up if the gun is not factory.

 

[charlie sherrill]

There was a guy in an Anniston,Al. shop that has had one there for years. It was a nickel .44 special that had been converted from a 27. He had always asked $1200.00 for it and I thought it was too high. I went over there and bought a 1903 from the CMP. I told my son I was going to buy it this year (shipped to my local FFL) if it was still there. It wasn't.

 

[Tom K]

I have a group of friends I shoot with twice a month and tell lies, aggravate one another; have lunch and then a bit of show and tell
At our last gathering our most prolific collector had this 27-2 in 44 Special. Unusual in that frame marked 27-2 with a 44 Special barrel and cylinder. Not refinished and all parts the bluing matches. Now the really unusual part; the top of barrel rib and rear sight were checkered as proper for the 357 mag 27-2. No rework or stamps. Nice gun that was bought in the New England area. Anybody seen another?
Would be nice to know the story. I started to offer an opinion until I saw the checkered barrel rib. An odd one for sure.

I wouldn't be so sure that it's not refinished. Back in 2008 and 2009 I sent a couple of grubby revolvers to Smith & Wesson be refinished and they came back as factory new. One was a stock Model 58 but the other was a Model 28 that had been rechambered and rebored to .45 Colt. It still had the Highway Patrolman and .357 Ctg. marked on the barrel and it apparently didn't bother S&W at all, they just did the work. As far as I can tell there are no markings on either gun to indicate that they had been refinished.

As questioned earlier in the thread, is the barrel marked ".44 S&W Special" or not? Some years back I had a Model 28 converted to .44 Special, and used a rebored Model 27 8-3/8" barrel (*see below). One of the Forum members at the time (Marksman) had a proper .44 caliber stamp that he would loan out, as noted in post #3 in this thread: https://smith-wessonforum.com/s-w-s...question.html?highlight=44+special+stamp+loan I don't know if he still has the stamp but you could easily be looking at a Model 27 that has been converted to .44 Special and looks factory.

(*Kind of a sad story on my 8-3/8" .44 Special conversion. After I had the barrel rebored, I borrowed Marksman's stamp and had a local gunsmith take off the .357 marking and use the stamp to mark it as .44 Special, and reblue the barrel. Unfortunately he stamped the new caliber crooked and it looked terrible. To complete the job I sent the barrel and Model 28 to Andy Horvath. In the process he wiped off the crooked stamp and redid the caliber with regular individual stamps so it doesn't look factory, but at least it's straight. Unfortunately since the barrel had stampings removed twice it does look somewhat flattish in that area.)

 

[CajunBass]

I'm no expert, but I am old enough to remember when Skeeter Skelton wrote articles about converting 357's to 44 Special, from time to time.

Converting 357s To .44 Specials

We miss you Skeeter. You left us far too soon.

 

[Capt. F.]

I’ve shown this one numerous times.
My pre-27 .44 special.
Before the horror imogies start, the gun was in no way a collector piece. Barrel had been cut to 3 1/2”, barrel wasn’t crowned correctly and barrel bluing didn’t match the rest of the gun.
Sent it off to Dave Clements when he was still working on Smiths and he did his his magic.

 

[Retired W4]

A while back I spotted a 28-2 that was billed as 44 special. The 6 1/2" barrel is marked 44 S&W SPECIAL CTG, just like my Model of 1950 44 Target from 1954. Sand blast finish in all the right places for a Highway Patrolman, recessed chambers with TH/TT. It turned out to be one of my most accurate revolvers. Kim Ahrends' custom stocks added.

 

[Muley Gil]

There was a guy in an Anniston,Al. shop that has had one there for years. It was a nickel .44 special that had been converted from a 27. He had always asked $1200.00 for it and I thought it was too high. I went over there and bought a 1903 from the CMP. I told my son I was going to buy it this year (shipped to my local FFL) if it was still there. It wasn't.

I had a M27-2 converted to .44 Special back in 1976, using a factory 6 1/2" barrel. I had Dave Clements cut it 5" and re-blue it around 2006.

I wouldn't sell it for twice that amount!

 

[Doug M.]

IIRC, Dave Keith has done similar work for himself on 27s and even at least one RM.

 

[Green Frog]

IIRC, Dave Keith has done similar work for himself on 27s and even at least one RM.

You beat me to it! His 44 Spl RM was written up about 6-8 years ago, IIRC. With the “proper” ribbing on the barrel, it looked like a factory 44 Spl RM and I was in total awe. OP, it would be worth going back and searching for that thread.

Froggie

 

[nyeti]

I have a Hamilton Bowen one that looks factory. I have a Clements in .45 Colt on a Pre 27 and. Keith on a Pre 27 as well. These can be done exceptionally well and look factory when done.

 

[StrawHat]

I have converted several N frames to 45 ACP. Not terribly hard to do. The hardest part is usually the barrel, use the old one or spin in a new one.

Kevin

 

[Hondo44]

I have a group of friends I shoot with twice a month and tell lies, aggravate one another; have lunch and then a bit of show and tell
At our last gathering our most prolific collector had this 27-2 in 44 Special. Unusual in that frame marked 27-2 with a 44 Special barrel and cylinder. Not refinished and all parts the bluing matches. Now the really unusual part; the top of barrel rib and rear sight were checkered as proper for the 357 mag 27-2. No rework or stamps. Nice gun that was bought in the New England area. Anybody seen another?
Would be nice to know the story. I started to offer an opinion until I saw the checkered barrel rib. An odd one for sure.

How it was done depends entirely on the barrel caliber roll mark. If it’s marked 357 or no caliber marked on right side of the barrel, or there was a non-factory 44 marking, then the barrel was most likely rebored to 44. You probably don’t remember or didn’t look at that.
And the cylinder rebored to 44 as well. That method of conversion was more common back in the day.

If the barrel was factory marked 44, then the barrel rib was likely checkered at the time of the conversion.

The rear sight was not likely checkered but the top strap was.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Have seen several 44 converts.
Mostly converted LE Trade in 28s.
Not nearly as nice as Keith posted.
Those Keith’s do know their guns!
Trying to ‘picture’ exactly how this looks.

 

[A10]

I’ve shown this one numerous times.
My pre-27 .44 special.
Before the horror imogies start, the gun was in no way a collector piece. Barrel had been cut to 3 1/2”, barrel wasn’t crowned correctly and barrel bluing didn’t match the rest of the gun.
Sent it off to Dave Clements when he was still working on Smiths and he did his his magic.

Thats a perfect resurrection!