Heavily Modified 10-7 What do I have?

Not a lot to say the pics tell the story. Model 10-7 with little more bull barrel than usual and a little more target sight than usual.

Opinions, Myths, Facts, Fuddlore? Lets have it.

PPC gun. Any name on the other side of the barrel as to who built it?

7, 15, 25 and 50 yard course of fire, multiple setting on sight for each distance. You have the trigger stop and probably chamfered chambers and a action job. I wouldn't think those stocks would have been used and the barrel is an odd taper where it meets the frame.

This is what I used:


A member made sure I got this one because of who made it:

No name on the barrel. Sorry for my ignorance but what does PPC stand for?

fouraceswes said:

No name on the barrel. Sorry for my ignorance but what does PPC stand for?

Click to expand...

Practical Pistol Course

NRA Police Pistol Combat. if it was a sanctioned NRA match it was Police only. 150 rounds, timed at each stage and speed loaders were a must. It wasn't lighting fast by today's standards. Off hand, left & right barricade, kneeling, sitting and prone. We had shooting boxes with blocks to easily load our speed loaders between stages, competition leather gear and even blackened our sights with a carbide smoker. The combat training side of it lost out to the competitive side but there was a service gun match as well.



John Pride, LAPD Pistol Team: Notice the grip of the strong hand. That is how you hold a double-action revolver!

Well that's crazy fun tgw938! Thanks for the pic. That is epic to say the least. Ball caps and jeans for competition back then only. Nowdays! Sheesh the gear!! Gets pretty crazy. I will keep looking for info on this one and will appreciate any other input.

I had a 10-5 once that was an LAPD carry gun, and it was DAO, I had read about the lawsuits that lead to the armory conversions. The finish was hammered, must have come in and out of the holster a zillion times but you could tell it was loved.

These old revolvers bring out the best in the shooter. They are a hoot, and you can still shoot the Bianchi Cup with them. Buy a box of .38 Special Wadcutters and amaze your friends what a good shot you are. Especially those Glock boys.

Well that's crazy fun tgw938! Thanks for the pic. That is epic to say the least. Ball caps and jeans for competition back then only. Nowdays! Sheesh the gear!! Gets pretty crazy. I will keep looking for info on this one and will appreciate any other input.

I had a 10-5 once that was an LAPD carry gun, and it was DAO, I had read about the lawsuits that lead to the armory conversions. The finish was hammered, must have come in and out of the holster a zillion times but you could tell it was loved.

tgw938 Does the sight on the blued pistol have an adjuster wheel on theother side of the gun? Does it have a maker's mark? Mine does not but looks like an Aristocrat or custom unknown.

Yep, PPC gun. Not a Bill Davis gun but, look up Bill Davis he was one of the masters in building the PPC guns in the 70s and 80s. His shop was here in Sacramento and can remember going in the shop with my Father. See all sorts of stuff besides his PPC revolvers. Fast forwards 30 years and one of the Officers, I supervised was one of Bill Davis's gunsmiths building the competition revolvers. Try to find a set of Bill Davis PPC grips, one of the best grips for the K and L frame revolvers in my opinion.

fouraceswes said:

Not a lot to say the pics tell the story. Model 10-7 with little more bull barrel than usual and a little more target sight than usual.

Opinions, Myths, Facts, Fuddlore? Lets have it.

Click to expand...

My LGS has a 10-7 PPC revolver for sale at $600.

The downside is they are built for .38 Special 148 grain wadcutters.

The downside is they are built for .38 Special 148 grain wadcutters.[/QUOTE]

Hey Sarge! Model 10/64HB guy here. How so? Rifling twist different from service bbls? How would they handle LRN service loads? Inquiring minds want to know.

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

fouraceswes said:

tgw938 Does the sight on the blued pistol have an adjuster wheel on theother side of the gun? Does it have a maker's mark? Mine does not but looks like an Aristocrat or custom unknown.

Click to expand...

Mine is an Aristocrat and no wheel or dial. Yours looks like it might be an early version of my Ron Powers Wichita rib (stainless) but I don't know that for sure. Mine has four set screws on top so you can have four settings.

A.F.Behlert made this one. It is a DAO. Even with a shaky old guy shooting it, it does pretty good.

I don't know who made mine , but it'll blow a centre out of a target . I'm looking for another one , they are a blast to shoot .

Davis 10-6 that I picked up several years ago for $500.
Pure shooting machine.
https://smith-wessonforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=729616&stc=1&d=1743383276

fouraceswes said:

Opinions, Myths, Facts, Fuddlore? Lets have it.

Click to expand...

As said, this was purpose built for PPC. It was also mentioned but not explained in detail that PPC was originally meant for law enforcement "only."

What you would often find, at least when I was around it (late 1980's) was that most clubs would allow other enthusiasts to shoot matches with them but typically not for score or ranking with the officers. And then the regionals, sectionals, state and national matches were going to be sworn LE only.

The revolvers were most often S&W K-frames. Less often you could find S&W N-frames, some Colt revolvers and some custom Ruger revolvers built on the Security/Service Six medium frame.

The barrels were designed specifically around the 148 grain wadcutter. Some folks would use the lower cost double-ended cast lead wadcutter, but the guys who spent the dough were using the soft swaged hollow-base 148 grain wadcutter.

Most all of the S&W custom jobs were done on the Models 10 and 64, mostly because it made more sense to convert a gun that was lower in cost to start with. Occasionally you see them done on a Model 14 and sometimes on a Model 19. Ron Power did a number of them on the Model 19.

PPC was dying off by the time the L-frame was getting popular, although they shared some time in the early 1980's. I am a genuine fan of custom PPC revolvers and I have seen MANY and the fact is that most done on the S&W were done on K-frames and precious few L-frames.

You might find... that your new old PPC revolver has occasional fails to fire. It is not broken. Because PPC shooters shot double action pretty much 100% of the time, the custom builders put a lot of effort in to making the most incredibly smooth DA trigger stroke absolutely possible.

To this end, they smoothed many parts and they used lighter springs and lighter hammers and many or even "MOST" of these custom build guns simply hit the primer with less force. That's the cost of a ridiculously light double action trigger stroke.

To that end, competitors used exclusively the most sensitive primer on the market when they rolled their ammo. They all used the Federal 100 SP primer which is the easiest to light off.

Effectively... this often means in many cases that these old custom PPC revolvers can be difficult for owners today that do not handload their own ammo.

With the S&W design, it is possible to shim the strain screw and add energy to your hammer which can force the revolver to ignite any/all primers on the market. Understand that when you do this, you will also be adding pull weight to that sublime DA trigger stroke.

As I said, I am a big fan of these old guns. I have six of them myself and enjoy them a lot. When I first got in to them, I would shim the mainspring to make them function 100%. But it altered the amazing DA trigger stroke so much that I returned them to their custom tune and I went out and bought a lot of the Federal 100 SP primer and now I simply feed them what they like.

Sevens is right on regarding the tuning. One old trick was to have a hole in the grip for access to the strain screw, you could turn the tension down until you got light hits then bump it back to 100% ignition.

-BTM- said:

Sevens is right on regarding the tuning. One old trick was to have a hole in the grip for access to the strain screw, you could turn the tension down until you got light hits then bump it back to 100% ignition.

Click to expand...

Won't be putting a hole in the factory combat grips on my revolver. I can take a minute to take the grips off to adjust and then put them back on.