Twin Frankenstein K-frame .38 Snubbies

This is about inexpensive S&W fun, and it's a tribute to old school S&W mass production quality control, in the days before CNC.

Several years ago, Sarco advertised stripped Victory frames at about $29. I bought a couple, not knowing exactly what I would do with them. Later, Century had some DAO .38 snubby kits, without frame, for about $59. Hm-m-m-m. I bought two.

I didn't know if combining them would be possible, but set out to try. So I then bought two nice K-frame spurred hammers cheap at an OGCA show, and a $14.95 new J-frame rear sight assembly from Numrichs. I also found a couple nice sets of used grips for about $10 each.

Problem is, Victories used the old long hammer throw and the new post-war parts kits and modern hammers were short throw.

Long story short, I removed the old hammer axis pins, welded in the holes, machined them off smooth, and used a home-turned precision sharpened pin, mounted in the post-war sideplate, to mark the location of a short throw pin in the long throw frames. I then drilled and tapped new holes, mounted the old Victory pins, and they fit the new K hammers just fine. Yes, it worked, perfectly.

Cylinder timing was perfect, without doing a thing. Barrel timing was close on one. On the other, I had to add some strands of steel wool to get things where I wanted them. I set gaps as close to .004" as I can. And trigger pulls are perfectly S&W; I did not have to tamper with a thing.

I built up one gun and tested it, before doing the second frame. On the first one, I milled the top strap for the adjustable rear sight. Later, on the range, I progressively trimmed a taped-on cardboard front sight to get the right height for 50' zero at low sight adjustment. I then grafted on a higher front sight, slotting both top and bottom halves and joining them with a soft soldered thin steel wafer; all of this home brew.

I also mounted a lanyard loop on the fancy one, just to be different, and ground/drilled/tapped the trigger for an overtravel stop. All of this was more successful than I anticipated. Especially, I could not believe how perfectly both new generation side plates fit the old wartime Victory frames. Smith really had some craftsmen and quality control people. They do today, also, but I am afraid there are some occasional lapses.

So here are my two Frankenstein .38 snubbie fun guns, in which I have about $200. We don't talk about the value of the labor.

Why? Just for fun, of course. And to see if it was possible.

Sure nothing wrong with those two.. You did a great job.

Thanks, Iggy. As Chuck Schumer might say, "It keeps Phil off the streets."

Very nice.

You put a value on the labor when you said - "fun".


Cat

Nicely done. It inspires me to greater levels of daring when it comes to gun customizing and repair.

Those are great. I really like the built up front sight. You've got some amazing skills, both in problem solvign and in the actual manufacturing.

Thanks guys. I love this stuff.

David, back in the '50s, I was a quiet little bespectacled kid who learned life's most important lesson: When something is broken or doesn't work, you aren't likely to make it worse by trying to fix it. And fail or succeed, you learn something.

My small town marshal grand dad egged me on by encouraging my shooting and gun tinkering skills.

And repairing my Whizzer motorbike was an early learning experience, even if I had to evade a different town marshal to ride it in Ohio.

It's been downhill from there. Or clearer sailing, as the case may be.

It's reached the point where I have more fun with these creative or restoration or acquisition projects than shooting the guns. Once it's done, it seems to go onto "the pile". I understand they call us "collectors."

This was possible due to your skill as a machinist. Projects like this can be fun. Nice job.

Those are fantastic, and must have been very satisfying to have done.

Gret job, PhilOhio. That's a pair to be proud of......

Allen head screws instead or regular ones? Tut tut tut. Otherwise-excellent!

Very inspiring!

SaxonPig, I'm just a wannabe machinist, learning on my Chinese benchtop mill. But I started out to be an engineer once, and have logged a lot of time on my treasured old Sears/Atlas 6" lathe.

BlackhawkNJ, I knew somebody would catch the Allen screws. That's one of life's little compromises, when the alternative is paying ripoff shipping and handling charges for a couple screws from Numrich's or someplace. I'll get the right ones on there some day...maybe...perhaps. Ace Hardware was closer and cheaper.

Satisfying? You bet. I encourage anybody to play around with pitiful old, neglected, beat up Smiths. They don't deserve to die in somebody's junk box or a Sarco barrel. They were special when manufactured, and most of them can be so again.

Sure wish I could find an old N-frame now, as I have good things to go on it. And I need to be kept off the streets.

Very nice work, thanks for sharing.

Those are two really neat revolvers. Thanks for sharing!

Well done PhilOhio, they are fantastic. It is something I would like to attempt.

I wouldn't feel disadvantaged down any dark alley with that pair, no matter what the high-cap tactical Tupperware crowd says.

Were they round butt victory's?

Munster

Munster,

You raise an interesting point that I had forgotten about.

The stripped frames were square butt Victories and, sadly, they had had most of the military markings, other than serial numbers, ground off the bottoms of both butts. So I didn't feel too bad using round butt K-frame grip panels as marking templates to do the grinding and filing to make them round butts.

Since that process would remove several digits of the serial numbers, because of where they were stamped on the bottoms of the butts, I first re-stamped those full numbers deeply into the sides of both grip frames. ATF has long ruled that this is O.K., when a firearm is being modified in such a way that the original position is being removed or necessarily defaced. Of course, changing the number is a no-no.

This issue has arisen many times, with various firearms. The ruling is that both the number and the manufacturer's identification can be moved to a new location on the firearm, as long as it is readily visible. That is interpreted as specifically including on the sides of grip frames.

I know of one case where semiautomatic Thompsons were marked with the real manufacturer's identification and serial number because repros were being made to authentically duplicate wartime full auto versions. The real markings were in the magazine mounting area, and the repro markings were in the usual place where they would be on the wartime full auto firearm being copied for appearance only.

When you get bored, I could take the "ugly" one off your hands... No, really, I would

Irregardless (yes, I know that's not really a word), muy bien, senor. Muchos gracias for the pics of your handiwork. You're giving me ideas now, hehe.