After reading a lot of previous posts I've 90% decided to chop up my '37 Brazilian. I've always thought that the best combat revolvers had a 3-4" barrel. 3" puts the barrel even with the end of the shroud. I'll be making my own grips, kinda like the WW1 smooth but long enough to get my pinky on them. Soooo, I need help. A blank grip supplier so I can reshape w/o having to fit the inside contours myself, and pictures of your shortened pencil barrel prewar revolvers, ie 1917s, Victories, pre 10s, ect. These would help me visualize the end result before cutting. Thanks in advance for any suggestions, photos, or advice.

I don’t have any pictures for you, but a trashed pair of N frame targets should be fairly easy to find and cheap enough, and they would give you plenty of wood to do what you want to do.

You don’t mention what you plan to do about a front sight... this would be a good thing to measure and plan for before you cut the barrel... just sayin’.

Froggie

If I could find a badly worn 1917/37 for a decent price I would do a chop down to a "Indy" type revolver in a heart beat.
The 1937 I have now is way to nice to do that with.

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SWHF #595

Two that I like. Note that on one, there seems to be a pin sticking out of the end - what's up with that?

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The pin is the Front Cylinder lock pin. They usually do not stick out so far; perhaps it's stuck or not correctly fitted?

I like the idea of the shorter barrel bit I'm not a fan of the cut-away trigger guard.

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Sceva
OGCA SWCA NRA

Here are a couple, but I used adjustable sight 1950 barrels and added adjustable sights to the frame.

I would be easirer to just chop a stock barrel. For a front sight cut the original one off the barrel piece. But, don't cut it off flush. make a cut on each sidee of it down into the barrel, so you get extra depth then file the exta depth down to about 1/8". Make a 1/8" groove in the end of cut barrel that your salvaged sight will just fit into and silver solder in place.

On the one with the blood wood grips I cut the grip frame down. The original serial number is still there. I just moved the bottom piece of the grip frame up and welded it in place. The one with the fake stags is now a 45 colt, using a reamed 44 mag cylinder

A Brown......I happen to have a set of N frame square butt targets that are, shall we say, "modified", and may suit your grip needs as Green Frog suggested. I bought these grips at OGCA about 18 months ago. Someone got halfway through trying to sand the checkering out, and recontoured the speedloader cut out a bit.

I picked them up, finished the sanding and put a few coats of lacquer on them. They really don't look too bad but I haven't really found anything to put them on and they're just laying in my "extra grips" box.

Let me know if you're interested.

Believe I can come up with a trashed pair of N frame targets if you need them. Would like to get shipping but NC for the grips. Just send me an email with addy. GOOD LUCK!

If you are lucky enough to have a "Brazilian Contract" in good original condition. Do not tamper with it. You may thank me later.

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Expect the unexpected

Here is some inspiration:

My .455 Hand Ejector reamed to .45 Colt and chopped:


My commercial 1917 chopped to 4" barrel


For the record, I didn't chop either. There are plenty of already modified guns out there.

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My sgntr is mor thn 30 chrctrs

I like the barrel length on the second picture. At most another 1/4" or so.

For mine I cut the rib off a crapped out 28 barrel and soldered it on the top of the barrel. This one was from the later shipment with the older round top frame so I fitted a drift adjustable rear sight leaf. Sorry, no pics. Service grips with a Pachmayr grip adapter work well.

[QUOTE=steelslaver;1408For a front sight cut the original one off the barrel piece. But, don't cut it off flush. make a cut on each sidee of it down into the barrel, so you get extra depth then file the exta depth down to about 1/8". Make a 1/8" groove in the end of cut barrel that your salvaged sight will just fit into and silver solder in place.



Thanks for the idea. I had planned to use the original sight, but it will be lowered considerably, reshaped, and white lined.

I plan to use a T-grip adapter. Will have to see how reshaping the grips turn out before that's decided for sure though.

Make sure you don't bob that barrel too much. This 1917 came to me missing 1/8" of the locking bolt frame which pretty much kills the forward lock. They also didn't put a tall enough front sight blade on it. I have a Brazilian replacement barrel I'm mulling over whether to make an Indy gun out of it or not.

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Guy
SWHF #474 SWCA LM#2629

My 37 is a parkerized round top with the smooth WW1 style grips. I am trying to chop it the way I would have if I were a soldier home from WW2 and I needed a concealable piece. Using mods available at the time, reusing the original sight, stuff that theoretically a home Smith could have done for himself.

when i was building them back when Century arms was selling the gunsmith's specials one of them had a bent barrel - chopped + crowned it - worked well , but did not feel right - sold it to neighbor -

I own this one, barrel measures 3-1/4". Whoever did the modification did a great job on the front sight. Yes the pin does stick out a bit further than normal but does not hinder operation or in my view create a problem. Not being a S&W mechanic I cannot explain the reason other than the possibility a different model pin may have been used.



This one was also a Brazilian Model of 1917 I picked up from a friend, it had been nicely refinished which made it a candidate for further modification, I had a friend of mine cut it down to 4" and mill a Baughman style front sight regulated for the Wondersight rear.

Here’s a couple chopped N Frames. The blued one is a 1917 with a custom barrel. The nickel one is a 44 3rd.

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SWCA: 3154
SWHF: 552

My "Indy" gun, service stocks were just too painful!

My 1917 has a factory pre war style 4" non-ribbed, tapered, and shrouded barrel. Mushroom knob replaced with proper vintage shrouded extractor rod with ‘barrel’ style knob.



Made a half moon front sight blade replacement (milled and pinned into base). It’s a full 1/10” wide and slightly higher with the rear sight notch opened up to target sight notch width of .124”; my “gat” ‘with old eyes’ sights.

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Jim
S&WCA #819

Here are a couple of my custom short pre-war .45 ACP's:

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Chris
SWCA #2243 SWHF #292

I think the nickel model has the barrel length I'm aiming for. Do you have a profile pic of that one?

OK, I'll play.
Here's my Brazilian with a shortened barrel.
I've replaced the grips with WWII era service stocks, but haven't taken any new pictures.

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Send lawyers, guns & money...

I've posted this before so forgive me. I wish I had photos of the ball detent that aids in front lockup but I do not.

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1916 vintage .455 MKII HE with a post war 45 ACP barrel and cylinder. The .455 barrel was bulged.
Cylinder is bored out for 45 Colt.. I use 45 Win Mag brass loaded to old Colt velocities in moon clips. Puts the bullet right at the forcing cone.. No Jump.

Surprising how light it is with all those big holes in it.

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Eccentric old coot

Here’s a family pic of 3.5, 4, 4.5 and 5 inchers (all 44’s)

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SWCA: 3154
SWHF: 552

Has the bottom of that barrel been ground down and reprofiled? Shouldn't it be notched around the ejector rod/knob?

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Send lawyers, guns & money...

Looks like you're reading my mind.That's the style I'm imagining.

I like the 3.5". I think that's where I'll end up.
But the 4.5" is cool too. May keep that in mind for a 1905 .38.

Bolded for emphasis. If your Brazilian is in decent shape, keep it in decent shape and find a gun that has already been modified. They are out there.

I really like that one.

Not my gun, but yes the barrel flat and the notch have been turned off leaving a profile like a Colt Detective snubby.

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Jim
S&WCA #819

Here is a 1917, chopped to 4”.

The othrs are 4” tapered barrels in various Models of 45 ACP. And a suggestion for leather.

Kevin

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Unshared knowledge is wasted.

You got me!

When I first saw this thread go up I avoided it. I'm a collector and have an instinctive bias against "customizing" a classic revolver. We often hold our noses in the air and make snide comments about "Bubba."

Well, I just gave in this morning and clicked on this thread. I must admit that my nose tilted down from its upward position, and I was fascinated with the various modifications displayed here. Some actually approach elegance.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not going to run out and find a custom gunsmith. But I did enjoy this thread.

Curl

P.S. I strongly agree with the members who have said that if you want to customize a S&W revolver you should start with one that already has been chopped.

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Curly
SWCA #2599; SWHF #626

For the record the Brazilian I chopped and made into a 45 colt had mismatched numbers and the 1917 that I made into a snub acp came with a loose mismatched barrel that was in bad shape. I have another mismatched Brazilian, and a couple of Bubbas 28-2 for modification guns.

But, I haven't seen very many Brazilians any collector would get excited about. Maybe they will be collectable someday after most of them have been modified. Its like Enfields, when I was young stores had racks of them for $19.95. Buy all you wanted. Herters had a grove of walnut trees made into stocks and you could get them cheap. Mill off the sights, cut off tthe front of the barrel and rework the muzzle to get rid of military sights, add scope mount, cut up trigger guard and floor plate and weld it back together flat, cut the ball off the bolt handle and turn it around and weld it back on and you had a nice handy dady 30-06 deer rifle. My dad made 8 of them that way. Us kids killed a lot of game with them. If so many had not been made into these kind of sporterized hunting rifles they wouldn't be very valuable today. I still run into these is pawn shops and sporting goods used counters

Mention was made of replacing the front sight. Obviously, sights are a personal preference and while I like them at least .100” wide and actually prefer them .125 with rear notches to match, the front sight on my modified 1917 was done well. Including the tiny gold dot.

Kevin

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Unshared knowledge is wasted.

Here is my second model mark 2 N frame
The barrels been cut and the trigger has been open at the front chambered to 45 LC .
It’s more of a novelty item to me but it is fun to shoot.
The rubber grips don’t do much for the looks but it does tame the recoil a bit.

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IWK2HT, I didn't think those snubs were legal in Canada. ??

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Guy
SWHF #474 SWCA LM#2629

Yes Guy they are if you have a prohibited permit

Could you add metal to the back end of the locking lug housing to make it full size to again use it for it's intended purpose.
That would fill in the bbl notch out for the ejector rod knob.
Then shorten the ejector rod & center pin back to the necessary length to fit. Re-cut the bbl for the ejector rod knob clearance.

You don't need much ejector push length to eject the 45acp's. It wouldn't be much different than the J frame 2" revolver ejection in 38special . Probably better with the shorter 45acp cases.

I'd add enough to that front lug so I could get it working and still have a slight undercut profile to it under the bbl,,just for looks.

Welding is always a possibility to build up the metal of course, but I would splice in a entire new piece from the front on a small shallow dovetail or maybe just a shallow key slot. Then silver solder in place, shape and finish,

Fix up the front sight blade at the same time.
Rust blue the end of the bbl to finish off the repair work.

All done!

@2152hq -- I thought about that but I don't have the expertise or equipment to do the work. I have apwcogan nearby, but it was going to be too expensive to have them do it. Besides, have a protruding lug isn't very aesthetic. So, I did the easy thing and installed a ball detent on the yoke.

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Guy
SWHF #474 SWCA LM#2629

Regarding modifications of Brazilian 1917's. The only Brazilians I have seen worth keeping original have been on this site, in particular there was one that came from South America and the guy even had the original box...at least thats what I remember. I was showing my modified Brazilian to one of the old guys at the rifle club on "Show and Tell Monday" (which was alot of fun, everybody took turns bringing something in on Mondays during the winter when it was too cold to shoot before 10:00) I'll preface this story by adding that Will had worked as the gunsmith for a leading gunshop for decades. Anyway I handed it to him and he said "You were too young to remember when these things hit the shop, but we used to have a box on the end of the counter with a sign (Your pick $19.99) that box sat there for over a year before they were gone, after they left the only other revolvers that were good parts guns were all of the Model 28's that had been cop guns, they were the best project guns ever, you could do anything with them."
Considering how many original 1917's and then later Brazilian Models that came back in rough shape, its a wonder to me that there aren't more cool custom guns built off those beaten up pieces, I would have to imagine that the frames and cylinders were utilized not to mention internal parts which must work in every pre-war N frame.
I will agree with the collectors that any revolver in decent shape should be kept original, but once someone has molested an original beyond bringing it back to original its game on for a customizer. I like just about anything well done with the exception to the Fitz modification, thats just wrong IMHO. The only way a Fitz modification will work for me is if it came with documentation that the reason it was done was because the trigger guard was bent severely while pistol whipping an assailant.

Yes and yes. The trick is to (have someone that knows what they're doing) drill a hole and place a coil spring and tiny ball inside the crane and peen it over to do what the stock setup does on the ejector rod.
It's been so long since I looked at it that I can't even picture it right now. This snub's been 100% reliable for me.

I can do almost every Gunsmithing job here proficiently EXCEPT notch out a new front sight and replace the old flush to fit. Do any of you know a gunsmith who would be able to do the whole ball of wax?

Andy Horvath is one who can do it all. But, he is not getting any younger.

Kevin

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Unshared knowledge is wasted.

Apwcogan.com

Guy

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Guy
SWHF #474 SWCA LM#2629

Old Belly Guns are just Cool !

I help'd a close friend with creating this one.



.

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"IN GOD WE TRUST"

OMG!!
That is gorgeous!
That would definitely qualify as my BBQ gun!!!

Well I guess the guy from South America Kinman refered to is me !
Thanks for the remark.
Here´s the link for the pics of the gun, box pics link will follow in another post, couldn´t post both in one.

Regards,Ray


Update on Brazilian 37- IV Better Pics