Hi gang,

This is my first PPC revolver. I do not know much about it, can you guys tell me features it has that may help reveal who built this?

Thanks!
N

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I think the gunsmith signed it at the right side/front end of the rib.

Ivan

There were a lot of gunsmiths building PPC revolvers back in the day, some being true professionals renowned for the quality of their work, others very much amateurs whose end product was, well, wanting. It's hard to tell from appearance alone into which category your particular revolver falls. Here's an article on this topic: American Handgunner The NRA PPC Course Of Fire - American Handgunner

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SWCA #590
"Colligo ergo sum"

Looks like "winged or winger" plus P4P on right front side of the rib on the barrel. Have no clue who that gunsmith would be if that is indeed a gunsmith's mark. A lot of PPC guns made during the 80's were not marked. Yours is unusual in that it has the front ejector rod catch built into the underside of the custom barrel; most of the ones I've seen have a ball crane lock installed to secure the top of the yoke into the frame. Still a nice looking gun.

mine has a bobbed hammer with upper and lower rib, kind of a beast but with 2 lb trigger is lights out. Dear friend of mine who just passed away built it for me, will treasure it forever

I can't venture a guess as to who made it, but I can dispense with one apparent clue.

The word 'winged' on the BoMar rib labels the wings on either side of the front sight. This one piece assembly is removable from the rib and a separate front sight can be substituted if desired.

This revolver appears to have had very little use, so should be a good shooter.

BTW, it's PPC, not PCC.

My last PPC revolver was built by Bill Davis of Sacramento. That would have been 1990.

That really stood out to me too. I never seen it done that way.

Occasionally the builder would engrave some clue on the bottom side of the barrel where it would be obscured when the cylinder was closed. I know that Royce Weddle stamped there so that's always a place I look. I would obviously also remove the grips and look for clues there.

This is not very helpful but... I can tell you almost for certain that it's not a Travis Strahan build. Yes, I realize that this is akin to walking up to a haystack and pointing and saying that THIS straw is not the needle you are searching for.

Only saying this because I am fortunate to own two examples of Strahan PPC builds and he did a number of things that are very easy to spot and leave no question as to who did the work.

I can also say that one thing about this revolver is very much out of the ordinary for a PPC revolver and that is the contour of the trigger. Nearly all of them made use of a thinner trigger with absolutely no grooves, specifically made for DA use all of the time, not the super wide cheese grater "full target" trigger that yours shows.

Looks like a runner to me! As I will guess you may already know... if this revolver is set up in the very typical style for 70's/80's PPC then you will almost surely experience light primer strikes with factory ammo or any handloads made with hard cup primers. Nearly all of these custom builds were set up quite specifically for the Federal 100 small pistol primer.

That gives you a fork in the road. If you are a handloader, feed this revolver lead bullets and the Federal primers and you should be thrilled with it. If you are absolutely not a handloader, you will probably need to shim or replace the strain screw which has almost surely been cut down.

NOTE that if you choose to made this revolver shoot 100% of the ammo on the market in double action... you will lose that absolutely ridiculously light and silky smooth double action trigger stroke.

Years and years ago, I shimmed the strain screw of a Bill Davis build that I have and it worked with everything but wasn't as enjoyable so I put it all back and now I just feed it the Federal 100 as Davis had intended.

Report back with more pictures and a range report and CONGRATS!

A premier and highly regarded fabricator of this genre. The previous year he had a hand in the production of the 686 National Match

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SWCA #590
"Colligo ergo sum"

Some builder's marked the barrel like this one. This one was built by my Chief very early on, and I believe was owned my another officer. I saw it during a late night computer search on the Forum something like ten or more years ago, long before I was on the forum. After joining a couple years ago I reached out to the owner who had been looking for the builder of the gun and it now resides with me, back in the family sort of speak.

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What does it say, what was the name of your Chief and did he make many of these for his friends?

His name was Walt Cabell (Chief Game Warden) and during the peak of PPC shooting here in Vermont he made a lot of comp guns for his warden's and many others. They were pretty straight forward with a model 10 frame, round bull barrel, sight rib, trigger stop, chamfered chambers and an action job. Can't say he always did it, but most were marked with his name as I recall. I'm sure there are others floating around in New England.

The barrel should be marked "Cabell" on the right side, as is mine.

My elderly shooting buddy who passed last year had a very nice PPC gun built on a model 10 frame. Very nice action job. Jeweled hammer and trigger. No idea as to gunsmith who built it.

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I had one that I had built by John Towle of TNT Arms in North Conway NH in 1978. I had built it on a Model 15. 6" Douglas bbl, full length Bomar rib, polished action, slickest trigger you ever felt.

I got the ide from Gun World Magazine when they had apicture of his work on the front cover. The writer Bob Zwirz did an interview with him.

For the most part John did bolt action pistols in any caliber you wanted.

Number one son asked to have it 6 months ago, so I gave it to him.
That thing could shoot

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Pete
I ain't no fortunate son

A couple more comments that might add some clarification regarding the initial OP post.

The add-on anchorage for the extractor rod on OP's revolver was typical of early PPC builds. My two PPC builds, on Ruger Six series frames, were done by Greg Roberts, then of Santa Cruz, CA, starting in 1977. He used the same extractor rod anchorage system. Not too long after, Bill Davis developed and marketed his add-on underlugs which were set up for ball/detent latches. Greg retrofitted both of my revolvers using these Davis underlugs.

I am not completely certain, but I think early on in the transition from stock to customized PPC revolvers, most shooters still shot SA at the fifty yard line. As time passed and the greater stability of the muzzle heavy bull barrels was recognized, competitors started turning to shooting the entire course DA. I decided to do this too. It took me 3000 rounds of intense practice to make that conversion, but after that there was no turning back. If this recollection is accurate, that would explain why grooved wide triggers were being used on early PPC revolvers, which I think this one is. Somewhere along the line I switched from grooved to smooth triggers, because in DA the trigger finger has to slide on the trigger.

On hammer springs and light hits. Jim Clark, legendary gunsmith from Louisiana, liked to work on and use Ruger firearms. Since the Rugers used coil hammer springs, he designed an adjustable mainspring unit. He machined a threaded cylindrical strut with a nut at one end. By turning the nut one could adjust the strength of the mainspring to as light (or heavy) as the shooter desired. But one could go too far. I lost ten points in a match from a failure to fire on an otherwise outstanding target. Back home I tried that round again, and again no fire. I tightened the adjusting nut 1/2 turn, buttoned the revolver back up and fired again. This time it fired. Valuable lesson learned the hard way about thoroughly testing rounds to be used.

I think the BoMar sight ribs were probably some of the earliest ribs available for PPC builds. Early on Ron Power would only use these, because of their quality. Later on ribs came out allowing instant front sight height adjustment from seven yards out to fifty yards using a neck hold. Much quicker and easier than carrying a screwdriver out on the line, which I did.

The BoMar rib, wide grooved trigger, and method of extractor rod anchorage all lead me to believe this to be a fairly early era PPC revolver.

That still does not give a clue as to who might have built it though. I hope OP will take it out, use a steady rest, and give us an idea of how it groups at fifty yards. It certainly does appear to have the potential.

Mine had the latch and extractor rod milled into the 1.2" diameter barrel.

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Pete
I ain't no fortunate son

Epic post of info. thanks dude and yes I plan to.
Not that it matters much, but this is a 1962 S&W

I agree that the wide target style trigger is an unusual feature on a PPC gun, where double action is the norm. Most shooters used the .265 or .300 width trigger. This piece appears to be a basic gun - nothing really highly refined. You should enjoy shooting it.

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K Stone
FBINA 152

My first PPC gun was built by a Reserve Officer machinist who pretty much did it exactly like yours. It had a Mascot rib, where the whole rib moved left or right from a front adjustment screw and elevated in the rear from another screw. I still have the rib and barrel.
I agree that due to the rib and other things yours is probably a very early build. Im sure it will shoot fine.
I did know one very good shooter Sam Yarosh from the Secret Service who shot D/A with a wide trigger. said it was like a nice lever..

Still have 4 or 5 old PPC revolvers I dont shoot much anymore. Two Davis guns built by Craig Marivio ?S/P. A nice ATF/ Alan Tanaka Firearms build and an older Davis gun. I can never get that one upright!!!

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There's more info in here about PPC Handguns.

PPC Revolver Pics

I really like that barrel profile. Never seen one like that before.

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Richard Gillespie
FBINA 102

Using my magnifier, I read the inscription on the right front of the rib as "NOEL". Can't be positive as at magnification the image starts to degrade. These are fun guns. This one seems to be in almost too good a condition, and the wide target trigger might indicate a newer builder. Maybe built for their own use, and not shot in competition much if at all. The recoil shield does not indicate heavy use.

Have fun with it. Try and find a PPC match in your area and get involved.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

A couple of questions for you guys that shot PPC back in the day .
What was the typical load most competitors used ? .38 hbwc ?
We’re Colts ever used ?

38 wadcutter was distinctly the bullet to use. Whether hollow base or solid, depended on several factors - what was most accurate, availability, etc. Reloads of Bullseye or 231were popular. Top shooters in big matches likely shot factory ammo. Prior to 1981, when Smith introduced the 586, Colt Pythons were popular in the Police Distinguished matches. A Python with a competent action job was a strong competitor in these matches, where factory 158 gr RN was required and issued to competitors. I used a Smith 586 to complete my Distinguished Badge. In my opinion, the action of the 586 couldn't be beat for the cash outlay. Still have my AAA series serial numbered L frame. Too many memories with it to ever part company.

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K Stone
FBINA 152

I most definitely never shot PPC. I was welcome to watch them shoot on the indoor basement range of our Sportsman's Club. I was 16-17 years old and it was required that you were LE to take part.

Most of the guys that shot at our club were using custom K-frame S&W and a few custom N-frames. Most of them were using Safariland speedloaders (Comp III, is that correct?) stoked with the swaged 148gr HBWC.

It's been my observation over the last 15 years watching the market for old used guns that there were not a lot of L-frames done up by gunsmiths for competition compared to the K-frame. Power Custom definitely used the L-frame in later years but compared to the K-frame I think the L-frame was a tiny percentage. I would definitely believe that anyone who wanted to run a factory gun with no custom work would have been drawn to the L-frame simply for the new barrel profile.

Some folks in the early days rigged full underlug Python barrels to S&W K or N frame guns ("Smolt" or "Smython") and some mated the Python barrel to the Ruger Six series ("Rython" or "Cougar".) I happen to one one of these... mine is a stainless 6-inch Python barrel installed on a 1980 Ruger Service Six and interestingly enough... there is no lockup on the front end of the cylinder. No ball/detente and no lockup on the tip of the ejector rod either, locks only at the rear of the cylinder.

You might think hmmmm, who would skip such an important detail? Well... none other than Bill Davis, and they clearly marked the frame. The revolver shoots beautifully. It's been heavily used, someone competed with it for years, I was thrilled to find it.

CALREB: I posted a 'Like' to your photograph of your four PPC revolvers because the option I want to choose, 'I'm jealous', is not available. Nice toys.

NICK B: As stated, wadcutters for the open matches, .38 ball for the distinguished. I did see a number of Colts customized for the open matches. Since they had the usual customizing, I could not tell if the starting point was a Python, or one of the other models. As time passed I also started seeing more Ruger six series (like I had) on the line. But the overwhelmingly predominant revolver was the K frame Smith. I was not paying close enough attention to know if the L frame was supplanting the K frame once it was on the ground. One has to look fairly closely to determine which frame size, and I was just not that curious.

If I look back in my old issues of 'American Handgunner', where they had an annual article listing gunsmiths, just about all of them would work on/build Smiths, Colts and Rugers. You paid your money and you took your choice.

I used a Python for the Distinguished matches, which CA had just started around '83 or '84. My first leg, I shot high enough to get the maximum points, six. Twenty four got the medal, which meant at this pace I would have it in four matches. Unfortunately work responsibilities escalated so quickly I had to drop out of competition, so that great beginning could not take me anywhere.

I had had my L frame customized so that I could shoot the open matches with it, then return it to stock configuration for the distinguished matches. The idea was to use one revolver for both categories of matches.

In lieu of a bull barrel I had Wichita Arms install one of their stainless steel barrel shrouds with integral comp. The shroud was anchored to the barrel via a hex head screw threaded into the front of the barrel underlug. So, barrel shroud on for open matches, off for distinguished. But when I removed the hex head screw, the shroud would not budge. I quickly figured out why.

My L frame is a 586. I had had it electroless nickel plated to achieve the corrosion resistance and reduced finish wear of stainless. But, that process had added just enough additional material to the barrel that the very precisely manufactured shroud fitted too tightly to come off. Thus concluded that brilliant idea.

This project too was concurrent with my work responsibilities increasing, so my L frame never saw the heat of competition. Too bad because it is a very nice revolver.