I am not a fan at all of messing with guns that are pristine or even in good original condition. However, if the firearm has been already modified or had an average or worse re-blue, then I think that, if it can be worked on for reasonable money and with reasonable effort and put to use rather than just sitting in the safe or being traded off to someone, then that work should be done. That's why the work described below was done and why I'm writing about it. I will keep you posted on progress.
About seven years or so ago, I bought this 1950 Army from a friend and fellow board member. It was shipped in March 1952 and went originally to Gopher's Shooter's Supply in Minnesota. I bought it as a shooter, as it had been re-blued in an eggshell finish, but all the numbers, including the grips match. Whoever did it, did a good job, but there are a few spots of pitting that are still there under the blue. Also at some point, someone converted the half-moon front sight into a ramp. All of this had been fully disclosed during the sale; I knew what I was getting.
After I got the gun, I was happy to find the bore and all the chambers were absolutely perfect and carry-up was also. The downside was, when the gun was re-blued, the edges of the front sight were over-polished and rounded. Depending on the light, I got a different sight picture. Groups weren't good; nor were they consistent. So it went into the safe while I figured out what I wanted to do.
In May 2005, I went to the NRA one-week S&W revolver course at Murray State College in Oklahoma. I took the 1950 as one of the guns to work on. After class one day, I asked the instructor to show me how to serrate the front sight. So I did. In retrospect, I wish I had used a finer file, but he handed me a 20 LPI file.
I have to say it was a success because the groups really settled down. In fact they were not bad at all, especially with 200 grain SWCs, which consistently approached 1.5 inches at 15 yards for six rounds. I finally had a decent front sight picture. That's the good news; the bad news was the groups were almost 4" to the left at 15 yards. I finally saw then that the front sight was canted to the right a couple of degrees. This probably happened when it was reassembled after re-bluing. So after some more load experimentation to see if I could reduce that 4", it went back into the safe the middle of 2006.
A few months ago I decided to thin the herd a bit. This ones number came up, but after looking at it, I decided to give it one more chance. I took it to Keith Warner, a local gunsmith, to see what he thought before I decided what I'd do with it. He turned the barrel in until it is truly at 12 o'clock and said I should go shoot it and see what that did. I took it back to the range and now it is about 2.5" to the left so it is improving.
While turning the barrel, we noticed the rear sight notch was milled off center by about 1/32" to the left. We decided if the groups needed to move further to the right he'd open up the notch on the right side to move the point of impact and to provide more light around the front sight. The square notch was actually quite small. It's very much like a pre-war gun and is a lot smaller than my 1956 vintage Heavy Duty. So after shooting and finding out the groups are still to the left, the rear notch has been opened up to where it is centered and we estimated that would move the groups another inch to the right.
And that's where it stands right now. As soon as I can get back to the range we'll find out how far it still shoots to the left and if we need to turn the barrel in a little more.
About seven years or so ago, I bought this 1950 Army from a friend and fellow board member. It was shipped in March 1952 and went originally to Gopher's Shooter's Supply in Minnesota. I bought it as a shooter, as it had been re-blued in an eggshell finish, but all the numbers, including the grips match. Whoever did it, did a good job, but there are a few spots of pitting that are still there under the blue. Also at some point, someone converted the half-moon front sight into a ramp. All of this had been fully disclosed during the sale; I knew what I was getting.
After I got the gun, I was happy to find the bore and all the chambers were absolutely perfect and carry-up was also. The downside was, when the gun was re-blued, the edges of the front sight were over-polished and rounded. Depending on the light, I got a different sight picture. Groups weren't good; nor were they consistent. So it went into the safe while I figured out what I wanted to do.
In May 2005, I went to the NRA one-week S&W revolver course at Murray State College in Oklahoma. I took the 1950 as one of the guns to work on. After class one day, I asked the instructor to show me how to serrate the front sight. So I did. In retrospect, I wish I had used a finer file, but he handed me a 20 LPI file.
I have to say it was a success because the groups really settled down. In fact they were not bad at all, especially with 200 grain SWCs, which consistently approached 1.5 inches at 15 yards for six rounds. I finally had a decent front sight picture. That's the good news; the bad news was the groups were almost 4" to the left at 15 yards. I finally saw then that the front sight was canted to the right a couple of degrees. This probably happened when it was reassembled after re-bluing. So after some more load experimentation to see if I could reduce that 4", it went back into the safe the middle of 2006.
A few months ago I decided to thin the herd a bit. This ones number came up, but after looking at it, I decided to give it one more chance. I took it to Keith Warner, a local gunsmith, to see what he thought before I decided what I'd do with it. He turned the barrel in until it is truly at 12 o'clock and said I should go shoot it and see what that did. I took it back to the range and now it is about 2.5" to the left so it is improving.
While turning the barrel, we noticed the rear sight notch was milled off center by about 1/32" to the left. We decided if the groups needed to move further to the right he'd open up the notch on the right side to move the point of impact and to provide more light around the front sight. The square notch was actually quite small. It's very much like a pre-war gun and is a lot smaller than my 1956 vintage Heavy Duty. So after shooting and finding out the groups are still to the left, the rear notch has been opened up to where it is centered and we estimated that would move the groups another inch to the right.
And that's where it stands right now. As soon as I can get back to the range we'll find out how far it still shoots to the left and if we need to turn the barrel in a little more.
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