.38 Single Action project finished

[Tinker Pearce]

A friend with a gun store stumbled across a rather sad .38 Single Action and offered it to me at a very good price. I snapped it up, and discovered it's issues were largely superficial. Lock-up is bank-vault tight, no endplay, forcing cone in good shape and everything functioned as it should. Another friend has one of these with a shortened barrel that I have long admired, so I decided to replicate it.

I shortened the barrel to 1-5/8" and crowned it, made a new front sight and mounted it. I had some elk antler on hand, so I made new grips for it. After test firing I detail-stripped the gun, carefully removed the remaining nickel and rust blued it. I did all stripping with the sideplate in place to avoid rolling the edges, which worked nicely.

It's quite a svelte little gun, and quite accurate. I plan to carry this when unusual discretion is necessary.

A collector would likely have turned their nose up at this gun in it's original state, but now it is an attractive and useful addition to my stable. I like giving these old guns a new life and purpose; far more satisfying than letting the rot or parting them out.

 

[Bobbysixkiller]

That's a really awesome piece. I love it.

 

[Rambler42]

Very Nice! I want one too!

 

[Mrnurse]

Well Done.... If pressed into service it would still put lead under skin.

 

[crossv]

Very impressive and nice. Hope you are doing well. I recently moved from Dallas to Georgetown.

Best, CB

 

[raljr1]

Very nicely done. Kudos to you on renovating that little rascal.

 

[6string]

Well done! What a great rescue.
You should get the Santa Barbara award (patron saint of armorers, artillerymen, etc.) for this week.

 

[BMur]

Great Results!

Great Project results. It is a ton of fun fixing them and bringing them back to working condition. Then taking them out and shooting them. I think you went above and beyond on this one.
Now you need a long barrel to have a match set.

Murph

 

[bigmoose]

That is a very cool revolver and well executed restoration/modification. More pictures are due so we can ogle over it better. Thanks for sharing.

 

[rct269]

Plain and simple------------a first class piece of work!!

Ralph Tremaine

 

[Tinker Pearce]

That is a very cool revolver and well executed restoration/modification. More pictures are due so we can ogle over it better. Thanks for sharing.

Okey doke!

 

[BMur]

Nickel Screws

I never thought of leaving the screws nickel plated. It does give the piece a sectional detail that looks good in my opinion.

Say, the hand loaded rounds? One looks like the standard 158grain round nose? ...The other looks unique to me. A Semi-wad cutter with a short snout....Which mold is that one? Or did you modify the bullet after casting? Even a 105 grain SWC has a longer snout.

Murph

 

[Tinker Pearce]

I never thought of leaving the screws nickel plated. It does give the piece a sectional detail that looks good in my opinion.

Say, the hand loaded rounds? One looks like the standard 158grain round nose? ...The other looks unique to me. A Semi-wad cutter with a short snout....Which mold is that one? Or did you modify the bullet after casting? Even a 105 grain SWC has a longer snout.

Murph

These are 160gr .361 bullets, swaged from 158gr .357 lead round-nose flat-point bullets. I don't cast, but I do metalwork so setting up swaging dies wasn't too tricky. The bullets are deep-seated over 2.7gr. of Unique with a CCI 500 small pistol primer. From a 1-5/8 inch barrel these do 722 fps. and produce 185 ft./lbs at the muzzle. I've put over a thousand rounds of this load through my .38 safety Hammerless, and they work well in this gun too. For recreational shooting with this gun, however, I load a 125gr/.357 TCL bullet over the same charge. This is good for 621 fps. and 107 ft./lbs. Much more 'antique-friendly.'

 

[bigmoose]

Tinker, Thanks for the additional photos. I was wondering about the .38 load also and you answered that too. Wise choice on the type of stocks. Just an all around great piece.

 

[Capt. F.]

Whoa! Be glad to donate storage space at my house for this cutie should you run of space at yours!
Very well done.

 

[ACORN]

Well done Tinker.
I really like the look of rust blue. It looks classy.

 

[Bob L]

What a great job you did on that little single action. What is it like shooting it?

 

[steelslaver]

Nice job. Looks beautiful. I cut down a 32 SA that was finished challenged and had a bulged barrel and made it into a belt buckle gun. Nowhere near as sweet as yours. Should look a for a 38. The 32s are pretty anemic.

 

[Tinker Pearce]

What a great job you did on that little single action. What is it like shooting it?

It's fun, though the spur trigger took some getting used to. It's accurate too. I really enjoy it.

 

[Tinker Pearce]

Nice job. Looks beautiful. I cut down a 32 SA that was finished challenged and had a bulged barrel and made it into a belt buckle gun. Nowhere near as sweet as yours. Should look a for a 38. The 32s are pretty anemic.

That's damn clever! Nicely done. The .38 might be a bit large for a belt-buckle, though.