6.5" 38/44 from 1940

[Jebus35745]

Hi Jim, gave Andy Horvath a 17-2 and he's making it into a 32 long. Cutting the bbl to 5" and using a Weigand interchangeable front sight base. Re-bluing the gun and calling me to pick it up. Hopefully it will shoot good. I have a B square scope base that I could attach to it to shoot to eliminate the old eye sight. It would help to see how good it shoots. Larry

 

[Hondo44]

Now I remember. I guess rechamber the cylinder, and rebore the barrel/remark caliber.

Is he moving the frame mounted firing pin in frame or installing centerfire hammer/firing pin and creating an aperture in the frame?

 

[Jebus35745]

I gave him a center fire hammer and a narrow trig to install. Not sure what he'll do. The target trig on the gun is no good to me for double action shooting. He's had the gun 9 weeks tomorrow. I hope to have it back by the NE Ohio bunch on May 12th to display. I also hope Keith Brown brings my Ropers for it. That would be a sweet day, Larry

 

[Reddog]

6.5" Outdoorsman

Hey, Boys!
We had another beautiful day in South Central Kansas, today! 73°, bright sun and light breeze! I dug out the Outdoorsman and a couple boxes of shells and headed for the range. I was shooting alone, so didn't stay long. The gun really liked both loads, so will have to remember these.
I shot another target offhand, but plan on forgetting it!
Dick

 

[Jebus35745]

Nice shootin Dick. Must be nice to be retired and shootin on you're home range as it says on the target. Thought this post was gone for-ever. Buy anything new? Hows the infection doin? Larry

 

[Reddog]

Larry,
Yes, I bought a 27-3, 6", in excellent condition. I wish it was a -2, though. Haven't been shooting much? I've been working in the yard a lot and the last couple days I've been trying to get a bunch of brass processed. I was behind about 1,000 rounds of 38, and odds and ends of others. Kind of let it go when I was doctoring so much. By the way, I'll get the final word on my back the 15th.. It appears to be fully healed. Hope so!
Dick

 

[Jebus35745]

Hi Dick, been busy lately. Had the S&W bunch yesterday, good turn out. Also shootin a double action only league for 8 weeks. Wish I could quit throwing one out of the rings in each match. Tomorrow we go 2 hrs south, the oldest son is a patent lawyer and gets his diploma tomorrow. Larry

 

[Reddog]

Congratulations, Larry!
I'm sure your son worked very hard for that!
I have a grandson, Reade, who just finished a Masters in Finance at Tulane in one year! We're very proud of him! Now if he can just find a job!
The pic is with his sister at his graduation from Tulane.
Dick

 

[Reddog]

Cracked!

Do any of you fellows scrounge brass? Well, I'll have to admit that I have for over 50 years, now. Especially 38 Special. When I went to Texas, last week, to shoot with my friends down there, a very old piece of brass headstamped REM gave out at one of the canalures and about two thirds of the case went with the bullet into the barrel! Luckily, or unluckily, it tied up the cylinder. We fooled with it for about an hour and all we accomplished was to get a steel punch down in there with the brass! Woe is me, what to do now? When I got home, I took it to my local gunsmith. He was able to tap the gun barrel on the bench enough to get the punch forward enough to clear the cylinder. Then, he used a jeweler's saw to saw the brass in two between the cylinder and barrel. He managed to do this with barely a mark on the barrel or cylinder! He said he had been a jeweler prior to becoming a gunsmith! Amazing! The Outdoorsman still functions, perfectly, but I imagine I'll not be shooting it so much, now!
Dick

 

[Hondo44]

Dick,

Congratulations on your son's graduation!

Just for the record did the bullet exit the barrel or stick with the 2/3 of brass casing?

I had a similar experience with a jacketed bullet that left the jacket in the forcing cone jamming the cylinder. In that case pounding a lubed lead bullet down the barrel with wooden dowell as if to slug it worked remarkably well to get the jacket back in the chamber. Once it cleared the forcing cone, cyl was removed and lead slug knocked all the way thru.

 

[Jebus35745]

Dick, keep shooting the Outdoorsman. They're too accurate to let them sit. Is it a pre or post war? Love my pre-war, Just changed the rear site blade with a Ruger or Colt blade. Its abt a 85% gun and it looked like it was dropped on the rear site. The new blade have a bigger usable notch in it then the pre war did.
Jim, talk to me, any new projects lately? Still waiting on the 32 long Horvath special. The bbl is stuck at the re-borer in Wash State. I do have the KB Ropers waiting for the 32. Larry

 

[Reddog]

Jim,
The bullet exited the barrel, luckily we caught it before firing another round behind it! The rear end of the brass piece was swelled where it had stopped in the forcing cone. The case was in three pieces. I'll post a picture of it soon.
Larry,
It's a prewar, 1940. I'll shoot it occasionally. Mine's probably 85 or 90%, too.
Dick

 

[Hondo44]

Jim, talk to me, any new projects lately? Still waiting on the 32 long Horvath special. The bbl is stuck at the re-borer in Wash State. I do have the KB Ropers waiting for the 32. Larry

Hi Larry,

I've been loading up 45 Frankford lately. I like shooting my 45 revolvers; a target 1917 and pre model 26. But I hate the moon clips and I like using the same ammo in my 45 Colt SA Rugers. 45 AR won't fit in my Rugers. So I cut down 45 Schofield cases to headspace on the chamber shoulder like the ACP and stick out far enough for proper firing pin ignition. Since they are rimmed of course they extract perfectly in the Smiths. It's kind of like shooting the 45 S&W Special that never made it beyond the Army trials of 1907.

I've also been dickering on a Ruger Hawkeye that's lost all collector value due to wear that I want to re-barrel to .204 Ruger.

 

[Reddog]

Chronographing the 38/44 O.D.

Got a chance, today, to shoot the Outdoorsman since the shell broke in it in Texas. While I was at it, I figured I might as well chronograph the loads. I'm curious how this 6.5" barrel will compare, velocity wise, to the 6" Model 28 and the 5" Model 27? Now if I can locate the records of chronographing of those loads! The gun functioned perfectly and was dead on with both loads!
Dick

 

[Reddog]

New shoes!

Thanks to member ar33c9, my Outdoorsman now has a complete pair of stocks to replace the missing half of the originals! Special thanks to Patrick Grasshorn!
Dick

 

[Reddog]

Beautiful day in Kansas!

It was 82° and calm when I went out today! First time in a long time! I fired 80 rounds in my 6.5" 38/44 Outdoorsman today. Here are 50 of them on one target. I did adjust the sight a little to the right after this!

Off the sandbags at 25 yards.
153 grain homecast RCBS SW Wheelweights and 2% tin
3.6 grains of IMR 700X With WSP Primers in REM .38 Sp. brass

It was a fun time!
Dick

 

[Jebus35745]

Wow, thought this post was history. Looks like you found your glasses before you went shooting. Nice group. Its good to spend time with some of the older guns. Looks like you had fun. I havn't been shooting for a while. You're stag grips look great. Hows the rash? Larry

 

[Reddog]

Grandson's home!

Hey, Larry!
Son Steve and Grandson Derek came out this morning and we spent most of the day shooting! 38/44 OD, .44 Special, .45 ACP, both revolver and SA, 9 mm and 30/30, all with lead bullets. Of course the boys out shot me with them all. When we were done target shooting with the handguns at 25 yards we went to the iron coyote at 100 yards! The boys really had that coyote ringing with both the 38/44 and the 30/30! Great fun, the only sour note was 95° and high winds.
The back seems to be doing fine, I go back in November.
Good to hear from you!
Dick

 

[Jebus35745]

Good times spent with people that are dear to you. Don't get no better than that. Leaving memories in their heart is fun. Glad you had fun. Look, hopefully soon for my post on my K-.32 made from a K-.22. Hopefully Andy Horvath will have it done soon. Been 7 Mos. Larry

 

[Reddog]

Thank you, Larry!
It was good to have them home! We had dinner with them last night and then went for ice cream. They left Wichita this morning at 6 AM and arrived in Spokane at 12. Then, a 2 hour drive to Kennewick and they're home safe. Sad to see them go although they're coming home Christmas, too!
Dick