calmex
Member
Forum readers familiar with the link about the Penultimate .357 being in Mexico already know about the Phil Roettinger revolver. Those who don't should perhaps take an easy five (well, maybe forty-five) minutes and read up on it here:
http://smith-wessonforum.com/s-w-ha...47-penultimate-pre-postwar-magnum-mexico.html
The revolver is well enough known in our local group of Mexican NRA Action Pistol/IPSC revolver shooters although it doesn't get out much. But just about everyone has a Model 20 or Model 23 or a "homebuilt" Model 23 using a 27 or 28 -- or in one case a 24 -- as a base gun for the build. The Elmer Keith load rules here.
Recently, a friend called me up and told me he had just made a great deal on a older .357 Model 27 that he was going to use as a build-gun to make a homemade Model 23. "I only paid 9,000.00 pesos for it, man" he said. My friend is Mexican, but had lived for 18 years in Toronto, Canada and often uses Canadianisms when talking to me. 9,000.00 pesos is like 700.00 dollars. Casually, I asked him to send me some photos before doing anything else. What photos came through had me running to the phone to call him.
"Don't TOUCH that gun!" I told him. Although at first saddened to learn that he really should leave the gun as-is, and that he was going to have to find another N-frame to use as his build-gun, he soon warmed up to being the owner of a rather rare beast. My friend had bought Reg. Mag. 2466, Serial number 52566. Well, he for-sure can't register it here, and will have to keep it as a safe-queen. But he has it. Pretty nice shape, no box, no papers, action fine, grips fine and 700.00 dollars.
From what the original owner told him, the revolver has been here in Mexico for many, many years. Of course, we can't prove that, and we have no way of knowing, but the seller was supposedly the son of the original owner who has lived here in Central Mexico most of his life, and died only last year. The seller simply did know what he had, any more than my friend knew what he bought.
Passing by my little town today with the revolver well hidden in the VW Beetle my friend bombs around Central Mexico in, my friend stopped in for a cool one and we photographed his new addition to the safe with Phil Roettinger's revolver.
I am not the photographer Doc44 is, obviously. I just laid the two revovlers onto a equipal chair on the back patio I have used for photographing many things I sometimes post here in the Forum. But the photos will do, I suppose because they are all there is of the meeting of these two old classics.
As I said, the new addition to the group is marked Reg. 2466. Phil's is unmarked being one of the last NRM made. Lee Jarrett told me once that he thought it could be the last but it was hard to say.
Phil's revolver has -- and was shipped with according to the letter Curtis (29aholic) kindly got for it -- a King reflector sight with red bead. The new find is plain black rear notch with a McGivern Gold Bead front. I did not measure the new find's barrel, but it appears to be a 4 incher. I know where it is, so it can be measured at will. I shot the butts showing the number 52566 number of the Reg. Mag., and the 62485 number of Phil's NRM.
The single-action pull on 52566 was very light. Phil's S/A pull is heavy. I personally think -- and I told this to Lee Jarrett when I saw him in Tulsa -- that Phil's was sort of thrown together. America was already at war, production of the model was shut down and I feel they just tacked Phil's together out of existing parts. On the other hand, the double-action pull of Phil's was about two pounds lighter than 52566. Now, we know Phil's was used, and used a lot before he died and I inherited it. As I told my friend, who commented that the finish on his was nicer than mine; "Yes, but mine has been used in combat. Rather heavy combat." Neither strain screw is backed off, and Phil's busts caps fine, even CCI. It just has a considerably lighter D/A pull.
52566 is marvelously pre-timed on each cylinder. I have a 627 that's pretty marvelous too, but 52566 is as nicely pre-timed as my K-38. Phil's is "not bad", never actually dropping the hammer without clicking in, but let's say she starts to drop on two different chambers as the last click comes through. But then, Phil's has been "through the war".
All in all, an interesting visit by a friend with an interesting new addition to his safe that cost him a lot less than it's worth. I will hopefully talk him into lettering it. The two looked so nice together! I wish I could photograph them with a better camera to do them justice, but everything is wing-and-a-prayer down here, so there it is.
http://smith-wessonforum.com/s-w-ha...47-penultimate-pre-postwar-magnum-mexico.html
The revolver is well enough known in our local group of Mexican NRA Action Pistol/IPSC revolver shooters although it doesn't get out much. But just about everyone has a Model 20 or Model 23 or a "homebuilt" Model 23 using a 27 or 28 -- or in one case a 24 -- as a base gun for the build. The Elmer Keith load rules here.
Recently, a friend called me up and told me he had just made a great deal on a older .357 Model 27 that he was going to use as a build-gun to make a homemade Model 23. "I only paid 9,000.00 pesos for it, man" he said. My friend is Mexican, but had lived for 18 years in Toronto, Canada and often uses Canadianisms when talking to me. 9,000.00 pesos is like 700.00 dollars. Casually, I asked him to send me some photos before doing anything else. What photos came through had me running to the phone to call him.
"Don't TOUCH that gun!" I told him. Although at first saddened to learn that he really should leave the gun as-is, and that he was going to have to find another N-frame to use as his build-gun, he soon warmed up to being the owner of a rather rare beast. My friend had bought Reg. Mag. 2466, Serial number 52566. Well, he for-sure can't register it here, and will have to keep it as a safe-queen. But he has it. Pretty nice shape, no box, no papers, action fine, grips fine and 700.00 dollars.
From what the original owner told him, the revolver has been here in Mexico for many, many years. Of course, we can't prove that, and we have no way of knowing, but the seller was supposedly the son of the original owner who has lived here in Central Mexico most of his life, and died only last year. The seller simply did know what he had, any more than my friend knew what he bought.
Passing by my little town today with the revolver well hidden in the VW Beetle my friend bombs around Central Mexico in, my friend stopped in for a cool one and we photographed his new addition to the safe with Phil Roettinger's revolver.
I am not the photographer Doc44 is, obviously. I just laid the two revovlers onto a equipal chair on the back patio I have used for photographing many things I sometimes post here in the Forum. But the photos will do, I suppose because they are all there is of the meeting of these two old classics.
As I said, the new addition to the group is marked Reg. 2466. Phil's is unmarked being one of the last NRM made. Lee Jarrett told me once that he thought it could be the last but it was hard to say.
Phil's revolver has -- and was shipped with according to the letter Curtis (29aholic) kindly got for it -- a King reflector sight with red bead. The new find is plain black rear notch with a McGivern Gold Bead front. I did not measure the new find's barrel, but it appears to be a 4 incher. I know where it is, so it can be measured at will. I shot the butts showing the number 52566 number of the Reg. Mag., and the 62485 number of Phil's NRM.
The single-action pull on 52566 was very light. Phil's S/A pull is heavy. I personally think -- and I told this to Lee Jarrett when I saw him in Tulsa -- that Phil's was sort of thrown together. America was already at war, production of the model was shut down and I feel they just tacked Phil's together out of existing parts. On the other hand, the double-action pull of Phil's was about two pounds lighter than 52566. Now, we know Phil's was used, and used a lot before he died and I inherited it. As I told my friend, who commented that the finish on his was nicer than mine; "Yes, but mine has been used in combat. Rather heavy combat." Neither strain screw is backed off, and Phil's busts caps fine, even CCI. It just has a considerably lighter D/A pull.
52566 is marvelously pre-timed on each cylinder. I have a 627 that's pretty marvelous too, but 52566 is as nicely pre-timed as my K-38. Phil's is "not bad", never actually dropping the hammer without clicking in, but let's say she starts to drop on two different chambers as the last click comes through. But then, Phil's has been "through the war".
All in all, an interesting visit by a friend with an interesting new addition to his safe that cost him a lot less than it's worth. I will hopefully talk him into lettering it. The two looked so nice together! I wish I could photograph them with a better camera to do them justice, but everything is wing-and-a-prayer down here, so there it is.
)
