Austin Behlert Conversion 32?

[Green Frog]

Ignatz, you observed a dedicated target shooter doing what competitive shooters seem to always want to do… keep fiddling and fitting to get that gun just right to wring out a couple more Xs. An old friend of mine told me stories of the lengths they would go to (he was on the ‘50s Navy Pistol Team) to get a little bit better performance.

Froggie

 

[Pizza Bob]

Interesting thread and one that gives me the opportunity to impart my favorite Austin Behlert story - can't vouch for the veracity, but it sounds like Austin...

Austin was set-up behind the line at Camp Perry one year, doing some gunsmithing. A distraught competitor ran up to his tent and explained that he was due on the line shortly and he had just noticed that his front sight was bent.

Austin took the gun from him, examined it and confirmed that the sight was, indeed, bent. “Can you fix it?” inquired the owner, hopefully. Austin told him to pick-up the gun, grip it as he normally would, extend it out to a firing position and turn his head. The owner complied, at which point Austin picked-up a brass mallet from the bench and whacked the front sight, nearly knocking the gun out of the owner’s hands.

The owner went ballistic, screaming, “What have you done?” to which Austin calmly replied, “Look down the sights,” which the owner did. “Is it straight?” inquired Austin. After looking at the sights the incredulous owner said, “Yes, yes they are”, to which Austin replied, “That’ll be $15.” The owner protests, “$15? That’s highway robbery. All you did was hit it with a hammer.” Austin looked at him and said, “It’s only $5 for hitting it with a hammer, but $10 for knowing how hard.”

I shot IPSC with Austin's son Frank in the mid-80's. Frank now runs a sports memorabilia store in Peddler's Village in Lahaska, PA. Les Baer and Walt Rauch were also a members of that IPSC club out of Target World in Chalfont, PA.

Adios,

Pizza Bob

 

[TOM BECKWITH]

S&W 41 to 32 Cal

I can not say for sure it was Mr. Behlert or a friend I talked with about the attempted conversion of a S&W 41 to handle a 32 cal cartridge, but I noted in the discussion I was interested in buying it for my collection. As I understand the situation, the efforts were not satisfactory and the project stopped, possibly due to health problems. I later contacted the widow of whomever and no additional information was unearthed, and the conversion parts were not obtained. I would guess they are still out there to be discovered.

I am also aware of a project to convert a Model 41 to .17 HMR. I have an unfinished 7 3/8" bbl that was drilled (small Dia.), but no insert or chamber cut made. As I remember, S&W provided 3 bbls for the trial Apparently, that project did not progress to any successful level either. I would guess that a more successful approach would have been try the 17 M2.

It is interesting to learn of the many efforts to build new/improved firearms and calibers, with only a few that made it to market. Thankfully, we are still free to try new and different ideas, but I worry if this freedom will last much longer.

 

[Green Frog]

I can not say for sure it was Mr. Behlert or a friend I talked with about the attempted conversion of a S&W 41 to handle a 32 cal cartridge, but I noted in the discussion I was interested in buying it for my collection. As I understand the situation, the efforts were not satisfactory and the project stopped, possibly due to health problems. I later contacted the widow of whomever and no additional information was unearthed, and the conversion parts were not obtained. I would guess they are still out there to be discovered.

I am also aware of a project to convert a Model 41 to .17 HMR. I have an unfinished 7 3/8" bbl that was drilled (small Dia.), but no insert or chamber cut made. As I remember, S&W provided 3 bbls for the trial Apparently, that project did not progress to any successful level either. I would guess that a more successful approach would have been try the 17 M2.

It is interesting to learn of the many efforts to build new/improved firearms and calibers, with only a few that made it to market. Thankfully, we are still free to try new and different ideas, but I worry if this freedom will last much longer.

Thanks for that. It may be a gap in my fading memory, but from my conversation with Behlert I got the impression he had a working prototype and was about ready to go into production. Of course he may have been “pre-selling” the idea or I just may misremember the whole thing. Somewhere along in the ‘50s the folks at High Standard experimented with a 32 ACP version of the ubiquitous HD Military. Author/collector Charles Petty had the prototype and showed it to me sometime in the ‘80s. Apparently the concept was attractive to more parties than one!
Thanks again for your input.
Froggie