Combat custom revolvers
- Thread starter Joe Kent
- Start date
Bronco45-
Those stocks on my Agent are Eagle Secret Service in rosewood.
I did open up some relief for the Safariland speedloaders I prefer.
Eagle can do that for you if you ask, I think.
I have Hogue rosewoods on my simliar Detective Special, and I can't say I prefer one over the other. They look different but work about the same.
Those stocks on my Agent are Eagle Secret Service in rosewood.
I did open up some relief for the Safariland speedloaders I prefer.
Eagle can do that for you if you ask, I think.
I have Hogue rosewoods on my simliar Detective Special, and I can't say I prefer one over the other. They look different but work about the same.
I cajoled a friend of ours into sending me a picture of his Colt New Service, a .455 rechambered to .45 Colt. Bought it in patina condition in 1975 and then in about 1978 had S&W sights and ramp front added by Richard Heinie, who was then the local guy who would do about anything.
Stocks in the Farrant-Hurst-Stark-Blackford style are by another local guy.
Additional info from the owner: The serial number is in the 83100's and according to Sutherland, it was manufactured in 1915.
Stocks in the Farrant-Hurst-Stark-Blackford style are by another local guy.
Additional info from the owner: The serial number is in the 83100's and according to Sutherland, it was manufactured in 1915.
tipoc
Member
Nice gun, nice stocks SSG.
tipoc
tipoc
Nanook 450
Member
You might have it refinished and re-blued, but that would decrease the value - why you want to convert it to a round butt is unclear, and the 4 inch barrel is very desirable. I'd leave it alone.
C.S.63
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Nanook 450
The value of the firearm is sort of irrelevent
because I will not sell or trade it on a wim.
after re reading my longer response which i did not post You are right I will just shoot it and
keep it clean.
Thanks
Carl
I will find a 13 or 65 rb 3" in time.
The value of the firearm is sort of irrelevent
because I will not sell or trade it on a wim.
after re reading my longer response which i did not post You are right I will just shoot it and
keep it clean.
Thanks
Carl
I will find a 13 or 65 rb 3" in time.
Two additional articles about George Mathews by Wiley Clapp have been brought to our attention.
Txshooter found one featuring a 2 inch M&P in the 2000 edition of Custom Combat Handguns.
John Taffin pointed out a chapter in the Digest book Handguns '89.
That one has much information about the why and the how of the guns that were intended as plain clothes and off-duty guns for LA cops in the post-WWII era when new handguns were not available.
So, Wiley Clapp has filled in the blanks about Mathews and his guns. The question of where they've all gone remains.
I'd still like to know - who was Walter Rickell?
Txshooter found one featuring a 2 inch M&P in the 2000 edition of Custom Combat Handguns.
John Taffin pointed out a chapter in the Digest book Handguns '89.
That one has much information about the why and the how of the guns that were intended as plain clothes and off-duty guns for LA cops in the post-WWII era when new handguns were not available.
So, Wiley Clapp has filled in the blanks about Mathews and his guns. The question of where they've all gone remains.
I'd still like to know - who was Walter Rickell?
Hoot
US Veteran
It's urban combat maybe?
S&W 1917 cut to 3 1/2" and nickeled. Shoots great with the right load!
S&W 1917 cut to 3 1/2" and nickeled. Shoots great with the right load!
Texas Star
US Veteran
J.H. Fitzgerald at the Colt plant came up with these modifications that were supposed to make the gun faster to get into action.
Col. Askins and other gun writers pictured such guns, and "Fitz" showed them at the National Matches and elsewhere.
Frankly, I think it was all glitz and wanting to make the gun look lean and mean.
Bill Jordan had huge fingers- I knew him and saw them- but even he only slightly thinned the trigger guard to allow smooth entry of his big fingers. He thought that cutting the whole trigger guard was dangerous.
I have normal fingers and have NEVER had any problems with the trigger guard impeding a fast draw and shoot procedure.
Personally, I wouldn't buy a gun so altered, or with the hammer spur cut off. But some like the looks and the drama, I guess.
T-Star
29aholic
Member
My own custom ongoing Skeeter project, and my very first new gun and first 29
I may finish it some day
I may finish it some day
Texas Star
US Veteran
Originally posted by LadyFed:
This one is my favorite; a Victory model cut down to 3 inches, round butt modification, and then carried as a backup by FBI Special Agent George Gillum from the late 1940's until his retirement in 1970. He served most of his career in Las Vegas on a Mafia TF. Looks like this revolver got some good use. It still shoots tight groups at 10 feet/gunfight range. Wish I could carry it in today's Bureau.
Eliza
Lady Fed-
That looks VERY like the custom S&W that was on the hardback cover of the James Bond novel, "From Russia, With Love". (Published about 1955-56.)
That one belonged to Ian Fleming's friend and gun advisor, Geoffrey Boothroyd, a Scots TV writer and firearms authority. He wrote some excellent gun books.
His had the trigger guard cut out, and I think it lacked the lanyard loop.
It was originally a .38/200 that he modified because then, the early 1950's, it was hard to get new S&W guns in the UK.
His gun was painted for the book cover by an artist named Dick Chopping, who rendered it in remarkable detail.
Have you ever seen that cover?
Bond never carried such a gun. The only S&W that he wore was a Centennial in, "Dr. No." He lost it on No's island, and evidently never wore one again, preferring the Walther PPK in .32. (However, Fleming owned a Centennial, bought on a visit to New York.)
I guess the custom revolver on the book cover was just intended to grab the shopper's eye and look dramatic.
I think the modified .38 was also included in Boothroyd's superb, "The Handgun", the best basic book on the subject that I've ever found. If any of you has a copy, I could probably find the energy to look up the page that it's on.
Can anyone here find that book cover and post a photo? The gun would certainly fit the subject matter of this topic!
T-Star
tipoc
Member
TexasStar,
If I remember right the gun you are speaking of was owned by Boothroyd. I agree with you on his books, excellent.
tipoc
If I remember right the gun you are speaking of was owned by Boothroyd. I agree with you on his books, excellent.
tipoc
Texas Star, While I would not cut a new frame today, I have a 1920's era 38 snub that is so modified. It is faster, but I am not very fast. I have had this very discussion with Holster Guru Bob Arganbright who is literally Chain Lightning fast out of the holster and is and has been a very,very serious fast draw competitor. He has a GM so modified and he states without reservation that it is faster. I am sure it makes no difference for we slightly better than average shooters but perhaps it does for people well above the average. Bill Oglesby, one of the fastest shooters that I have ever spent time with up close and personal on a live fire range hits the trigger only one time and fires the remaining 4 rds. by "fanning" the hammer on his sa ruger with the fingers of his left hand. Five 45 colt rds. in a playing card at approx. 10 yrds and all we heard was one boom. I would not have believed it had I not watched him load 5 live rds. and then eject 5 empties.
Amazon has a pic of the James Bond cover. Is that an adjustable rear sight?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer...7199/ref=ed_oe_h_olp
I recall JB, in a short story I think, described as carrying a .45 Colt revolver -- a New Service maybe!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer...7199/ref=ed_oe_h_olp
I recall JB, in a short story I think, described as carrying a .45 Colt revolver -- a New Service maybe!
Paul Weston, the NYPD cop who retired to be a police science professor in California, endorsed the cut away trigger guard [and bobbed hammers] in his 1960 book, Combat Shooting for Police, and continuing into '60s magazine articles. These are from Gun Digest.
Holsters and grips on the Cobra are Gaylord.
Holsters and grips on the Cobra are Gaylord.
Glock 'em down
Member
Originally posted by tipoc:
Another Magnaport Predator. Not old school though.
tipoc
I'm lovin' that Ted Blocker shoulder rig!
