HomeSmith Trainwreck: The Highwayman

[Shotguncoach]

Posting this even though I'm waiting for tools to arrive just so that the wailing and gnashing of teeth about what happened to this poor thing can commence....

Project Name: The Highwayman

Here we have a really nice package: a 6" model 28-2 Highway Patrolman in the correct numbered blue box with the papers and an unopened tool kit. There's just a touch of plum coloring but overall it looks pretty awesome.

 

[Shotguncoach]

Hmmm.....hang on just a second. Something doesn't look quite right. Let's zoom in on that barrel marking, shall we?

 

[Shotguncoach]

Well that's different.

What do we find when we open the cylinder? That's odd...those holes look bigger than they should be. And are those chatter marks? And did the locator pin for the ejector star get scalloped?

Are those holes even the right size and depth?

Let's try dropping some shells into the cylinder and see what we get.........

 

[Shotguncoach]

Ok - so we have exactly 1 chamber that appears to be the proper diameter and might even be the right depth. The other 5 chambers are in varying degrees of almost not even close.

Ick.

But wait, it gets worse: a range rod will enter the cylinder but hangs up after it gets through the throat, so we appear to also have a bore-axis to chamber-axis alignment problem. Joy.

The good news is that I'm pretty sure that I can't make this one worse unless I dynamite the frame into pieces.

As part of my recent Reamer Madness episode, the nice folks at Manson provided me with a .44 special cylinder finishing reamer. Being very careful to not turn the reamer at all, I gently placed the reamer in a couple of chambers...and it stopped way short. Well that's fun. Are the chambers not fully reamed or are the throats too small for the reamer pilot? Time to break out the gauges and find out.

More joy: .430" throats and a .431" pilot.

Ok. So I can't proceed with the reamer until I get a new pilot. Is there a way that I can check to see if the reamer will fix the chamber recess issue? Yep - take the pilot off and see if the reamer drops into the recesses or if it stands on top. I forgot to get a picture, but the reamer DID stand on top of the recess. It looks like it will take maybe a thousandth or so off of the recess walls, which should at least fix that.

 

[StrawHat]

I am looking for an N frame like that. I have a 45 ACP cylinder and barrel that need new home.

Kevin

 

[Shotguncoach]

So now what? I haven't forgotten about the possible bore axis alignment issue. If anything, that has the biggest possibility of completely changing the direction of this project.

For now, a "variety pack" of reamer pilots is on the way from the good folks at Manson. Once those arrive I'm going to recut the chambers and get them the right size. It's quite possible that the entire exercise of recutting the chambers is only going to be for learning and practice. Keep the overall goal of the TrainWreck series in focus here: I'm learning skills by doing. If all I get out of this is experience then I'm still ahead.

We'll recheck with the range rod after the cylinder is done. I do have a couple of back up plans available if it still fails the range rod check.

Backup plan 1: in my stash of parts I have an unused NOS 624 cylinder. IF (big if there) the barrel was rebored on-axis and the alignment problem is in the cylinder, I might be able to recover by fitting the 624 cylinder. Maybe.

Backup plan 2: also in my stash of parts I have a complete parts kit for a 28-2 with a 4" barrel. Looking at the sum of real and potential issues related to completing the .44 special conversion on this thing, putting it back into service as a .357 probably should be the primary plan. We shall see.

Backup plan 2b: Correct me if I'm wrong here but I believe that the 28-2 was made after S&W stopped numbering barrels and cylinders. (None of mine have serial numbered barrels or cylinders) I could potentially acquire a 6" Highway Patrolman barrel and use that with the cylinder from the parts kit and actually return this one to the original configuration.

I'm looking forward to the discussion on this one.......

 

[Green Frog]

Best case scenario: you clean up chambers and all is well. Second best case scenario, not all is well but the bore alignment is good, so you take the cylinder from your parts kit and ream it to 44 Spl properly and have the most popular conversion for Highway Patrolmen. Worst case scenario: it’s been worked on by Bubba and both the barrel and cylinder are FUBAR in which case you use the barrel and cylinder from your kit.
Finding a 6” Highway Patrolman barrel, especially at a reasonable price, will be challenging, so unless you are dead set on returning it to its original configuration, I wouldn’t even put it on the list. But then again, you do this all the time, so I’m not telling you anything new, but you do you!
Froggie

 

[jmiles1960]

And last but not least (scenario), find an original barrel and cylinder - restore the gun back to factory caliber and configuration. I see the barrels now and then on the 'bay. If you ask around (WTB), wait patiently, you'll probably find factory parts. Cool project regardless. Good luck!

 

[2152hq]

Stick the Range Rod down the bore a ways and hold the gun out in front of you. Take a careful look all around and see if the Rod appears to point straight out of the bbl muzzle,,or does it point out into Left Field somewhere.

The Range Rod jamming into the chamber wall once passed the chamber throat seems to indicate a very mis-allaignment in bore to chamber.
The Rod should only be around .415d to ride the bbl bore dia.
The chamber throats are .430(+),,so it should pass easily if any sort of allaignment is there.
But to have the Rod then jam against the chamber wall once easily passing through the short Throats means a very misallaigned bore to chamber entry.
The chamber dia should be around .458d.
That .415 dia Range Rod shouldn't be anywhere near touching the chamber wall or jamming against it.

 

[Shotguncoach]

Here is how the range rod sits at the jam point:

And here is how far it enters the chamber:

I’m pretty sure that reaming the chambers is an academic exercise at this point….

 

[Model29-26.5]

Posting this even though I'm waiting for tools to arrive just so that the wailing and gnashing of teeth about what happened to this poor thing can commence....

Project Name: The Highwayman

Here we have a really nice package: a 6" model 28-2 Highway Patrolman in the correct numbered blue box with the papers and an unopened tool kit. There's just a touch of plum coloring but overall it looks pretty awesome.

I saw a 28–2 on GunBroker about a month or so back that someone was selling that said someone had re-bought the cylinders to try and make them 44 magnum.
Is this that one?

 

[Model29-26.5]

Posting this even though I'm waiting for tools to arrive just so that the wailing and gnashing of teeth about what happened to this poor thing can commence....

Project Name: The Highwayman

Here we have a really nice package: a 6" model 28-2 Highway Patrolman in the correct numbered blue box with the papers and an unopened tool kit. There's just a touch of plum coloring but overall it looks pretty awesome.

I saw a 28–2 on GunBroker about a month or so back that someone was selling that said someone had re-bought the cylinders to try and make them 44 magnum.
Is this that one?

 

[Shotguncoach]

I was watching that one also but I didn’t buy it because I already had this one to tinker with. Different gun.

 

[A10]

Nice frame and box anyway........

 

[drgbike]

Ok, so let me know what way you want to go as I have some barrels 28 both 4 and 6, 44 mag barrels 6 and 8 3/8, 45 acp and colt,38 special 6 inch n frame blue and unfinished. also 45 acp cylinders, 44 mag cylinders. also a 44 cal. stainless ported barrel with a screw on top rib and bottom rib with lock plunger. not all are perfect finish, but threads and bore fine. I will donate a 4 or 6 ,28 barrel finish challenged. no rust.

 

[Shotguncoach]

Ok, so let me know what way you want to go as I have some barrels 28 both 4 and 6, 44 mag barrels 6 and 8 3/8, 45 acp and colt,38 special 6 inch n frame blue and unfinished. also 45 acp cylinders, 44 mag cylinders. also a 44 cal. stainless ported barrel with a screw on top rib and bottom rib with lock plunger. not all are perfect finish, but threads and bore fine. I will donate a 4 or 6 ,28 barrel finish challenged. no rust.

And this is why I love this place. I appreciate the offer but I think I've got it covered. My gut tells me that I'll end up with a 4" .357 Model 28. There is a 4" 629 parts kit in the box also though. A two-tone 4" .44 mag wouldn't break my heart.

 

[Doug M.]

If you have to mess with the barrel anyway, consider making it 5". In any caliber, that makes a nice package on an N frame.

 

[Shotguncoach]

I did some swapping and measuring yesterday evening and figured out where this project needs to go.

Here's what the range rod told me:

Modified barrel with modified cylinder - range rod impacts top of chamber after partial entry

Modified barrel with 624 cylinder - range rod impacts bottom of chamber - no entry

Modified barrel with 1950 Target cylinder - range rod impacts bottom of chamber - no entry

1950 Target (known good barrel and frame) with modified cylinder - range rod impacts top of chamber - no entry

1950 Target with 624 cylinder - range rod slides easily to the recoil shield

1950 Target with original cylinder - range rod slides easily to the recoil shield

End result: the modified barrel and cylinder are both going into the scrap pile and the frame will be brought back into service as a 4" Model 28-2. Not quite what I thought it would be but it'll still be fun.

 

[Shotguncoach]

After the work with the range rod my path seemed to be pretty clear: The Highwayman needed major surgery in order to ride again.

Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology.

The first step was to move all the insides to the outside and remove the rear sight. This may not have been technically necessary. Once all the pieces were out, the yoke and sideplate were reinstalled to provide as much support to the frame as possible.

The hammer and sideplate talked to me a bit as they came out and had a few things to say about how things were inside. Their concerns were noted and will be addressed later in the project.

I also noticed a couple of gifts from the person who hacked on this poor thing. It appears that the frame was clamped into a vise HARD and matching dings were left in the frame behind and below the trigger guard. Luckily these are covered when the stocks are in place. The one that really torques me is the divot in the frame next to the barrel pin. It looks like the last guy either didn't use a cup tip punch or didn't control the strike direction properly...or possibly both. If you zoom in on the 3rd picture it's very obvious. That one offends me enough that I may refinish the entire gun just so that I can fix it. Mainly I don't want people to look at it and think I did it.

 

[Shotguncoach]

The next step was to tap (not pound) out the barrel retaining pin with the correct punch. The pin was perfectly straight and came out with just a few light taps.

I tried a test fit with the jaws from the frame wrench and discovered that they were intended to work with the yoke OUT of the frame. If I had looked at them closely before I started it would have been obvious, but who has time for that? It's much faster to do things twice.

Once the yoke was out of the way I also confirmed that I didn't need to remove the rear sight, but oh well. I need the practice.