Several months ago a guard company put up a lot of revolvers for sale at a local gun shop. I picked up this Model 10-6 for $135 plus tax. It was in great mechanical shape, but was filthy and missing a lot of bluing. It had also been spray painted with black paint - not even a "bake-on" finish.
About a month later I got lucky and won a Model 10-8 "parts kit" on gunbroker.com that had a three inch barrel. So - since it was a common revolver and not in "minty" condition, it was time to convert it.
Sorry for the photos not being the complete revolver. I had disassembled it to remove the black paint prior to deciding to make photos and was not in the mood to reassemble. Notice the lovely patina on the barrel.
First step was to remove the old barrel. This 10-6 is a pinned barrel frame. The donor barrel was from a 10-8 which is not a pinned barrel variation. Interestingly, it had been cut for a pin, once again proving S&W uses everything. The revolver had a pretty good pressure ring at the front of the frame. Once that was removed and the frame nose squared, the barrel from the 10-8 was easy to install.
Here it is with the three inch barrel and a set of round butt grips on the square butt frame. I used a scribe to outline using the grips as a guide.
Here's the butt still in the white after using a vertical belt sander, then hand files, and finally finer and finer grades of abrasives.
And here it is all done. I cold blued the front and rear grip straps. The grips are Precision Gun Specialties. They have a fine sandpaper finish, are easy to hold onto, and fit my hand well. It still isn't that pretty. The new barrel is a lot better looking than the old one, and I now have a three-inch Model 10 for less than $200.
About a month later I got lucky and won a Model 10-8 "parts kit" on gunbroker.com that had a three inch barrel. So - since it was a common revolver and not in "minty" condition, it was time to convert it.
Sorry for the photos not being the complete revolver. I had disassembled it to remove the black paint prior to deciding to make photos and was not in the mood to reassemble. Notice the lovely patina on the barrel.
First step was to remove the old barrel. This 10-6 is a pinned barrel frame. The donor barrel was from a 10-8 which is not a pinned barrel variation. Interestingly, it had been cut for a pin, once again proving S&W uses everything. The revolver had a pretty good pressure ring at the front of the frame. Once that was removed and the frame nose squared, the barrel from the 10-8 was easy to install.
Here it is with the three inch barrel and a set of round butt grips on the square butt frame. I used a scribe to outline using the grips as a guide.
Here's the butt still in the white after using a vertical belt sander, then hand files, and finally finer and finer grades of abrasives.
And here it is all done. I cold blued the front and rear grip straps. The grips are Precision Gun Specialties. They have a fine sandpaper finish, are easy to hold onto, and fit my hand well. It still isn't that pretty. The new barrel is a lot better looking than the old one, and I now have a three-inch Model 10 for less than $200.
