My M10-8 transformation

[Kframe]

Awhile back I bought a police surplus M10-8 from a seller in SGN for $100.
Heavy barrel, square butt, LOTS of holster wear but mechanically near-perfect.
At the time I was the bluing guy at Ahlman's Guns in MN, so for fun and the challenge of it I decided to do some major work to this old cop gun.

I got it in my head that I wanted a nice, handy, concealable gun for carry, so, an inch of the barrel had to go.

Then the real work began. It took me several hours to grind down the frame to match a factory round butt profile.

I also wanted to lighten the piece, and with inspiration from those slabsided Ruger Mark II's, I milled flats on the barrel and then polished to a HIGH gloss.

Once that was done I had to figure out the front sight, so, I cut a dovetail into the barrel and then made a sight from a chunk of scrap.
(THAT, was a pain.)

Then I de-snagged the hammer and brought it up to a high gloss as well; I left the SA sear, so one can start the hammer back with the trigger and then thumb it back to full cock, if so desired.

To tie together the glossy slabsided barrel with the hammer and polished trigger I put a glossy stripe around the cylinder, I think I saw that done on another custom gun at some point.

After all the cutting and grinding I masked-off the areas I wanted shiny (the slabside, the cylinder stripe) sandblasted the whole thing and ran it through the bluing process.

It no longer looks as perfect as the day I assembled it, as I've carried it a LOT, but I still think it looks nice and I'm proud of my effort every time I hold or shoot it.

What do you think?

 

[jack the toad]

I like it.
Chopped barrels, dehorned hammers, etc are not only cool but also functional IMO.

 

[Black_Sheep]

Nice work! I like the slab sided barrel and 2 tone treatment...

 

[Kaedan]

That looks great!

 

[Kframe]

Thanks guys! Feels good to know my creation is admired.

Truth be told, I was originally going to have the hammer and trigger a glossy blue, to match the barrel slabs and the cylinder stripe, however when I got them (hammer/trigger) out of the bluing baths it didn't look like they took the bluing very well, they looked, splotchy.

All I can guess is that the high gloss in addition to the harder (?) metal of the hammer and trigger just didn't like the salts. So, I just took those to the buffing wheel again and made them 'white'.
I've never noticed any corrosion on them, even though they are technically bare and unprotected now.

I never weighed the gun before nor after, but I imagine that it went on about a 2-3 ounce diet (chopping and slabbing barrel, rounding the butt, dehorning the hammer).
It sure is a handy and quick pointing little shooter, now!

 

[Hapworth]

It's gorgeous. How much do you charge?

 

[Smith61]

Way to live up to your user name there Kframe! Great job!

 

[Rick_A]

Well done.

Practical and attractive.

 

[Kframe]

It's gorgeous.

Thanks!

How much do you charge?

I know you're kidding around, but I have been asked this seriously in the past. My basic answer is "too much".
I don't know exactly how many hours I had into this, but I worked on it pretty hard for a week or so, in between my official duties at the shop.

Oh man, I forgot to mention in the original post about the shaping and crowning of the new muzzle, that had to be done, too.

My wild-a**ed guess about cost, if one was going to bring a M10 to a smith and get this all done, would be several hundred dollars, basically unjustifiable, even if the gun was initially free.

At Ahlman's, these days, a sandblasting and blue job on a handgun runs $185.
Cutting a barrel and recrowning is $95, not including making and mounting the new sight.
Converting SB to RB, $100.
Trigger job, yes I did that too, and I know how to do it right, $75.
Slabbing the barrel would be POR, and probably another $150-200 or so (guessing).

So that is already $605-655, not including the front sight work nor the chamber chamfering nor the hammer bobbing and hammer/trigger polishing nor the cylinder stripe (although that last bit would be cheap).

Custom work adds up quick, but doing it myself it was all just personal labor, I didn't pay for a thing. Plus, I did pester one of the real smiths about how to use the mill to slab the barrel and I'm glad he's a friend because I had a zillion questions and he took time out of several of his days helping me set up machines (but I did do all the work myself).

Was definitely a fun and challenging project.
The barrel slabbing probably took the most time as I had to make MANY shallow passes with the mill to get to the depth I wanted on both sides.

Man, I love working metal!

 

[Pef]

That is just downright impressive work! On par with or exceeding the work of some customization outfits.

Very nice.

 

[tennexplorer]

A superb job. The front sight is first quality.

 

[kthom]

THAT is my kind of revolver!! Excellent work, but even better were the ideas you had to create these modifications. Your execution of your ideas is great. Congratulations on a fine piece!

 

[g8rb8]

That's outstanding work. If I was walking by that at a shop or a show I would stop and take a long, admiring look.

 

[Rick_A]

The slabsided barrel is a creative way to avoid the "roll marks not centered" blues.

A 3" K frame in general is quite close to revolver perfection.

 

[GrayGhost99]

700 bucks for a custom model 10, probably not, but a 13 or a 65 maybe. And I own a 13 and 65 so I guess I could spread the cost out over the 10 years that I've owned them and say I don't have a cost in the gun. I'd pay it and provide the gun.

 

[Browncoat]

Very nice work. I like the milled barrel flats. That really makes it look different for sure

 

[OIF2]

I'm always amazed at the cool stuff you can do to an M10. A custom 3" is at the top of the list.
Bob

 

[ladder13]

That revolver came out awesome, nice work.

 

[2hawk]

Nice Job! I'd be proud to have/carry that piece, you should be doubly so, having done the work.

I have often wondered why people didn't slab the barrels when cutting them down. If you end up with the roll marks looking like they're sliding of the end of the muzzle, it just makes sense to get rid of them.

Excellent, excellent work!

 

[papajohn428]

Beautiful!

A man after my own heart! To me, there is NOTHING finer than a 3" K-frame. I'm a sucker for any gun with a three-inch tube, but K-frames have always been my favorites, and unlike you, I have no real gunsmithing skills, I'm just an amateur hobbyist with primitive tools and a passion for the Ultimate Carry Gun.

I've owned a bunch of 4" K-frames, came across a used M-64 cheap, and snagged it, but it had the most godawful ugly import stamp on the end of the barrel, it HAD to go. Rather than pay someone to cut and crown the barrel and mount a different front sight, I decided to simply buy a 3" barrel and have it installed. The gun was already DAO, a security trade-in, but since I only shoot DA, it wasn't an issue. Buying the barrel and having it installed ran me about $260, well worth it in my book. I did a trigger job on it, one of my better ones, and the result is very satisfying to its owner.



It makes a perfect mate for my well-used 65-2, which I had to do some work on because the front sight was all dinged up. Reshaping it slightly gave me a much better sight picture, and I only shoot warm 38's in it, so now I had a similar gun that I didn't worry about abusing.



I'm firmly convinced that the M-64 will stand up to a steady diet of 38+P loads, and that's all I shoot in it. I had a skinny-barreled M-10 Dash 5 several years ago I used as a Pin Gun, it saw about 70,000 rounds of hot 38 ammo in five years and never once complained. There wasn't much finish left on it, but it was beautiful in my eyes!

Your skills and ideas have served you well with that gun, and I bet you shoot it well. Thanks for showing us that little beauty!