Old Cop HD Gets A New Home

[DWalt]

About a month ago, I made a posting about a HD I was looking at. Yesterday I bought it. It's a 4", and the SN dates it to early 1954. The seller represented it as formerly belonging to a Texas cop (I know no more than that). All SNs (including the Magna service grips) match. Bluing is fairly thin, has some holster wear, the finish has lost its shine, but it's not been abused. It must have been a southpaw cop, as the wear on the left grip panel is considerably greater than on the right. The finish was nearly gone on them, so I removed it all with MEK and applied some thinned Tru-Oil. The wood is very dark, and I cannot tell if that's because the wood itself is dark, or if many years of oil have soaked into them. I completely disassembled everything and gave all components a bath in mineral spirits before re-assembly and oiling. Everything inside looked good, and timing and lockup are perfect. The only fly in the ointment is that it has been re-chambered to .357 Magnum. However, as it's a shooter grade HD anyway, that's not a deal-stopper. I paid $495 OTD.

I had a nickeled HD once before, but sold it over 20 years ago. This is only the second N-frame I now own, the other being a nickeled Model 29-3. I have no intention of shooting anything other than lighter .38 Special handloads in it. Notice the third picture. It fits fine in a WWI-era Audley police holster I have. The Audley has an ingenious design using a spring-loaded retainer through the trigger guard to secure the revolver in the holster, but is fairly easily released by the user. It's not a Registered Magnum, but it's very likely to be as close as I ever will get to having one.

 

[beagleye]

Nice working gun! As for the hand loads, the HDs are super tough guns, 38/44 loads (158 grain at 1150 fps) are thoroughly developed and work at pressure levels well below what that gun could stand. And light loads might shoot pretty high.

 

[rjb1]

Very nice firearm! (and holster, too)
Could you post a picture showing the whole holster (front and back)? I would like to have one of that era made up and I need a picture to show the leather man.
Thanks!

 

[DWalt]

Front and back of the Audley holster. I am not sure if the three rivets on the bottom are original or not. The holster is made for a large revolver (Colt New Service or S&W N-frame) probably with a barrel length of no more than 5". For sure a M1917 with a 5-1/2" barrel is slightly too long to fit:

 

[JSR III]

WOW, I thought that you picked up a nice old police motorcycle until I remembered where I was.

 

[bengal fan]

Looking at the ejector rod & the line around the cylinder it doesn't seem to have been shot much. The holster is just simply cool! Congrats on a nice find!

 

[DWalt]

The picture doesn't show it very well, but there is a faint turn line, also some muzzle wear that the picture doesn't show. The front face of the cylinder is surprisingly clean. The internal parts are immaculate. I assume it is the typical cop revolver. Carried a lot, shot only a little. The rechambering to .357 is a little odd. There are no shoulders at the forward ends of the chambers, but they are not bored straight through. The chamber mouths measure 0.357-.358" while the chamber bodies are 0.380-.381" Chamber appears to taper. I posted a question about how that might have been done on the S&W-Smithing area, and haven't received any enlightenment yet.

 

[JSW]

Nice HD and interesting holster!

 

[DWalt]

I've had the Audley holster for awhile, but never bothered to do any background research about it. Last night I applied some black shoe polish and filled in the scratch on the back side with black leather dye, and it looks almost like new now. I also found this about the Audley holsters: Audley Safety Holster Company History and Maker Marks - www.vintagegunleather.com California I did not know the Jay-Pee holster line was the successor to Audley.

 

[Kansasgunner]

If only those old guns could talk. I like them with that honest wear on them.