Recreating Pre War N PC Magnas

[quinn]

A while back while studying photos of an FBI agent carried Registered Magnum I learned that some agents carrying these guns had the grips modified into a 1930s version of 'plain clothes' (PC) grips. In those days agents were required to wear suits and the checkered grips could quickly damage the suit jacket liner.

I had been watching for a set of damaged pre war magnas with the idea of recreating a set of these grips for an FBI agent carried RM. My son spotted a set of perfect candidate grips at the SWCA symposium and summoned me.

Lee Jarrett (Handejector) generously dug out one of his collection wearing this type of grip and photographed them from all angles. The photos and donor grips were sent off to Curtis Harlow (44Magget).

Today, the restored, modified grips came back to me and got installed on SSA Fred McGeary's RM. This gun came to me with non numbers matching stocks, so I felt no remorse in installing the new wood.

 

[StrawHat]

Good idea, thought and execution!

Kevin

 

[cgt4570]

I have a set or two of Culina N magna pre-war blanks for whenever I have time to checker them. We did some horse trading several years back. That looks like a great use for a set without sacrificing any of my originals.

 

[RKmesa]

Wow!!! Randy, you should share the before photo. What a great job by Kurt in transforming those grips. Love the way they look on that RM...

 

[quinn]

Wow!!! Randy, you should share the before photo. What a great job by Kurt in transforming those grips. Love the way they look on that RM...

Thanks, Richard, they were really worn and a piece broken off one of the horns. He did an amazing job.

BTW, Lee (Handejector) added the photos of his grips like this that served as a model for this project to his Album on Grips here on the forum.

http://smith-wessonforum.com/members/handejector-albums-grips.html

 

[Toyman]

I had a 3 1/2 RM that shipped to an F.B.I. agent. The original grips were gone so I had Keith Brown make set. There was a photo of F.B.I. agent Jerry Campbell and his right grip was configured like the one shown above.

 

[SAFireman]

Curt did an outstanding job bring those back to life, then he got spot-on with a faithful recreation of documented FBI mods.

Great job to all involved. And a big Kudos to Lee for helping with the historical photos.

 

[quinn]

I had a 3 1/2 RM that shipped to an F.B.I. agent. The original grips were gone so I had Keith Brown make set. There was a photo of F.B.I. agent Jerry Campbell and his right grip was configured like the one shown above.

This whole project started with the posted photos of Jerry Cambell's gun which has this mod on BOTH sides but the photos were not detailed enough for Curt to really follow. That's when Lee came to the rescue with the photos of his gun.

What ever happened to your FBI gun?