A little while ago I posted pictures of my first snub nose in the snub nose thread. I picked this Colt Army Special .32-20 out of a glass topped box full of broken watches and cheap pocket knives at a farmers market/barter fair about 10 years ago.
At the time I found it, it had been chopped down to about 2 1/2" and had a crude front sight consisting of a tapped hole and a clipped off screw. It was really badly done or I would have kept it like that, I liked its character.
I shot it a few times, then put it away for a while because factory ammo is so darn expensive. I don't know why, but I took it as completely apart as I could and cleaned everything, then put all the parts in a bag and forgot about it for about five years. Finally got the gumption to get it together again, and spent an evening figuring out how it all went back in.
While I was at it I found a decent barrel online, I don't know if it left the factory as a 6" gun, but it sure didn't leave like I found it!
A month ago I found a gunsmith about 1/4 mile from my house...just up the road from me, to convenient to pass up when he said he was set up to work on revolvers. I dropped off the colt and the barrel,
and got it back in something like what it might have left the factory as...
Nice cylinder/barrel gap, set at 0.004", he had to machine the shoulder on the barrel back a tad but barely had to touch the forcing cone
He said it was kind of a pain to get the old barrel off....I'm glad it didn't need to go back on! If you look you can see the bore is now oblong because of how soft the steel was and how hard he had to clamp it to get it off, and the dent he left on the end of the old barrel
Overall, I'm pretty happy for $75 to rebarrel it and $30 for the barrel. I would have liked to have cut the new barrel off properly at 3" with the sight relocated, but the cost would have been much higher and the smith said that he would have rather return it to something factory proper so I deferred
However, and I guess I should mention this, I'm a little concerned about the integrity of the frame. I read somewhere while I was looking into having it rebarreled that the frame can be bent pretty easily if you don't have the proper jig. It just doesn't seem to lock up like it did. It was very smooth before, and latched and unlatched easily and smoothly. Now it seems to latch and unlatch a little stiffer, the cylinder has to be pushed in with a little force to latch and catches a little bit...oh well, we'll see if it smooths up with use.
Edit: thanks Jim, it looks good..everything lines up so I'm good to go...can't wait to go out and see how she shoots now...all I need is some brass and bullets, the search begins!
Anyways, thanks for looking!
At the time I found it, it had been chopped down to about 2 1/2" and had a crude front sight consisting of a tapped hole and a clipped off screw. It was really badly done or I would have kept it like that, I liked its character.
I shot it a few times, then put it away for a while because factory ammo is so darn expensive. I don't know why, but I took it as completely apart as I could and cleaned everything, then put all the parts in a bag and forgot about it for about five years. Finally got the gumption to get it together again, and spent an evening figuring out how it all went back in.
While I was at it I found a decent barrel online, I don't know if it left the factory as a 6" gun, but it sure didn't leave like I found it!
A month ago I found a gunsmith about 1/4 mile from my house...just up the road from me, to convenient to pass up when he said he was set up to work on revolvers. I dropped off the colt and the barrel,
and got it back in something like what it might have left the factory as...
Nice cylinder/barrel gap, set at 0.004", he had to machine the shoulder on the barrel back a tad but barely had to touch the forcing cone
He said it was kind of a pain to get the old barrel off....I'm glad it didn't need to go back on! If you look you can see the bore is now oblong because of how soft the steel was and how hard he had to clamp it to get it off, and the dent he left on the end of the old barrel
Overall, I'm pretty happy for $75 to rebarrel it and $30 for the barrel. I would have liked to have cut the new barrel off properly at 3" with the sight relocated, but the cost would have been much higher and the smith said that he would have rather return it to something factory proper so I deferred
However, and I guess I should mention this, I'm a little concerned about the integrity of the frame. I read somewhere while I was looking into having it rebarreled that the frame can be bent pretty easily if you don't have the proper jig. It just doesn't seem to lock up like it did. It was very smooth before, and latched and unlatched easily and smoothly. Now it seems to latch and unlatch a little stiffer, the cylinder has to be pushed in with a little force to latch and catches a little bit...oh well, we'll see if it smooths up with use.
Edit: thanks Jim, it looks good..everything lines up so I'm good to go...can't wait to go out and see how she shoots now...all I need is some brass and bullets, the search begins!
Anyways, thanks for looking!
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