Frankinstein Guns - Making Them Live Again

[mnrivrat]

The Frankinstein gun, as I picture them, is a creative gunsmithing project that allows the gun to become a usefull tool.

Much like using an old shotgun to make a floor lamp as one example, I would like to see your example of a gun brought back from the dead and re-purposed either as a firearm or some other creative object.
My example is this early Smith & Wesson American/Russian that was significantly modified and brought back to life as a .38 Special .

I say American/Russian because the only difference between them on this Model has been distroyed by the modifications made. So I am unable to determine which it started out as, although I tend to believe it was an American as the barrel length of 5&1/2" was known to be produced in that version, but not in the Russian. However there is certainly a posibility they shortened the barrel on a Russian version as well.
The first obvious change you see is that the barrel rib has been ground off except for the part used as a front sight . (do you suppose it may shoot a little high ?)

The barrel and cylinder have been sleeved and the hammer modified by dovetailing a firing pin into the face. (it has lost part of the spur somwhere)

The extractor was modified to fit the .38 Special and also to make it a manual extraction.

A replacement hindge pin leaves a lot to be desired, (I am going to replace this) and the trigger has been replaced with a home made one. That might be the reason for the deformed trigger guard ?

What should this end up as ? A wall hanger ? , a shootable .38 special ?, a small boat ancor ? .

Well, with some moderate work ahead I think I am going to shoot for a cowboy re-enactor gun to shoot blanks. Perhaps at that point I may consider shooting status with light loads, or black powder loads. I have no plans to make it shiney.

 

[WestKentucky]

Pics tomorrow but I have a brass framed Remington revolver that was truly trashed when it was given to me that now serves as the license plate holder on one of my streetbikes.

On your gun, I suggest it be decorative rather than "Functional" I personally would use it as a shifter in my pickup truck.

 

[Jim Watson]

The top latch does not look like any S&W I have ever seen.
There were a lot of foreign copies.

 

[caribou]

Maybe put it in a Shadow box on the wall.

 

[drcook]

Certain firearm designs make building "Frankenstein" pieces easy. The Ithaca 37 design is one of these. Once a person understands the differences in the years, the gauges and the barrel attachment threads, it is easy to build up / rescue old ones. Are they as cost effective as a simply buying a gun, NOPE, but the satisfaction for me is beyond cost.

The bottom Ithaca 37 started out as separate pieces spread around the country.

the receiver came from Numrich Arms

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=430807930

the barrel was in a gunshop in Iowa, the internals from California, the forend from a 1940's gun, the buttstock from a 1951 gun that had an ugly pad on it and had been cut down. I refinished it, color and a few small dings, to match the finish of the forend (which was excellent considering it is over 70 yrs old)
I recut the checkering and fitted the buttplate.

The screws and magazine tube came from the factory here in Ohio

I built this one of a kind for my wife. The buttstock is short so the gun has a 13" LOP and the 24" choke tubed barrel is just the right length for my 5'3" wife

The second gun started out the same way. A receiver from Numrich, barrel from a gunshop in the middle of Ohio. Broken buttstock from Michigan that I repaired and recontoured. Pieces parts from eBay and screws from the factory.

The 3rd picture is how another Ithaca 37 16ga showed up. it came from a gun store on the east coast. As far as I am concerned, east coast gun stores tell whoppers. That was a "little rust".

I found a business that lazer welds up firearms and the last picture(s) is how that gun came back to life

The last picture is the stock on the 2nd 37 above. It shows the crack and where I ultimately would add wood and remove wood to turn it back into a 1950's profile stock.







http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL2063/10245039/18392501/405683822.j
pg

 

[bannockburn]

drcook

Nice rescue job on the Ithaca Model 37! I will always have fond memories of an Ithaca 20 gauge and the first time I went hunting with it.

 

[Hypnogator]

I'm in the middle of a "Frankengun" project on an old rescue It-haca 37 that I found on Gunbroker with some rust and a dented barrel near the muzzle. I chopped the barrel to 18 1/4", and pretty much got stalled out at that point. I intend to attach the rear of the receiver of a Czech PPS submachine gun with the fold-over stock, cerakoting the whole project, then attaching an AR-15 pistol grip. Should give me a truck/home defense gun with short overall length, usable with the stock folded (thanks to the bottom-ejection).

 

[mnrivrat]

The top latch does not look like any S&W I have ever seen

.

Here is a photo of the other side - perhaps that will look more familiar. I thought it was a copy when I first bought it but careful inspection points toward a real S&W as does the serial number. It could be a copy ? The truth is it makes little difference as it has no value as a S&W anyway.

 

[Leth]

I have a Winchester 1892 in .32-20 that had the barrel replaced by a previous owner with that of a Martini Henry .310 Cadet. Still shoots like a dream after all these years.

 

[ivankerley]

really like those grips on the breaktop
as has been said the top latch looks different from picts i could find online, but im not an expert
gene