)First, summer time is here which means the shooting season has started, along with tons of yard work, which I hope, will explain my lack of BS'en on this board. Now, on to business:
Picture this--The year is 1927 and Jacob finds his grandpappy's like new Smith & Wesson New Model #3 in 44 Russian. But the gun has a problem---Jacob's grandpappy, Ishmael, put the Smith he special ordered in 1898 with a very rare 5" barrel in in an old holster and never took it out. Jacob finds the gun, see's the pits and has it refinished with the old style pre-war blue, leaving the markings crisp and clear, leaving the fire blue on the trigger, all of the color case hardening on the hammer, and only doing the outside of the gun, leaving the unseen blue (recoil face, etc.) in it's original factory condition.
The original refinisher in 1927 did not have the skills to eliminate the pits, but they are not real bad. Then.............Jacob puts it away and leaves it unfired until the year 2008 (110 years after it's built) and some scroundrel named Sixgun scarfs it up and proceeds to pound lead down its barrel. Of course, ole' Sixgun ain't no dummy. First, he takes it apart and see's that everything is still like new, including the bore. The hand, ratchet, cylinder notches, hammer notches, and the sear all look like they just left the factory. The cylinder locks up with zero play. The hard rubber grips have sharp checkering and are numbered to the gun and they have the perfect turn-of-the-century fit. He takes some measurements and finds the cylinder mouths are .433 with a barrel groove diameter of .429. Ole Sixgun is really thinkin' now. (BTW, "thinking" is not an easy task for ole' Sixgun---he only has 14 brain cells left---has something to do with growing up in the Sixties
)Sixgun (who has adult A.D.D. ) just can't take the pressure anymore and runs down to his gunroom and finds the only 44 Russian ammo, he has are loaded with 6 grains of Unique with 250 gr. Keith SWC's---a little too potent for an 1898 gun, but fine for the SA Colt he shoots. Brain cells are up to 15.
Ole' Sixgun loads up different bullet weights with Unique and Bullseye, but staying with .430 diameter bullets. He chronographs and tests for accuracy 4 gr., 4.5 gr., and 5 gr. of Unique with 250 and 200 grain bullets. OK, not bad--the 5 grain load with the 200 grain bullets along with the 4.5 gr. load with 250 gr. RN bullets perform equally well but the 200 gr. bullets hit closer to POA. He tries Bullseye with the 200 grain bullets and hits paydirt. 2" groups at 25 yards with a speed of 725. The bullets still hit a little high (about 6") but thats the way they made guns back then---you were supposed to aim at the belt buckle of a man and hit somewhere from his guts to his juglar vein.
Anyway, like I told Kirk, I had to buy this gun as it was in a bunch of Winchesters & Colts I wanted, so more than likely, its gonna go. (after I play with it for a month or so) Kirk gets first dibs.-------------------------------
Stay cool brothers ------------Sixgun
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That is quite a treasure there. Neat to see that and thanks for sharing!
I think he has a antique gun machine in his basement. 