One Of Those Things ........

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JimT
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One Of Those Things ........

Post by JimT »

At the end of The Shootists Holiday there is always a huge raffle. This year was one of the largest that I have seen in 30-some years. Lots of guns (both rifles and handguns), ammo, gift certificates for custom work, holsters, gun belts, gift certificates for custom holsters, books .. and on and on and on. All of it donated by Shootists and by companies in the "Gun Industry."

Many thousands of tickets were sold. And as the tickets were drawn, whoever held the ticket got a pile of stuff! In the middle of drawing tickets and passing out the winning prizes my long-time friends Larry won one of the drawings. In the middle of the pile of stuff was a Smith & Wesson pistol barrel. When he claimed his prize, our own Paul Moreland stood up and said that he had donated the barrel to the raffle and that the barrel had been give to him years ago by my Dad, Allen Taylor. Paul explained that he never got around to building the project he had in mind and had decided to donate to The Shootists which my Dad had helped start.

After the raffle and dinner was over, Larry came up to me, handed me the barrel and said that he felt I should have it. I told him that he had won it and to keep it but he insisted so I took it, stuck it in my pocket and did not look at it. We packed up the next day and headed back to Texas. When I got home I took a look at the barrel, trying to figure out where Dad had gotten it. As I looked at it I suddenly recognized it.

Back in the 1980's I had bought my Dad a S&W Model 586 "L" frame .357 with a 6" barrel. Dad carried that gun the rest of his life and shot the stuff out of it. I mean, we have count of over 300,000 rounds through it! He was a Correctional Services Officer for Arizona and worked in Maximum Security. He shot in the prison matches and won a truckload of trophies. He shot that gun every day. One day he was running a string of rapid fire exercises, shooting at high speed, reloading and shooting, going through3 or 4 speedloads. In the middle of one string a bullet stopped in the middle of the barrel but it's hard ... nearly impossible .. to stop shooting when you are in the middle of something like that and he kept firing. The result was a big bulge in the middle of the barrel of his 586.

Being Dad, he cut the barrel off behind the "egg" ... moved the sight back ... and kept shooting. But he disliked the short barrel so he sent it to Hamilton Bowen and had a new 6" barrel installed. Bowen also tightened up the end-shake in the cylinder and tightened up the crane. And Dad was happy.

My nephew has collected many things of my Dad's. He and my Dad have the same birth day. And he is a shooter. So I called him up and told him the story and asked if he wanted the barrel for his collection? He said "Of course." so I mailed it to him. It will be in good hands and remembered.

(Over the years that L frame .357 had several new hammers installed, at least one new trigger, and was tightened up several times. It is still shooting.)

The barrel ..
barrel.jpg
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Blaine
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Re: One Of Those Things ........

Post by Blaine »

Great story. 8)
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Larkbill
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Re: One Of Those Things ........

Post by Larkbill »

Does that qualify it as a "Grandpa's Axe" revolver?
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JimT
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Re: One Of Those Things ........

Post by JimT »

Larkbill wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 2:34 pm Does that qualify it as a "Grandpa's Axe" revolver?
Pretty close. But the frame and cylinder have remained the same since production, so not quite. :D
Catshooter
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Re: One Of Those Things ........

Post by Catshooter »

Cool story Jim.

What did your dad like for a load/loads for his 686?


Cat
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JimT
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Re: One Of Those Things ........

Post by JimT »

Catshooter wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 10:51 pm Cool story Jim.

What did your dad like for a load/loads for his 686?

Cat
Probably 90% or 95% of what he shot was a 158 gr. cast round nose bullet over 3 gr. of Bullseye. The only times I remember him shooting magnums was hunting.
Bill in Oregon
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Re: One Of Those Things ........

Post by Bill in Oregon »

Glad that barrel came back to your family, Jim.
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AmBraCol
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Re: One Of Those Things ........

Post by AmBraCol »

Well, thanks for "the rest of the story". The details on the barrel had faded from my memory over the intervening years. Sure am glad it got back "into the family". Perhaps he needs to pick up on of those J&G Model 10s sans barrel. :D
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JimT
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Re: One Of Those Things ........

Post by JimT »

AmBraCol wrote: Wed Jun 23, 2021 8:52 am Well, thanks for "the rest of the story". The details on the barrel had faded from my memory over the intervening years. Sure am glad it got back "into the family". Perhaps he needs to pick up on of those J&G Model 10s sans barrel. :D
I thought about it ... briefly. But the "L" frame barrel isn't compatible to the "K" frame. And J&G has raised the price of those barrel-less guns to $200!
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Re: One Of Those Things ........

Post by Sixgun »

Neato Jim.......it is said that if all of the money in the world was taken from the rich and was evenly distributed, the rich would have it back in 10 years......common sense....the same with guns.....and gun parts....they come full circle....back to where they belong...

300,000 rds.....that's not the first time I've heard of such longevity from a Smith, Ruger or a Colt....----006
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JimT
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Re: One Of Those Things ........

Post by JimT »

Well, the old man fired a lot more than that through it. The 300,000 number was when he was keeping track of his competition and practice ammo. He shot it from the early 1980's until 2008 when the Alzheimer's got bad. During the years he shot competition he shot the gun every day. He shot double action only. At the first Shootists Holiday in 1986 we watched him taking down the 200 yard rams, shooting double action. He was not showing off. That was just how he shot the gun.
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