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Post by 45MAN on Apr 25, 2019 17:24:50 GMT -5
JIMTX: NOT THAT YOU NEED TO JUSTIFY WHAT YOU WANT TO DO TO YOUR GUN, BUT SOUNDS LIKE YOU HAVE IT WELL THOUGHT OUT AND HAVE A GOOD CANDIDATE FOR THE CONVERSION.
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Post by matt56 on Apr 25, 2019 18:20:27 GMT -5
I’d like to think I know a little bit about S&W revolvers but what makes this 29-3 a Jovino gun? It looks like a regular 29-3 three inch, didn’t Lew Horton comission a run of these guns?
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Post by jimtx on Apr 25, 2019 18:44:27 GMT -5
I’d like to think I know a little bit about S&W revolvers but what makes this 29-3 a Jovino gun? It looks like a regular 29-3 three inch, didn’t Lew Horton comission a run of these guns? He did but Jovino is famous for snub carry Smith’s many fine before Lew Horton models and before they were production models plus his action jobs etc
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Post by rjm52 on Apr 25, 2019 20:27:20 GMT -5
One of the guys over on the S&W Forums, SAFireman, just had a custom Model 58 done... Got a 57 barrel and had it cut down to 3" by one of the other members and then shipped all the parts to Ford's to have the frame round butted, new barrel installed and refinished...really came out nice... smith-wessonforum.com/s-w-revolvers-1961-1980/588863-custom-fixed-sight-model-58-57-a.htmlMy theory is that if it isn't a collector grade gun then go for it...that said I took a collector grade, NIB, USFA Shooting Master, and turned it into a .41 Special... But I do have the barrel and cylinder so the gun can be put back to original if some later owner wants to... Go for it... Bob
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Post by jimtx on Apr 25, 2019 22:59:17 GMT -5
One of the guys over on the S&W Forums, SAFireman, just had a custom Model 58 done... Got a 57 barrel and had it cut down to 3" by one of the other members and then shipped all the parts to Ford's to have the frame round butted, new barrel installed and refinished...really came out nice... smith-wessonforum.com/s-w-revolvers-1961-1980/588863-custom-fixed-sight-model-58-57-a.htmlMy theory is that if it isn't a collector grade gun then go for it...that said I took a collector grade, NIB, USFA Shooting Master, and turned it into a .41 Special... But I do have the barrel and cylinder so the gun can be put back to original if some later owner wants to... Go for it... Bob Nice Bob He had a good idea a 3” model 57 RB was a Lew Horton actually the least produced LH model only 150 made do there GB prices are HIGH! Compared to most other LW 2.5 n 3” RB models so building one is the way to go.
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Post by squawberryman on Apr 26, 2019 5:17:27 GMT -5
Bob who is Ford's? I'm in Fla.
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Post by rjm52 on Apr 26, 2019 7:42:50 GMT -5
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Post by rjm52 on Apr 26, 2019 7:43:52 GMT -5
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Post by rjm52 on Apr 26, 2019 7:49:10 GMT -5
Nice Bob He had a good idea a 3” model 57 RB was a Lew Horton actually the least produced LH model only 150 made do there GB prices are HIGH! Compared to most other LW 2.5 n 3” RB models so building one is the way to go. I have one of the earlier 657 3" guns made in 1986...have had four of them over the years... The LH Special has a full underlug barrel and the cylinder stop is machined as part of the frame...that is about the only difference... The one I kept was well used and is Mag-Na-Ported...but is a great shooter...
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Post by hughree on Apr 26, 2019 8:45:06 GMT -5
Jim - Years ago, I read an article by Leroy Thompson in Combat Handguns that prompted me to make a 2.5" Model 25-2 from one of two that I owned at the time. Like Thompson, I had Curt Hardcastle do most of the gunsmithing. He cut the barrel, installed a ball-bearing crane lock, and round butted the frame to K frame specs. Fred Sadowski (300 Gunsmith Services) had already done an action job several years earlier. The finished product was given a brushed stainless finish by a Texas based company named Nitex. Grips were the old Bill Rogers composite fingergroove model sold at the time by Safariland for round butt K frames. I shot the heck out of that revolver and, boy, did it shoot! I ended up selling it in a moment I now attribute to momentary insanity - "gunstroke", I call it.
In my addled state, I think I justified selling it because Smith & Wesson had begun producing the 625's in 3, 4 and 5" configurations. I found myself shooting those more than my custom 25-2. I also have a lightweight 325sc so its pretty clear my attraction to .45 ACP revolvers did not go away.
Bob - I have one of the Lew Horton 3" specials in .45 Colt. Heckuva gun.
God bless.
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Post by rjm52 on Apr 26, 2019 11:48:39 GMT -5
"I now attribute to momentary insanity - "gunstroke", I call it."...a condition to remember...
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Post by jimtx on Apr 26, 2019 12:01:08 GMT -5
S&W is sneaky sometimes as well. The short un-cataloged runs they’ve done like one of the first 2.5” or 3” model 29 RBs I saw was a Harley Davidson commemorative. It was used at Gander Mountain and like all guns in GM over priced sold by morons who knew a little about guns making them dangerous as sales associates. Cool gun I never saw another one and that was 20 plus years ago.
That’s Fords place did a beautiful job on that python wow.
I believe magna port and another company I can’t remember still does the RB conversion and shortening the barrels with different front sight bases. But I will not port. Magna port, etc any gun I own I just don’t care for porting or muzzle breaks on any gun.
Hughtree the gray Nitex finish you mentioned , I had a Rem 700 custom shop rifle in that finish, 350 Rem mag with irons and Dave Gentry break which I screwed off . I sold it to a pawn shop last year cause I needed money he wouldn’t sell it back to me and kept it for himself that $&@@“!
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Post by hughree on Apr 26, 2019 12:21:42 GMT -5
Jim - that Nitex finish was one of the best I ever saw, including offerings available today. It looked exactly like stainless depending on the metal preparation before treating. The polished surfaces looked exactly like nickel, the brushed like stainless on a Freedom Arms. I just Googled it - turns out that the inventor, Edward House, had a gunshop in Dallas where I now live. I lived in Louisiana when I did the custom work. Every comment on "Nitex" that Google produced raved about it's durability. My experience was no different. It was beautiful and tough. Some threads say Mr. House sold or licensed his proprietary process to Colt but the "electroless" finished Colts I saw looked nothing like it. Mr. House died in 2012 according to an obituary from a Uvalde, Texas funeral home. I wonder what happened to his process?
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Post by Frank V on May 4, 2019 19:06:43 GMT -5
I fall in the camp of not altering a nice older Smith. Yours has some wear ok maybe that tells us the previous owner liked & used it. Bottom line it is your gun & your money. Enjoy!
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Post by sierra11b on May 5, 2019 19:22:12 GMT -5
Double tap.
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