Cloning Seyfried's "Buffalo" Seville

[Lee Martin]

I always wanted to clone Ross Seyfried's famous "buffalo gun" Seville. After reading his account of that hunt in a 1986 issue of Guns & Ammo I was hooked on Sevilles. There was something about that long hammer spur and Ross describing how well it pointed (not to mention "it always hit where he aimed". His words, not mine)



Fast forward 26 years and I'm finally going to clone it. The only question is what to use for the donor. The base has to be a blued United Sporting Arms, Hauppauge NY assembled Seville. I have quite a few of those, but they're all in excellent or better condition. Then I ran across a parts gun I bought for $150 back in 2003.

It's rough, sports an unmatched cylinder, is slightly out of time, got magna-ported, has red paint on the front sight, and gaps 0.024" at the cylinder (a result of issue #2):













A real basket-case piece but it has one redeeming quality....the serial number is 01943 (the year my dad was born). Anyways, I've been back and forth on how to proceed and settled on this. Since I plan to shoot this clone like Ross shot his (ie, "hard") I'm concerned about durability. Once your break Seville internals you're screwed. Three things happen at that point: 1) You luck out and find the part, 2) You make your own from scratch, or 3) You shelve it.

So I'm going to keep this one on the side as a parts gun. Now all I need is a blued Hauppauge Seville for the base. The plan is to build it just like John Linebaugh built Ross'. The frame window will be opened 0.030", an oversized 6-shot 45 cylinder will be fit, the 5.5" barrel will wear a Ruger #1 band, and I'll duplicate the front sight right down to the gold bars. Stock Seville panels with semi-gloss finish will top it off (and I have a set of United Sporting Arms grips that are very close to Seyfried's).

So if anyone has or sees a blued Seville for sale that's in not-so-great shape, drop me a line ([e-mail]).

Thanks,

-Lee
www.singleactions.com
"Building carpal tunnel one round at a time"

[whitworth]

I think this project is a great idea! Practical? Nope, but practicality is way overrated! That is one of my favorite Seyfried articles (of many)!!

[sash]

I'm looking forward to following this project. Like many, Ross Seyfried started me down the dark path of handgunning, and that is certainly an iconic single action.

[whitworth]

Jul 10, 2012 14:05:09 GMT -5 sash said:

I'm looking forward to following this project. Like many, Ross Seyfried started me down the dark path of handgunning, and that is certainly an iconic single action.

He sent many of us down that path! ;D

[Lee Martin]

You guys will get a complete photo-thread of the build. Whit and I also plan to shoot some of his original loads (well, not the "original" original load that ran way past 60K PSI). But his "sane" 345 grain Keith load will see range time.

All I need now is the donor gun. If you guys can keep your eyes open it would be appeciated.

-Lee
www.singleactions.com
"Building carpal tunnel one round at a time"

[whitworth]

I will add that "sane" is a relative word (and condition). ;D

[sixshot]

Sure wish Ross was still hammering out handgun articles, it didn't get any better than that. Good luck with the project Lee, it'll probably go faster if you keep Whit out of the way! Sane isn't in his vocabulary when it comes to sixgun (five gun) loads!
Can't wait to see the end results & the write up. I still remember the phrase Hugo Seia made when the buff made the final charge " shoot straight my friend, he is coming!)

Dick

[whitworth]

Jul 10, 2012 15:11:10 GMT -5 sixshot said:

I still remember the phrase Hugo Seia made when the buff made the final charge " shoot straight my friend, he is coming!)

Dick

Yes indeed! Loved that line!

Haha! You're probably right, Dick, but Lee doesn't need a whole lot of encouraging to test the upper limits of loads!

[Lee Martin]

I like how Hugo called it the "short 458".

-Lee
www.singleactions.com
"Building carpal tunnel one round at a time"

[Mark Terry]

Was that the article in which Ross talked about his initial impression of Mr. Linebaugh as slightly deranged? As I recall, he had John shoot the revolver while he stood at a safe distance.

I need to go back and find the article.


Great project!

As for breaking the internals of the Seville; I'd bet you and Dad could manage to whittle out whatever parts you need.

[Lee Martin]

Jul 10, 2012 15:54:46 GMT -5 Mark Terry said:

Great project!

As for breaking the internals of the Seville; I'd bet you and Dad could manage to whittle out whatever parts you need.

Thanks Mark. My dad is really good at making parts from scratch. Even so, I don't want to have to go down that road.

I'll keep you all posted as this progresses.

-Lee
www.singleactions.com
"Building carpal tunnel one round at a time"

[robl]

A worthy endeavor. that too, was one of my favorites. It sure kicked off the heavy handgun craze... following on the foot steps of EK and others.

[2 Dogs]

Lee, if you recall, while the one pictured above is the "original" buffalo gun, the Bisley Seyfried had built prior or as a test bed for the #13 best quality gun was also done in the big 5 motiff. I cannot remember for the life of me if it had an elephant or a cape buffalo inlaid on the stocks....

[bigbores]

Jul 10, 2012 17:53:21 GMT -5 2 Dogs said:

Lee, if you recall, while the one pictured above is the "original" buffalo gun, the Bisley Seyfried had built prior or as a test bed for the #13 best quality gun was also done in the big 5 motiff. I cannot remember for the life of me if it had an elephant or a cape buffalo inlaid on the stocks....

It had a tie pin of a bull elephant.
I liked that gun better then his #13.

[Cannon]

Jul 10, 2012 18:07:06 GMT -5 bigbores said:

I liked that gun better then his #13.

Me too -- that gun was fantastic! As I recall, Jack Belk welded up the topstrap for a dovetail 2-leaf rear sight.