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Post by 2 Dogs on Apr 15, 2013 4:45:12 GMT -5
From Alan Harton I am now in possession of a length of correct LH twist barrel for my 1917 Colt!!! We are cooking with jet fuel now!!! :-)
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lobo
.327 Meteor
Location: SE Mississippi
Posts: 536
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Post by lobo on May 15, 2013 20:36:27 GMT -5
My 1917 left Smith & Wesson in February of 1918, and was shipped to the Springfield Armory.  |
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Post by Boge Quinn on May 15, 2013 20:46:29 GMT -5
lobo, that is BEAUTIFUL!
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Post by 2 Dogs on May 16, 2013 19:45:47 GMT -5
I have to agree with my old friend Boge. That one is a dandy!
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Post by bradshaw on May 16, 2013 21:50:03 GMT -5
2 Dogs.... are you talking 1917 Colt or Smith & Wesson? Those are so different. The Colt frame is huge, with the high arc between trigger guard and front strap, and the curved hump. Shot red-haired wildman Jerry Moran's big frame Colt in .44 Special, with 6" barrel and early 20th century target sights. Rams at 200 meters, his back yard range, Flint, Michigan. Very accurate indeed with Moran's cast handloads. Suggest you think hard towards a slim long tube to achieve a degree muzzle conciousness, and to avoid the PPC look.
Take my council with a jigger of salt, or pitch it, as you please. Your bear paw may like some meat on the pipe.
Don't know that a Dan Wesson silhouette blade would provide enough height. I would want to mock up the sights, shoot it, before settling permanent.
Those olden Colts are as beautiful as a Smith, ready to give you a rockin' good time.
David Bradshaw
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Post by cas on May 17, 2013 0:50:57 GMT -5
Well… it was made in 1917. ;D  |
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Post by 2 Dogs on May 17, 2013 6:35:14 GMT -5
Point well taken CAS. It was indeed made in 1917. AND it is a WARHORSE!!! :-)
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Post by 2 Dogs on May 17, 2013 6:58:15 GMT -5
2 Dogs.... are you talking 1917 Colt or Smith & Wesson? Those are so different. The Colt frame is huge, with the high arc between trigger guard and front strap, and the curved hump. Shot red-haired wildman Jerry Moran's big frame Colt in .44 Special, with 6" barrel and early 20th century target sights. Rams at 200 meters, his back yard range, Flint, Michigan. Very accurate indeed with Moran's cast handloads. Suggest you think hard towards a slim long tube to achieve a degree muzzle conciousness, and to avoid the PPC look. Take my council with a jigger of salt, or pitch it, as you please. Your bear paw may like some meat on the pipe. Don't know that a Dan Wesson silhouette blade would provide enough height. I would want to mock up the sights, shoot it, before settling permanent. Those olden Colts are as beautiful as a Smith, ready to give you a rockin' good time. David Bradshaw Ah but Mr Bradshaw, only the addled would disreguard your learned council. I am most grateful you chimed in and gladly accept your brace of centavos. I am indeed working on a Colt. I agree the frame is large, but think it lends the piece much of its classic looks. I have milled the toe off the frame and my brother is working on some stocks for me. My project however has taken a bit of a sour turn. Ray and I pulled the barrel to discover the cylinder alignment was so bad there is no way it would ever shoot. I had to send it to Harton to see if it could be corrected and or if I am going to have to make a new cylinder or what. Your comments on the barrel are much appreciated and what I was looking for when I started this thread. All my best! |
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Post by bradshaw on May 18, 2013 17:39:18 GMT -5
2 Dogs.... sincerely hope Harton can get the chamber-to-bore misalignment sugared off. Do you know how much offset? If it is .007-inch or thereabouts, you stand a good chance at accuracy. Providing:
* chamber throats within .002" over bullet.
* firm groove diameter.
* short forcing cone.
When chamber offset reaches .010-.012-inch, the bullet turns mighty grumpy. and, contrary to published bullroar, hogging out the forcing cone won't help. In fact, hogging out the forcing cone aggravates bullet obturation caused by chamber misalignment.
I wonder whether some of these WW I guns were intentionally made with loose dimensions? The great S&W mechanic Al Plaas told me that the Victory model S&W .38 Specials, which were manufactured in profusion for the war, were intentionally loose for trench warfare. Plaas handed me one. "See for yourself," he said, handing me a rattley Victory Model. "We don't make match guns out of these."
Digression----This raises in my skull the wide variation in groove diameter and chamber exits in Colt Peacemakers. Could it be the tight ones were made with re-sharpened broaches and reamers? Which may have made for tighter holes?
David Bradshaw
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Post by 2 Dogs on May 18, 2013 20:45:02 GMT -5
Well, I got some very good news from Alan today. He looked at the revolver and pronounced it suitable to continue to work on. There is some misalignment but a carefully cut Taylor throat should be what it needs to get the bullet to engage the rifling nice and square.
David, you know as well as I do, that there are some sixguns out there that should NOT shoot yet they in fact shoot very well. We will see what we will see.....
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Post by bradshaw on May 19, 2013 9:15:46 GMT -5
Lobo.... you have a gorgeous '17 S&W.
2 Dogs.... those old big frame guns have a long, smooth DA stroke. Bet you can't wait to awaken it.
David Bradshaw
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Post by 2 Dogs on Jun 4, 2013 10:33:26 GMT -5
Mr Bradshaw and others keeping up with this thread. My project 1917 Colt is back from Alan Harton. I sent it to him for 2 reasons. First, when we removed the barrel, we observed the cylinder to be considerably out of alignment with the barrel. Second, the cylinder did not quite carry up. Alan added some material to the hand and corrected the carry up, and also recut the hammer and sear notches. In doing so, and while working the action with the barrel off, it was observed that as the trigger was pulled, its rearward travel turned the cylinder INTO more correct alignment. This obviously was designed into the 1917 Colt.
Pretty neat if you ask me. We are back in business again!!!!
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erich
.30 Stingray
Posts: 393
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Post by erich on Jun 4, 2013 13:54:34 GMT -5
Model of 1989, 3" - my wife's favorite revolver, presently on loan to one of her friends for use in CCW re-qual tests:  |
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Post by 2 Dogs on Jun 28, 2013 6:28:08 GMT -5
Ok, for those keeping up with this thread, time for a quick update on my 1917 Colt 45 acp project. I have the old warhorse torn down and am waiting for Ray to have a chance to install the barrel. We are also needing a mill cutter from Kiff for the square bottom nut on the long tang Smith rear sight. Meanwhile, I have been working on the refinish/restoration part of the project. At this point, I have pretty much reclaimed all the curves about the trigger guard, and the front, back, and top straps. It took some careful mill filing to get some of the dings, dents and pits out. At this moment, I am at at 320 stone finish so there is still a long way to go to get it like I want it. I have some brand new stones coming so that I can address the flats on the sides of the big revolver. The Rampant Colt on the left side of the frame is very faint and I am going to send that top panel to Harton to have him recut my pony. The cylinder will make that trip as well so that it can be set up in his fixture and reground nice and round. Last, there is a dent in the metal that is going to need to need a bit of welding to get the frame lines back.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. I will try to get you some pics.....
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Post by 2 Dogs on Jul 8, 2013 7:13:09 GMT -5
Some updated pics of my 1917 project. It is taking some time to do this, recapturing the lines and contours behind a battle scarred veteran is a challenge. Here is the trigger guard nicely detailed. On the thumb latch, the original checked area was too beat up and faded to recut, so I reshaped and serrated it.   |
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