480 New Vaquero pic's start to finish

[steve]

I thought it would be neat to document my 480 build by taking work in progress pictures every few months. The project started in April 2013 and took just over a year. It would have been finished sooner but I had them put this one on the back burner during the summer of 2013 to do grip frame reshapes on a couple of my other guns.

First step was to find a base gun. A reasonably priced used .357 New Vaquero was found at fairly local gun shop.


Next I found a 6" S&W model 29 barrel and a set of beautiful English walnut blanks. The gun, barrel and blanks were then dropped off at Jack's shop.


Fast forward a couple months, grip frame is reshaped, cylinder window is opened and cylinder blank is fit.


Here it is in September, the grips have been made and the cylinder has been linebored and chambered.



December, The barrel has been re-bored, under lug removed, re-threaded and fit to the frame. You can see in these pictures the nose of the frame needs to be welded up to match the barrel.



Feb 2014, The nose of the frame has been welded and re-shaped, ejector rod housing fit and the scallops cut.




March, S&W rear sight installed, Super Blackhawk hammer fit. Ready to be disassembled and sent to Turnbull's


May, The finished product!!!

[ecvmatt]

Holly Smokes, that is nice!

[seancass]

That is just about perfect! LOVE the big bore mid-frames. Probably need to get one of those!

[dougader]

Really slick, that one. I have a Bisley in 44 Special I'd like to have Jack convert to a 5-shot 480, but I like it so much in 44 Sp.... I'm going to have to get a second gun to get converted now.