Back in the 1970’s, I built a lot of police PPC target pistols out of model 10’s, which is a fixed sight K Frame.
I bought 1 1/4 diameter Shilen 1-16 twist barrels and cut it to make finished 6 inch barrels. I slabbed the sides, and mounted a Bomar Rib.
I took the single action out, as these matches were all double action shooting. I ground off the spur atop of the hammer.
Inside, everything got polished. Special attention was paid to every sliding part and the surface it road on. I would go to gun shows and buy parts and new springs. The hammer spring was particularly important. I polished them so that they curved in a steady arc instead of trying to kink toward the end of the cycle.
To get the things to lock just before the hammer fell, I often had to peen the advancing pawl, stretching it just enough to advance the cylinder the correct amount. The slot that the advancing pawl road in also got polished.
Cylinder gap was very important, we shot 38 specials with 148 grn hard cast wad cutters at about 750 fps. I would peen the yoke so the cylinder had just enough end play for operation smoothly, then gave the barrel .005 gap, too little gap and little pieces of unburned powder or a sliver of bullet could produce a tight spot. We settled for a little side blow by for smooth operation.
Keep in mind, I did all of this back when you could go to gun shows and buy just about any Smith & Wesson part made. Those days are long gone.
I am going to enclose a picture of a pistol I built back then, during the “Dirty Harry Craze”. It is a 45 magnum, so to speak. This is one of the nicest firearm products I ever built. Of course, it’s built on a N-Frame, and it is slick as grease, as the action work is the same as on a K Frame.
View attachment 1672461
It was featured in Guns and Ammo in July, 1977.
I could give details on the build, but I don’t wish to hyjack your thread. I will say that the cylinder is machined from premium aircraft quality E-4340, normalized, annealed, hardenned, then a double quench to bring it to 38RC.
