S&W action job artist

[Ben H]

Nothing I have ever felt compares to my Grand Master built by Ron Power.
About a hundred million rounds also helps. Shot a LOT of ppc back in the
1970's and early 1980's. Even won a state championship once.

I have a Grand Master as well. Ron’s work was superb. He was a good friend as well.

 

[precision1]

Gallagher, he did such things until about 2010.

I'm pretty sure his son Isaac can take care of it.
Gallagher firearms

 

[SilhouetteShooter]

The best of the best is Tony Miele period

 

[hpshooter]

Fred Schmidt

I believe Fred has past.

 

[jackieschmidt]

appears to have a trigger shoe. Was this something you converted and did the N frame not start as a 3T?
Just curious.
Mike

This pistol was built from parts. Yes, it does have a trigger shoe.
The frame has a model 28 serial #. The barrel is a model 25, all of the insides were pieces from various locations.
Of course, I made the cylinder.

 

[1lessdog]

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.

How much work to tune up a 686 with a 3 inch barrel?

 

[jackieschmidt]

How much work to tune up a 686 with a 3 inch barrel?

I never worked on a L Frame, just N and K Frames.
Are the internals basically the same layout?

 

[shortgrass]

The L uses many of the same internals as the K.

 

[Fast14riot]

I've got a M57 TTT P&R that's been worked over by a smith, but it took so long I forgot he had it. I won't recommend him, as he's a popular scattergun smith and prefers to do that. Trigger is comparable to my F/open guns in single action. Its an 8-3/8" with a Leupold 2-8 on it, good deer and predator gun. Works well in bowling pin shoots, too.

 

[shortgrass]

The S&W revolvers were well covered when I attended GS school. Installing a new DA sear, OS hand and OS cylinder stop were required tasks. Tuning is no more than paying attention to the details and understanding how/why "the machine" is supposed to work. I took some extra classes taught by Ron Power, and those mostly centered around PPC. The only different spring that might be used was an original S&W made single action rebound slide spring. 'Spring kits', that many depend on now, didn't exist then. Choosing the proper stones is important. Knowing where to polish is important, especially when installing a new OS cylinder stop, and what's the proper file to use when fitting an OS hand, for cylinder timing. No voodoo. no smoke and mirrors, just attention to the details and understanding the 'machine'. Knowing what can be done, and what should not be done. Just a simple 'remove the burrs' will drop the trigger pull weight by a couple of pounds, minimum. Maybe today it takes an "artist", in my day it only took a bit of training (by someone who is qualified) and attention to the details.