Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Leigh Finishes A Gun Project....






I've had this on the back burner for a while. It got put off, then forgotten. Only took a week of puttering on it once I started.

My neighbor has a single action revolver in 45 Long Colt. Seeing how it is stamped, Made in West Germany, it has a few years on it - it also indicates it isn't exactly a high dollar piece, either. None the less, he likes it and has fun shooting it. That was, up until a few years ago, when the cheap injection molded, plastic grips broke. I took it upon myself to either find a set of grips for it, or make some. Being an obscure and obsolete manufacturer, I settled on doing it the hard way - I took a piece of mahogany and fashioned my own.

Not being the master woodsmith that John Jay is; I made due with a coarse bladed high tension hack saw, a coping saw, a cordless Dremel, and a 1" wide bench mounted belt sander. The inletting was done with a mixture of X-Acto knives and various wood chisels. The countersunk holes for the grip screws were roughed in with a 3/8 fostner bit, then dressed out to final size with the X-Acto - I somehow lost my 7/16 bit. I put on a finish of Teak Oil to round it out with a nice rubbed oil luster. If it were mine, I would have stripped the fading chrome finish off, then blued the steel and blackened the alloy pieces.
Otherwise, it doesn't look too bad for a first effort - and I'll know what to watch for next time.

Leigh

















9 comments:

  1. Good job Leigh! The grips look great. Out of curiosity, who is the manufacturer? J.P. Sauer & Sons?

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    1. Thanks, Jeff.
      To be perfectly honest, I don't recall who the manufacturer is. I'll check tonight and let you know.

      Leigh
      Whitehall, NY

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    2. It looks like my Sauer & Sohn Chief Marshall. I have the 44mag version with a cracked grip. There is none available and other replacement parts are scarce as well. It is a great shooting gun but there is almost zero support for it.

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    3. I had one just like yours Tony. It was a great gun, but kicked like hell. I don't know why the recoil was so rough (nothing like my 1967 3-screw Ruger Super Blackhawk which seems mild in comparison). As far as your cracked grip goes, you might get Leigh to make you a Mahogany set (LOL).

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  2. A vast improvement over the factory grips. I had one in 22LR for years.

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  3. Nice job Leigh, good fit too.

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  4. Hey Leigh;

    You did a good job in that one, a lot of people wouldnt have been able to do what you did so enjoy the warm and fuzzies for fabricating something with your hands.

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  5. You gotta luv a good hogleg!!

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  6. Thanks for the props guys, it means a lot. You all are too kind. I had initially intended to show it off to a few people I knew, but the Boss thought it would make a decent post.

    The barrel, as stamped, tells who the importer was; but I had to dig a little to find the manufacturer.

    Hy Hunter Inc Firearms Mfg Co.
    Hollywood, California
    Made in Western Germany
    Frontier Six-Shooter Model.45

    Come to find out it was made by JP Saur and Sohn of Eckernforde, Germany. Seems as though they imported a bunch of single action six shooters from the mid 50's, up until around '68. There is no serial number data base, so knowing when it was made is pretty much impossible. They were also a staple in Hollywood, Western movie sets, due to SA Colts being so expensive at the time.
    Tony is correct about there being almost no part support for them, although Numrich does have some parts for them.
    This has been a fun project, and I learned a few things to boot. I'm grateful it was appreciated.

    Leigh
    Whitehall, NY

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