Greetings all. I just bought this specimen on GunBroker and am considering shortening the barrel. I am alright with keeping the current grips because they have character, but the shorter barrel (more "Stembridge-like") would be my preference. I know many of you have done similar things and I have enjoyed reading about them in the other threads, so I'd like to hear your thoughts.
It's worth mentioning that I haven't even taken possession of it yet, I just won the bid yesterday and expect to have it shipped in early December.
VERY, VERY nice! I will echo what others have said about shortening the barrel on one of these - keep the original barrel intact ( and the gun's value ) and find a replacement barrel to use for the Indy-chop. Congrats again on a great pickup!
Very nice revolver !! MHO I'm with Solent MKIII, buy a replacement barrel and have that one cut down, this way you maintain the integrity and value of the gun. Enjoy !!
The pistol above actually had to go back, it had an unmatched yoke that was badly done and rendered the pistol unsafe. Since then, I acquired the Smith & Wesson model 22 of 1917 remake from several years ago along with a US Govt marked S&W 1917 and a S&W 455 Eley. My plan is to have Cylinder & Slide from Freemont, NE take the model 22 and a spare original NOS 1917 barrel and turn that into the Stembridge and then have the 455 Eley cut and made into the Bapty. The 455 Eley has some strange sight on the front anyway so I don't feel bad cutting it down. I'll take some photos of the before and after and post them up, but I'm still out of the country for a few weeks. I have a few sets of grips that I ordered for each to try and get them more accurate, but we'll see how it works out. There's a waiting period for the gunsmith of about a year, so nothing is happening any time soon. (I don't have the heart to chop the other old 1917 I found, so I'm planning on leaving that one as-is.)
On a side note, I also acquired an Inglis Hi Power, so I'll post some photos of that as well.
The latest commercial S&W HE, which is in the process of becoming the Stembridge. I found a NOS M1917 barrel with no S/N and am saving the barrel you see on the pistol here.