Mr. Belly Gun

looks straight up and down to me. We'll see how it does on target. maybe today.

Experimenting on the aluminum ejector rod housing....already shortened at the back to fit on a true 3.5" barrel....now a notch in the side to cam the ejector button out of the way. This will allow full removal of the cylinder pin, anytime, without removing the entire ejector rod housing. Two benefits, no wear and tear on the threaded hole in the barrel where the ejector rod housing screw is installed and no need to shorten the head of the cylinder pin so much that its hard to grip when you do want to pull it out.

So, hopefully the EHR ordered is in fact steel and I an shorten it for this barrel and put in a neat notch. Then I'll have matching blued steel and no alloy but the rear sight on this fine old gun.

With the cylinder unlocked, it is lined up and the Button depressed and rotated out of the way in its new notch..



Install or withdraw the cylinder pin as the case may be...



All together and ready to go. The notch can be made much smaller by smoothing and reshaping the ejector buttons shank. That might be next. And finally....function is smooth. No catching or bouncing. Rounded edges leading in and out and for the most part, I don't know the notch is there until I use it.



From the show side, the notch is barely noticeable.

New parts for the ejector system. Starting with steel and we'll see how it go's.

Story ejector rod, bullseye style. I'll probably drill it out to a ring ejector. But for now, a tight fit in the slightly undersized steel ruger ejector rod housing (incidentally, the EHR housing is for the 3 3/4" barrel so, not too much to remove to make it fit a 3.5" barrel should I decide to use it instead of the older aluminum housing.)

First, it needs its sharp edges broken on the round shaft and the spud that leads to the bullseye button. That and some slight reduction in diameter on the head as it won't even fit into the new steel ruger EHR housing.



Next job will be either replacing the original 3 screw spring and/or polishing out the inside of the EHR housing. Its rough as a cob and this is as far as the spring will insert. There will be no function using this EHR housing unless and until it is cleaned up inside and fitted for smooth action.



The original 3 screw ruger rear sight (no squashed chicken emblem) is rebuilt with new springs, new cross pin, new and longer elevation screw and a taller Hunter rear sight leaf. The leaf comes sans white, so, its painted in before assembly. Why use the original 3 screw sight base? No squashed chicken emblem, no hump on the bottom of the base, the hole is cross drilled higher in the base so that its top is nearly flush with the flattopped top strap. Neater look. We'll have to get to the range to see if this new taller rear leaf is too tall. With luck, it'll be about right. Worst case, it needs light trimming to regulate the rear sights midpoint with factory loads.

Comparing the fitted aluminum Ejector housing to the new steel short (vaquero 3 3/4" barrel) ejector housing. Some work to do on the new steel part to bring it to a fit on the Belly Gun. Not sure if I'll file by hand or make up a cutter from a grade 5 bolt to set back the face of the sleeve that go's into the frame swell.



Bullseye ejector is converted to a ring ejector by center drilling. Front face is heavily countersunk. The pad of the finger or glove fits snuggly into the recess making for very positive purchase on the ejection stroke. Looks good too.



A close fitting drill down the bore of the ejector housing removes all the burrs and bumps.....though only a bit smoother inside, now the ejector rod and original 3 screw return spring slide easily back and forth w/o binding. The rod will need shortening. The housing needs a bit of sanding inside in addition to shortening at the rear and finally, probably have to rust blue them both.

Well, the steel ruger ejector housing was rather more work than I like but it looks like a successful experiment in fitting up a steel ejector housing with a ring button and a simple slot to allow caming the button out of the way to fully withdraw the cylinder pin.

For starters, I finished polishing up the inside of the housing.....a bit of worn 120 on a stick and spin it with a drill. A moments work......later all the hours and hours piled up!



Good enough inside, it'll get a final bit of polish after all the other work is done on the ejector housing.



A new tennon is cut and shaped at the back end, all hand filing with safe sided files so that the screw hole in the ejector rod lines up with the threaded hole in the front of the barrel. The ejector rod is shortened to clear the cylinder. And finally, a slot was filed and ground in to the race way of the housing so the Ring button can cam up and out of the way for disassembly of the revolver and full removal of the cylinder pin for cleaning.....all with out having to ever remove the ejector rod housing screw from the barrel. It works. It was 4 hours work. Next time I'll just spend the $50 for a Cimarron cammed ejector housing for the 3.5" barrel. Fully functional, but steel is much harder to file in by hand than the aluminum ejector rod housing, the aluminum one only took an hour to do!



View of the fully functional assembly from the business end.



And profiles of the fully assembled gun. Final polish and blue of these last few parts next week and off to the range.....oh yeah, everything fits the De Santis crossdraw leather holster. Nothing is too big, the ejector button does not cam backwards on holstering nor does it prevent holstering even though its a giant button. I am looking forward to hitting the range soon.

Looks like the cyl pin could fit right thru the bulleyes rod head and don't need the notch in the housing.

Don't I wish! Course, ya could liminate the notch in the ejector housing and even eliminate using the cammed Cimarron housing by simply drilling out the bullseye button to ring, then cut the ring to make it a horseshoe. But the story part is butter soft and I think ya'd have to get out the flame wrench to heat it and then quench to make a horseshoe stronger.

Hmmmmm.....maybe!

Fortunately my career has advanced well beyond the point where I have to put up with stupid shite. So on arriving at the airport, noting my flight to KY was backed up 5 hours and backing up another 3 real soon and noting the single agent at the window to reflight a line of passengers some 200+ people long, I phoned in, cancelled my flight, rental car and hotel reservations and drove home.

Now I'll get this project done a bit early and no stupid shite.

The EH&R polished and in the damp box for the first rusting.

All in but the shooting and sight adjustments now.

Beautiful rust black on the EH&R set now. Running around the house shouting A Screw, A Screw, My Kingdom for a SCREW! I misplaced the EH&R retention screw.....found it where I left it....in the safe with the revolver.



Go side, installed and looking fine. Smooth function, no hang up in the notch noted. We'll see how it does at the range.



Business end....three large holes.....looks like a Drilling Rifle from here....



Love handle side, unless ya carry Crossdraw, then its still Love Handle side! I need to photo this gun in some good natural light.



A little better shot of this simple modification of the factory EH&R set up.



The button cams nicely out of the way, plenty of room to get the cylinder pin in and out of the gun for cleaning and maintenance.



This is full cartridge lift with the EH&R system shortened to fit a 3.5" long barrel and leave about 1/16" of barrel in front of the end of the EH&R housing. I think one might just be able to go to a barrel length of 3 1/4" and still have cartridge lift that would allow extraction. Removing the backside of the loading gate frees up more working room for fingers.....As much as I'd like to try a 3 1/4" barreled full ejection system I may make one up for me with a 3" barrel, tapered to .6" at the muzzle and NO EH&R and no swell on the show side of the frame.

Now.....does it need a screw for a lanyard loop on the butt..........

Awesome project write up as usual. One question though, why do you leave the front sight base soo wide? Why not make it skinnier to match the barrel profile more? With your file skill it make sence to me to file it down.

If you want it that way ya can narrow it to match the curvature of the barrel. But when you drift it for windage, you'll have a portion of dovetail uncovered/staring ugly at ya.

Study original muzzleloaders and Boys Rifles, the base of the sight is wider than the notch.....Its a "historical" look. The front sight base used here is well over 100 years old, I simply replaced the original German Silver Rocky Mountain Blade with my own Coin blade. Its form matches the most common sights of the age.

The new owner can drift, narrow or replace as his own sense of functionality and beauty dictates.

I don't think roylt was asking to match the curvature of the barrel, just the width of the barrel so you could still adjust it for windage w/o exposing the dovetail notch.

I thinned it from its original .480 dovetail slot to the modern .375 and that was enough hand work to suit me! But, I like it wide...it looks the same on this hangun as it did on the 1894 stevens favorite it came off of...this barrel is a bit larger in diameter though but the sight base is still wider than the dovetail cut....(The stevens barrel being about .630 at the front sight and this one being about .743 in diameter with the sight base actually slightly narrower than the ruger barrel)...you'll see the same on many muzzleloaders and older rifles with round barrels. Wider than the dovetail slot is the look I wanted to achieve....very different on a handgun and much in line with rifles I grew up with and many of the old boys rifles I slapped cute back in my salad days in a trailer home workshop.

Way back, the coin as a front sight for handguns was a field expedient repair....half a coin soldered in the slot in the barrel. I spose this mimics a Frontier repair, dovetail cut in and the coin carved out.....I'll leave it as is and the new owner can carve it down if he wants to.

Really enjoyed seeing and reading about this project. Thanks for bringing us along.

Almost done. Booger photos. Photo tour. Range report, are all due yet.

Then I'll get this one off to the owner. He now owns the working trio. The Lightning Blackhawk, The Gentlemans Workhorse and shortly, Mr. Belly Gun. I think my keeper might be a pair that need built yet.... A Bisley hammered 3" ejectorless tapered barrel 3 screw and maybe, just maybe, a matching Blackhawk revolving carbine on a NM action.

It would be hard for me to sell. I guess after doing this sort of thing for years it gets easier. Also if that is what you do for a living it is a must. Curious what you priced these fine pieces of art at but understand if you don't post. Also Hondo gives me more credit than I deserve. I am "new" to this sort of thing and was asking to learn more than anything.

I still think it looks odd being so wide but if it was in hand or "first" hand if you will it may look / seem different.

Appreciate the write ups a lot. They have encourage me to try a few things with great results. Really like the gate mod for your thumb to get in there better. Came out great on my Blackhawk too.

All under 1000. I have reached a point where I don't really get attached to stuff. I am a bit attached to the creative process but not the end item. But, there ain't no living in it, the high end nitches are well filled. But, they don't do much beyond what is an easy/repeatable set up on a machine and I post up to demonstrate what a determined average guy/gal can do on their own at home with a minimal investment in tooling. Accurate and beautiful and reliable does not always require a mill/lathe. And, at home, ya get to send the project on a journey through the country of your mind, not someone elses.

Well said! It doesn't take a lot of money or a big name to have a creative, enjoyable result! Seems like some, maybe many of the high dollar customs get resold without ever being used.