44 Special Project

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Lee Martin

Hunter
Joined
Dec 18, 2002
Messages
2,313
Location
Arlington, Virginia
A lot of folks have asked me to document/photograph a Ruger conversion. Decided to finally do it with a 44 Special project I'm about to start. Here's the base gun:

OM3572.jpg


OM3571.jpg


It's your basic OM 357 from 1963. The plan is to de-anodize the gripframe and ejector housing, fit a 4 5/8" stainless barrel, and machine a cylinder out of 17-4 stainless. The frame, side screws, and loading gate will then get Mahovsky's Metalife (hard-chrome which looks like brushed stainless). I should be able to match the barrel and cylinder to the frame.

I'll periodically post pictures to this thread as it progresses (to include the machining & heat treating)

BTW, I was going to just hard chrome a Lipseys but thought this would be more fun.
 
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Great thread idea Lee! I've got but one question for ya though. You say that you are a hobbiest gunsmith. Then what the heck do you do with all these fine revolvers that I see on this forum?

I just had to ask!
 
It's a shame to do that to such a nice gun. Sell it to me and buy a beat up one to refinish. :mrgreen:

And living in Arlington, I bet you do have to shoot them a lot...
 
ChuckS1":2y8u1qhs said:
And living in Arlington, I bet you do have to shoot them a lot...

You're thinking of that city across the Potomac. Arlington is a great place to live (minus the very liberal county board).
 
I finally got around to blanking out the cylinder for my OM 44 Special. Here are some of the steps involved;

I start with blank 2" round 17-4 stainless:

44Special3.jpg
 

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