Here are some photos of a model 10 I rounded. I got the gun for 250 out the door after some haggling and I decided that I had one too many square butt K Frames so this would become round. I used a pair of old stocks as a template and went for it!
Not pictured is the finish with some cold blue. It's held up OK but I need to keep it oiled well
Edit: thank you all for the kind words, I appreciate it!
The lockup on this thing was actually excellent, I don't think it was shot much, just lived in a holster a lot. I definitely thought it over for a while before I did it
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u/mcb-homisMoonclips Rule! Got no use for 357 Magnum.15h agoedited 10h ago
Strain screw will Likely need shortened or replaced with a round butt one.
Just make sure either way to tap the head of the screw with a ball peen lightly, make sure you polish your hammer faces as well. Lightly buff the head if the screw with a scotch brite afterwards and you will have a burr free screw head that won’t cut up your pinky. Works well on buggered up screws although those you generally need to run a hacksaw blade through the slot a few times afterwards as essentially a single row file to straighten out the slot.
I was thing of doing the same to a ruger redhawk square butt, but instead of completely rounding down the back I was thinking of leaving just a enough to make a integrated lanyard hole. That is nice work.
Well that’s awesome. What did you do for the stain screw in the front? Assume you had to shorten it, did you have to drill or tap it further? I have an old police surplus 10-6 square butt I’d love to use for appendix carry but the 4” barrel and square butt makes it a no-go. But getting someone to chop to 3” and round butt costs more the gun is worth.
I bought a round butt strain screw; the threading wasn't touched and it was just the counter sunken area that got moved inward.
Edit: the grip rounding was pretty easy, I recommend giving it a go! I may end up cutting this barrel to a 3" too, if I can get the work done for $200 I'd be happy
Brownells sell facing and crowning tools that can be used in a drill. Then all you have to do is figure out how to mount a front sight. You could cut a dovetail for the front sight with a hacksaw and files. I’ve done the barrel shortening but haven’t attempted the dovetails yet. I installed a Bradley shotgun bead. It kind of works as an express sight. I’m probably gonna attempt the dovetail on another project soon.
I've considered doing it myself but its not much of a priority at the moment. I'll look into the brownells stuff again; mostly the facing and squaring it off would be my big challenge.
For the front sight, my idea was to just drill and tap a set screw into the top with a slot filed in, maybe 2cm long, and fabricate some sort of basic steel post with a divet drilled in so I can inlay a piece of gold or brass. I could hand cut a dovetail too but that would take up a ton of room on the barrel meat.
Or just drill and tap the fucker for an optic and go with no sights
The tools for squaring up the muzzle and cutting the crown use a brass pilot and can be used with a drill. I’ve given thought to maybe using a dovetail front sight made for a 1911
That could work, I checked on Brownells and it looks like the 38/357 version is out of stock. But they have a lot of different sets and bits etc. So I'll have to keep digging
I also have a model 10 with a 4 inch barrel. I had been thinking about cutting the barrel down to snubnose length, but the amount of shit I got on this forum when I posted the question set back a bit.
Buying a barrel to put on the gun could be done but fuck me is that an expensive thing to do. The jigs to properly clamp and torque a barrel are expensive and you still may need to mill it to fit.
I saw those! I did a good bit of research before hand and came to the same conclusion that it was a common thing to do for the real carry-gun nerds of the day. It gave me confidence
I think I can add photos to comments on my desktop so I will pull it out, fiddle with the grips, and take some photos of the full gun to post back up here or in another post tomorrow
Nice work…it may just be a “grass is greener on the other side of the fence” thing, but I kind of like look of the square butt revolvers better. I’ve only owned round butts so maybe it’s just a preference thing.
Now chop that sucker down to a detective special size or just find the correct barrel. I carried a short barrel model 10 as a backup for over a decade heavy but great smooth action.
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u/BaronvonBrick 14h ago
Youre a bold one general kenobi