Monthly Archives: December 2022

.45 Snubby- How Stupid is it?

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The other day someone posted a picture of a S&W Model 625 with a two inch barrel on a revolver page and a bunch of people lost their minds with comments like ‘stupid’ and ‘400 fps.’ This made me wonder- how stupid is it? I have this here Brazilian-contract 1917, see…

I verified that another barrel was available to me then cut the 1917 to 2″. In the interest of science, of course…

Some time back I tested my defensive load (using the Speer 200gr. ‘flying ashtray’) in my Detonics Combat Master .45 with a 3-1/2″ barrel. Averaged 848 fps. and 319 ft/lbs. at the muzzle. Fired through four layers of denim into Clear Ballistics Gel it penetrated 14″ and expanded to an average of .640″.

respectable expansion.
The Challengerrrrr!

Using the same chronograph I tried the 2″ revolver. I didn’t use gel for the S&W, but it clocked *drum roll* an average of 841 fps. for 314 ft.lbs. Huh. How could that be?

For one thing the way revolver barrels are measured. Semi-auto pistol barrels are measured from the breech-face and revolvers are measured from the front of the cylinder. Can you guess how long the barrel of the S&W is from the breech-face to the muzzle? 3.58″, basically the same length as the Detonics.

“But what about the cylinder-gap?” I hear you cry. BBTI discovered in tests that surprisingly little velocity is lost via the cylinder gap. In this case differences in temperature, humidity and other factors could have affected the results slightly and made up the difference.

Having tested this I’m going to tell my buddy to keep his barrel. I’ll finish this one up as a snubby. I already bobbed the hammer and checkered it so it can easily be thumb-cocked. New, more ‘classic’ grips, a crane-detent and a grip adapter. Maybe strip and rust blue it.

It’s still kinda’ a dumb gun, but I like it.

Stay safe and take care,

Michael Tinker Pearce, 8 December 2022

Conversion Revolvers

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I had a real thing for cap-and-ball conversion revolvers for some time, and I still like them. Patron R.R. requested photos of the guns conversions I have done, so here they are:

This is the first- a Cimarron Richards Mason in .38 Special converted to an ‘Avenging Angel-‘ style snub-nose. I converted the grip to a bird’s head, removed the ejector and reshaped the barrel-lug. Getting ready to do a video on this one.
I call this set the ‘Boy’s Night Out’ set. This is a cut-down 1860 Army with a Kirst gated Conversion in .45 and my hand-made .45 Derringer. Also have the cap-and-ball cylinder, loading lever and some cleaning tools.
This Remington 1858 ‘Pug’ features a Home-made conversion with a modified loading lever to retain the cylinder-pin and a bird’s head grip. Pretty good shooter at seven yards.
This beast is a reproduction Walker conversion I call ‘Thumper.’ The cartridge is one I made up, a streched .44 Colt I call .44-55 walker. It uses a 200gr. Heel-base .451″ bullet ofver 55gr. of FFFg black powder.
This Avenging Angel is in .38 Colt Short. Thus uses a modified bored-through cap-and-ball cylinder.
here it is in it’s case with hand-made tools and a reloading set-up based around an Ideal reloading tool. The shape of the grip has been changed to make it more concealable.
This Remington in .44 Colt has a Bisley-style grip, lowered hammer-spur and a still-functional loading lever if I were to put a cap-and-ball cylinder in it.
This little 1849 reproduction got the full business- the barrel line to .251, homemade conversion cylinder and converted to a spur-trigger. The Caliber is .251 TCR.
The Remington has a Kirst Gated Conversion.
This one is an 1849 reproduction with a barrel and cylinder lined for .22 LR. I told Linda it’s was a style called an ‘Avenging Angel.’ She said it looked more like an irritable Cherub, and we’ve called it the Cherub ever since.
I lined the barrel of this 1860 with a .360 liner and the cylinder to accept .38 S&W. The grip is Ivy Wood cut in our yard and seasoned in the shop, so this one is called Poison Ivy.

Yes, I made the lined cases. Mostly from wooden boxes bougt on the cheap in second-hand stores.

There’ve been a couple of others, and there are some in the work-in-progress’ stage but this is the most of them. I’ve largely moved on from making conversions; interests change over time but I still love these guns and still shoot them. Lot’s of fodder for future videos!