My leather-working talents are very modest ... certainly not up to the calibre of the many masterpieces shown in this forum ... yet I am pleased enough with the results of a project I just completed that I am going to stick my neck out and post it here.
A bit of background, first ... I am usually to be found over at the Barracks, Grand Army of the Frontier shooting and other such activities being my primary interest. After lobbying the GAF Staff to acknowledge a North West Mounted Police impression as at least "quasi-military" and thus suitable for competing in GAF Military classes ... and also confirming that an NWMP-pattern Model 1876 carbine - chambered in the original .45-75 rifle cartridge - would be an acceptable "military" rifle to shoot in conjunction with that uniform and kit, I was left with deciding upon a suitable handgun. Although I do have an original .450 Adams revolver and also an 1884-dated Mark II .455/.476 Enfield revolver - those being the two primary-issue handguns of the NWMP prior to 1905 - I was somewhat leery of risking damage to such valuable antiques.
I have long drooled over the Uberti S&W topbreak single action revolver reproductions ... and interestingly, in 1874, the NWMP acquired thirty S&W Russian model No. 3 S&W revolvers to augment the poor-quality surplus Adams revolvers first foisted upon them by an unscrupulous War Department contractor, pending replacement of the entire shipment by the WD. Accordingly, when a "pre-owned" Uberti Russian model recently became availableto me here in Canada at a good price, I jumped on it!
There was, however, one problem with this new revolver: my existing NWMPpattern flap holster, which fit both the Enfield and the Adams revolver, would not close over the longer grip profile of the Russian ... so I embarked on making another holster of this pattern. Having now completed it, I am fairly pleased with the result. Here it is, alongside the revolver (... for which I have a more appropriate set of wood grips on backorder, by the way ...) and also a composite image of various details cropped from prints and period photos showing this holster pattern ...