And I would like to know what sort of smokepole is breaking hand springs for the Professor?
oh my good abilene
this is a dirt cheap SAA I recently picked up in order to build a short barrel slightly bird-head "mountain .44 magnum. " for hikes.
It is a vintage but mechanically virtually new Herter's SAA ".44 Caliber"
these were ugly as sin but hell-for-stout colt copies built for Herter's by Sauer and Sohn.
Herter's intended to compete with Ruger, selling for about 2/3 to 3/4 of the Ruger price.
if one can find them in good shape they are hidden gems!
as seen here:
they are , well....
UGLYthe gripframe is too long and ungainly, (grips are way ugly), the rear sight ears are too big, the ejector head too large, front sight
too ugly ..... but easy peasy projects!
I was intending to mill off the rear sight ears, shorten the gripframe, shorten & crown the barrel, and apply a fixed rear site.
to my complete surprise I found one to which all this was already done to it!
As to the finish, only the barrel had original blue.
Thus the dirt cheap price, everybody saw modified "Herter's"
but nobody realized that it is a quality German import .44 magnum expertly cut down to 4 5/8 .
the internals are excellent; bore is pristine, crown is perfect, timing is perfect; trigger is excellent, breaks clean.
it has a standard safety notch, half cock, and no transfer bar; firing pin frame mounted.
"everything was fine" until I tore it down for inspection, cleaning, fluff and buff, rust blue, etc.
then after rust blue and re-assembly, whilst dry firing the hand spring broke.
ok, no worries, I replaced it. the hammer is extremely stout and the steel is quite hard;
I don't want to crack it banging on it too much.
Whilst buffing the rust blue with canvas and dry firing (oh yes, that spot of the floor is
nailed!),
the replacement hand spring popped off.
Well I am less than pleased with the first rust bluing, so I tore it down stripped it (
again), rust blued again,
popped the hand spring back on, and staked it "a little better"
buffing and oiling and dry firing, the new spring popped off .
again.
hmmmm clearly I am too used to the soft Italian
butter Steel and I am simply being too gentle with this quality German Steel
I shall do it it
one more time.... but stake it stoutly.
however, I don't want this happening out in the field, heaven forefend I may need to fire in anger at a menacing clod of dirt
or a charging dandelion....
Thus I am thinking "coil spring hand mod.....
Aaaaand since first two tries at rust bluing left it uneven (never had this problem with the Italian pistoles!) I will probably strip it down
yet again, polish again with 400 grit wet-or-dry, put on a breathing apparatus and clean the steel with something very nasty and do the plain jane but bulletproof "lye and potassium nitrate boiled blue".
But before I refinish
again I will shoot it from the bench,
mutilate adjust the front sight, slug the barrel and cylinders and decide if they are adequate or if it really wants reaming and a fresh forcing cone ( thanks for the brownell cone tool Fingers... )
-----------
Oh, and
HELLO BUNK!
pf mvl