ltwguns.com

Well, it seems I've come full circle on my interests in custom guns. I now have a well balanced appetite for the autos as well as the wheel guns; particularly ones such as this.

I have read Bowen's book on the custom revolver and really liked the N-frame ribbed barrels on the single action guns. So my quest began for a barrel, and thanks to ebay, I found this unused .45 cal S&W N-frame barrel that was intended for a model 25. I later found a Ruger Bisley in .357 mag for cheap and planned to send it off. That is until I got a bright idea. It is certainly not an original idea, but I searched for a Ruger Maximum to steal the cylinder out of it and sell the gun to a 'smith, so he may do with as he wishes. You see, the Maximum cylinder is longer than the standard Blackhawk cylinder, and I have seen where they can be fitted to standard Blackhawks, so the cylinder will fit longer bullets. It also looks much better when it fills the cylinder window. My luck was good, however, as I found 45 cylinders on Auction Arms at about $10.00 each . I bought them all and made a deal with the prospective gunsmith I planned to have build my gun. He now has 44 of them

Anyway, I know the original single actions did not have ribbed barrels, but I think they should have, since this one looks like it just belongs there. As a matter of fact, if you didn't know it was a custom built gun, you'd think it just came that way. As for the rest, well take a look. I am really pleased with the final result, and I am happy to show this to fellow enthusiasts on behalf of John Gallagher. It has a color case hardened frame by Doug Turnbull, line-bored chambers in .45 Colt, Bowen rear sight and custom front ramp, custom grips and oversized fitted base pin...... Oh, yeah....... It cuts ragged holes at 25 yards ..



Ribbed N-frame barrel



Full sized cylinder for full sized bullets with tight gap


Beautiful and well fitted grips by the same gunsmith


Oh, yeah. John Gallagher is friends with Thad Ribka. Glad to get one of his rough out cross-draw holsters with John's name on it.

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Show 'em where you live....

Lenny:
Beautiful Ruger and beautifuler (?) holster!

very very nice-cameron

That's pretty slick. I had never heard of putting an N-frame barrel on a SA, but it does look "right". Shortening a Max cylinder is new to me also, but again, it looks natural.
I always liked Thad Rhybka's work (but don't have any of it), so that's icing for this cake.

I love the case hardened look & the nice furniture. Very CLASSY!

Is that the original Ruger hammer?

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Redeemed

great looking sixgun!

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Thanks very much,
Robert (13.45)
NRA Benefactor Life member

Nice Looking revolver Lenny!

VERY nice work........I love it. Now you've got me excited about SAs (which I own a lot of) again.

What is the final barrel length? Did John use aluminum or steel for the ejector housing?

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Bob

Smiths and 1911s are what it's all about!

Very cool.. I am not a big SA guy... I want this one, very clean looking gun.

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https://www.graffcustom.com/

The barrel ended being 5.5 inches. The ejector rod housing is steel "target length used on the maximum, so it goes to the end of the barrel.

Thanks for all the great comments.

Lenny

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Show 'em where you live....

Well its is strange I had a Ruger SBH with a 4 5/8" barrel I sent it to a smith named John Gallagher in Jasper AL who is fitting a 5 1/2" S&W 629 barrel that was 8 3/8". Bisley grip.hammer and free spin pawl. He is also putting a Weigand front system system on it and new rear. John got the gun 9-26-2006 and no word yet

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The only place you will find success without hard work is in the dictionary

As most customers and gunsmiths will tell you, patience is a requirement, if you expect a full custom from a high demand 'smith. I won't make excuses, but John manages the Sportman's Center in Jasper, so he is by no means a full time guy. It took over a year to get mine, but where else could I get one of those except from a gunsmith. Anyway, John's a great guy, and I am sure you could drop him a line to check the status, but I'd expect a year or so as well.

Take care,
Lenny

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Show 'em where you live....