Originally Posted by BC30cal


Doc;
Thanks for the reply sir.

The fact that you've got the medals and his service revolver is beyond cool.

Like I said to Don who has the under sheriff's revolver, those type of tangible links to our past - especially as gun folk - are priceless. cool

Thanks again and have a good one Doc.

Dwayne


There's quite a story behind my acquisition of his revolver. Short version is that my dad gave it to me about 20 years ago, at which time it was a rusted hulk. His ex-wife had left it on top of the water softener wrapped in a wet rag... she "hates guns".

I took it to a gunsmith I knew well, a retired USMC armorer, who tore it down and discovered the rust was all on the external surface. Last time it was cleaned, in the early 60's (shortly after the last time it was shot), the owner (Dad), who was/is a graduate engineer and should know better, swabbed the bore and cylinders with 30 weight oil, which is what he happened to have right there at the time. Which basically dried and formed a hard caramelized rust-proof coating on the bore and cylinders, as well as most of the action parts (he drizzled oil down the hammer, he seems to recall...).

Sometimes the doofus thing is the best thing. Just sayin'...

Anyways, my gunsmith buddy, Mike, picked up the ol' Webley and started crooning to it, "You ol' pig, you!" and proceeded to work. He stripped it down, bead-blasted all the parts, then hot blued it. Then decided that didn't look right, so he stripped it down again, bead blasted it back to the white again, and parkerized it. Which he decided "looked right" to him.

Took him the better part of 3 weeks. Then refused to let me pay more than the cost of the Brownell's Parkerizing Kit, because of the gun's provenance.

I loaded up some handloads using cut-down 45 Colt brass and a Lee .452 RNFP bullet, which shoots pretty decently.
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"I'm gonna have to science the schit out of this." Mark Watney, Sol 59, Mars