Ex, that's a S&W m-63 on the J frame revolver, correct? I've never seen one that had been rebarreled with a heavy target tube.
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Yep. It was a real mess when I got it new in the late ‘70s. Seemed like Stevie Wonder had handled its final quality control inspection. The cylinder face was cut at an angle, such that it very nearly touched the rear of the barrel on one chamber, but showed extremely excessive gap three chambers away. I suppose I coulda sent it back to S&W for warranty correction. However, my answer was to square up the cylinder face by re-cutting it on my lathe, which then necessitated a replacement barrel. A friend donated a discarded 16” stainless steel Hart .22-250 bench rest barrel with a flame eroded leade, but the rest of the bore was perfect. I lathe-turned it into a PPC style barrel, installed it, and marveled at its precision shooting ever since.
It was so effective on jackrabbits and ground squirrels that my shooting buddies at the time started calling it The Death Ray. It even fits in a Bianchi nylon bandolier holster, with protective covering flap, for conveniently carrying it about. That holster can be a bit noisy on the draw, though; unfastening the flap’s snap sounds like a rim shot on a snare drum.
