What is this thing attached to an old Colt?

[Ballistics in Scotland]

The possibilities are much extended by the fact that it is unfinished. It could be a target pistol with no target sights yet, and the firing-pin not yet shortened and rounded off to suit that breech face. But a couple of other possibilities are a device for fireforming small rifle cartridges at home, or a military or industrial fuse igniter.

[Motard]

Slaughterhouse pistol?

[pietro]

.

IMO, it's more of an "un-revolver"....


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[JimmyTheDentist]

IMO, it's more of an "un-revolver"....

Yeah, it is most certainly no longer a revolver!

You guys sure do know a lot about guns . . . all this info, even the guesses that may be off the mark, seems pretty well informed!

The owner found a barrel and so now we can see how it screws into the frame and how you could seat a single round at the breach. And how it would be a simple thing to change calibers.

There are no markings whatsoever on the barrel. And so I am uncertain of the caliber. And no place for any type of front sight blade . . . so the tapped holes might point to this thing being used for some sort of target shooting. Though removing the spent case seems like it would preclude any timed competition.

Overall length is 10.125in. An imprecise measure with my dial caliper shows the ID at the muzzle end is roughly .221 and at the breach end, in order to accommodate the case, it’s .348

She found no ammo lying around but did have a couple of empty boxes of “.218 Bee” . . . with which I am wholly unfamiliar.




Thanks to CRANK for the info about the Colt frame . . . no numbers on the bottom of the frame at the grip . . . and it doesn’t look “tampered” with . . . so I figure this is probably a New Service Model.

And thanks very much to all the rest of you fine folks for all the input. Now that I‘ve got some ideas I’ll keep digging around for specifics. Using the references you folks provided here should allow me to fill in the blanks about where it actually came from and when.

On a separate but related note, the owner has no interest in this thing. Nor do I. So it’s up for grabs if anybody out there wants to make an offer for it.

Again, I sure do appreciate you all taking the time to sound off on this thing!

Jimmy the Dentist

[Ola]

Single shot breech block?? Kinda reminds me of the Ruger Hawkeye from the early 60's that had a roll out breech for the 256 Winchester Magnum.

My thoughts exactly..

[Ballistics in Scotland]

That barrel pretty well clears up that a target pistol was what was intended. In theory it might be more accurate than a target revolver, but that is mighty theoretical, and it would take a better pistol shot than me to find a difference. The use of the Colt frame is logical enough, since unlike the Smith and Wesson it didn't depend on locking in a barrel lug at the front of the ejector rod, which would be hard to duplicate.

Someone with the patience could probably rebuild it into an extremely good revolver. But I doubt if it would be justified for the person who has to pay to have it done.

[Dutchman]

1969 edition NRA Gunsmithing Guide

[JimmyTheDentist]

1969 edition NRA Gunsmithing Guide

that is F A N T A S T I C ! ! !

i'm getting old enough to realize that many of life's little mysteries seem to go forever un-solved.

it sure is satisfying - especially these days - to get a definitive answer about things mis-understood.

thanks very much, Dutchman, for taking the time to find / scan / post this great little article and for clearing up all my confusion!

J the D

[Nueces]

Overall length is 10.125in. An imprecise measure with my dial caliper shows the ID at the muzzle end is roughly .221 and at the breach end, in order to accommodate the case, it’s .348

She found no ammo lying around but did have a couple of empty boxes of “.218 Bee” . . . with which I am wholly unfamiliar.

Jimmy the Dentist

Jimmy, your caliper measurements are consistent with the 218 Bee case, which is just the 32-20 necked down to 22. I could send you an orphan case that you could try in the chamber. PM me if interested.

[JimmyTheDentist]

one last thought about this if there's still anybody out there following along . . .

this article seems to make it clear that these things were never mass-produced, yeah?

is it safe to assume that "Gunsmith Harry Creighton of Nashville, Tenn" cranked out a few of these and that's all there is?

or that maybe the author, Capt. Franklin C. Green USAF, did some messin' about with his spare parts but the idea never caught on and so not more than a very few exist?

the Ruger Hawkeye single-shot pistol seems not to have been overly popular either, right?

does scarcity in this instance make this a valuable collector's item? or does it's uniqueness make it nearly worthless?

in any event i gotta get my hands on some .218 Bee and get out to the range!

thanks again, all.

James

[CLAYPOOL]

Runfiverun are you willing to sell said Dan Wesson barrels and their caliber..?

[JimmyTheDentist]

. . . your caliper measurements are consistent with the 218 Bee case . . . I could send you an orphan case that you could try in the chamber . . .

thanks ever so much to Nueces for taking the time to find, pack and ship the brass to me so that i can close the book on this little caper.

he was right-on . . . and his case fit this thing just like he said it would!

his generosity allowed me to take the next step and track down some factory rounds of .218 Bee in order to make certain everything would seat properly.




while i've got no easy way to temporarily mount a scope, i at least do have the crappy old replacement grips that came on the gun . . . i hope they (or any of the rest of the thing for that matter) don't get blown off or up or out while i'm fiddling about at the range.

i guess the last thing to do now, before i say goodbye to this freaky bit of old gun junk, is to get out there and see if i can't hit the side of that proverbial barn.

thanks again, everybody, for all the input/help/guidance/patience you've provided . . . i sure do appreciate it!

Jimmy the Dentist

[Nueces]

Hooaah!

[Whiterabbit]

how do you extract cases?

[pistol]

Thanks to all you guys from a newcomer (but OLD shooter): I find your inputs simply fantastic, on any subjects. To say the truth, I have found ALL shooters, all over the world, to be a very nice bunch of people, a sort of fraternity across borders. Thank you for being what you are!

[Tackleberry41]

I guess in some cases this was a way to keep using a pistol that might cost to much to fix? The factory produced ones did not sell well, so guess their only really good as a cheap project. I would think taking the barrel on and off to load, besides being tedious, would also sort of ruin it as a target pistol. Or having them in multiple calibers as the poa would change all the time.

[Nueces]

how do you extract cases?

Pop 'em out with a rod down the muzzle. The Ruger Hawkeye, based on the Blackhawk frame, made use of the standard ejection rod, with a tab on the back acting on the case rim. See http://stevespages.com/pdf/ruger_hawkeye.pdf

So, with some more engineering, I bet a Colt or Ruger rod housing could be installed as with the Hawkeye.

[JimmyTheDentist]

I guess in some cases this was a way to keep using a pistol that might cost to much to fix? . . . taking the barrel on and off to load, besides being tedious, would also sort of ruin it as a target pistol. Or having them in multiple calibers as the poa would change all the time.

never dawned on me that maybe this original rig was so screwed up that it might have been more economical and fun to make these modifications rather than scrapping the whole thing . . . that sure does help explain why somebody would bother with such a contraption.

you don't need to remove the barrel to load . . . the "firing pin block" swings aside on the crane just as if there were a normal cylinder there (there are more pics backwards in this thread). and that allows for simply pushing the spent case out from the muzzle . . . i've got a thin brass rod that will hopefully do the trick.

but you make another good point about utilizing different calibers. i originally figured you'd simple buy different barrels with different chambers . . . swap out the barrel and then you could get right back to shootin', right? but you'd need to spend a heck of a lot of time/ammo sighting in each caliber prior to any practical use of the thing. and i guess that might sour me on the whole idea.

plus, where would you buy barrels for this? you'd need to fabricate your own, yes? i'm no good in the machine shop so i'd hope to find just one that might work.

and the one we find is .218 Bee?! why in the world would anybody choose .218 Bee for cripes sake?!

thanks.

J the D