Back From the Dead!!

[EMC45]

This is a Taurus Ultra Lite 38 spec. I have had for a looonnnngggg time! I bought this gun in 1997-8 and shortly there after the FP spring broke. It has sat in bag since 1998!! Well I was contemplating sending it off to Taurus and decided to take an inventory of parts so I would know what I needed them to fix/replace. I realized the only thing missing was the offending FP spring and the hand plunger spring! Also the screw keeper in the grips, hence the Ghetto fix of several rubber bands. Well I went into the springs reserve I have which is a good bit of them. I looked and looked. Cut and fitted until I got the right ones in the right place. Did a dry fire function test and also popped 3 primers. I was kinda pumped when I got it all together. I only had a partial 50 box of 148gr. Lee WCs over 4gr. of some oolllddddd Winchester HS500 lit with a Win SPP.

[EMC45]

I shot this at roughly 10yds. It was pinned to a tree and I basically point shot this grouping. It is fighting gun distance! The bottom right circled group was intentional..http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm243/Evansguns/102_2378.jpg

[SciFiJim]

Fix the grips and it would do great for night stand duty.

[MtGun44]

What exactly is the 'FP spring'. I am very familiar with S&W revolvers, but not
familiar with that term.

Bill

[EMC45]

What exactly is the 'FP spring'. I am very familiar with S&W revolvers, but not
familiar with that term.

Bill

Taurus uses a frame mounted firing pin. The FP spring is for the firing pin to rebound. I prefer my Smiths with the frame mounted pins, but like I said this was sitting in a bag for the past 12 years and now it works.

[Bret4207]

Ain't nuthin' wrong with that friend. There was a cranky old man back home carried an ancient 2" 32 or 38 of the chrome and mother of pearl variety. Everyone assumed it was for "protection" from his various "enemies" (parts of the Adirondacks are big on feuding). One of his kids told me it was all bull and the old guy just liked to shoot a lot. He claimed the old man could hit cut offs at the mill from a good 50 paces or more, those were about the size of an old style small Coke bottle.

Practice makes perfect!

[EMC45]

Center mass-Dead all day long......

[EMC45]

UPDATE.............I took it all down again last night and modded one thing. A little dab of cold blue here and there too. I realized I wasn't pushing the grip screw in far enough to engage the keeper on the other side. Now the grips are secure, minus the ruber bands, and she is looking good. I plan to load up some more WCs tonight with 4gr. WIN500HS. May just hack off the hammer spur as well. Make it a bobbed hammer gun......

[Multigunner]

When rebuilding a relic Model 37 to shootable condition, it had lain under the mud of a lake bottom for many years before a friend found it with a metal detector when the lake was drawn down. The mainspring and its seat were gone among other things. Those weren't hard to make replacements for.
Another spring that had disappeared completely was the tiny cylinder latch return spring, which is necessary only to engage the safety lock out to prevent firing when the cylinder is unlocked.
The hole it goes in is super small, I finally remembered a tiny spring popping out of the telescoping pin of a wrist watch bad. I dug a spare one out of the jewelry box and scavenged the spring, it fit perfectly.

The cylinder catch had also disappeared, probably rusted away completely, I hand made a replacement from aircraft alloy. The rest of the Model 37 was nickel plated alloy with a hard chromed barrel. The barrel retained almost all its chrome, but the nickel plating of frame and early version alloy cylinder had turned into a thick flakey crust that could be scraped away with a fingernail.
The grips had also rotted away.
The old pistol turned out to be a good shooter despite its travails. The alloy cylinder did begin show signs of developing jugged chambers though, so I traded it off a few years later on.
The alloy cylinders had a problem of bulging of cracking so they recalled them early on and replaced the cylinders with steel.