I heard of this company years ago but, don't think I've ever seen one in person.
Printable View
I heard of this company years ago but, don't think I've ever seen one in person.
I don't think so. "Single Actions" should lead you to Seville history. I have one.
Negative. They were made by United Sporting Arms, and became extinct about 1986. I've got one in blue steel, .44 Mag., 7 1/2" barrel. High quality revolver, quite similar to the Ruger Super Blackhawk, which if I remember correctly generated a small legal action between the two makers.
DG
Quote:
Originally Posted by Der Gebirgsjager
FWIW, Ruger used to cast frames for several different manufacturers at their frame casting subsidiary, Pine Tree Castings, NH
.
Mine is a blue 357 w/ a 4 5/8' barrel. They got in trouble for the transfer bar, I think. The blue is the shiniest I've ever seen. It's heavier than a Blackhawk but is supposed to take Super BH grip panels, but I haven't tried.
The Seville was basicly a hand made Ruger Super Blackhawk, they paid Ruger royalties for the transfer bar design. They went bankrupt, a membr of our club lost his gun, in for repair, in the bankrupsy.
I switched to Dan Wesson guns, then later to the El Darado, made in Chimney Rock, NC. The El Darado was everything the Seville was not, and much better than the Ruger Super Blackhawk or Ruger SRM.
Then the Freedom Arms guns came along and it was game over for other precision revolver makers. The FA 353 silhouette and the 252 sillouette guns made it possible for a top rated revolver shooter to bring one gun to a four gun silhouette match and win the match aggregate. This was unhead of until the advent of the FA series of silhouette guns.
Lots of good info above.
The El Dorado guns,, were made in a few different places. But the Chimney Rock NC guns were the pinnacle of them. I was a much younger,, (read; inexperienced,) fellow back then,, w/o the background knowledge I now have. See,, I used to go to the El Dorado manufacturing plant,, as it was just a few miles down the road. It wasn't actually in Chimney Rock,, but about 10 miles down the road between Lake Lure & a community called Green Hill. The building is still there. I knew the builders,, Forrest & Russ. I was broke enough to not be able to buy one of their guns,, but I handled a lot of them, and shot several. I always wanted one in either .45 Colt,,, or .357 Maximum.
Many years after Russ & Forrest closed up,, (in the mid 1990's, was when they closed.) I was fortunate enough to have a friend call me about an El Dorado. It was in Ga. And it promptly moved back home to WNC.A few months after I got it,, and had the time,, I went to visit Russ. (Forrest had passed a few years after the closing.) We had a great time,, and he remembered I'd always wanted one in .45 Colt. That was what I had found. I had his wife snap a picture of us together,, with the gun,,, and it's a treasure of mine. Russ passed away 10 days later. I'll see about posting the picture here.
Great guns, and I wanted to honor my friends by hunting with the gun for something special. Well, it went on a trip in 2019 for elk,, but sadly,, no elk were found. So,, this season,,, I took it out & killed a couple of deer with it. That & a coyote.
Here's a picture of Russ & I together.
https://i.postimg.cc/3JynPjTR/OVHL6057.jpg
Another thing. I was able to eventually buy Forrest's personal exhibit gun. It is a 357 Mag, blued & brass,,, used at shows to let potential customers know what they COULD build if desired.
AND,,, if anybody is interested,, I have several sets of paperwork from United Sporting Arms, 1984. The sets are; "All new for 1984" showing the .375 Super Mag, the .454 Magnum, and listing the .357 Maximum/Super Mag. And; The "Consumer Price List" the "Dealer Price List", the "Distributor Price list."
These are from when they were in Tucson Az.
So, if any of y'all who are fans of the Sevilles need a set PM me to discuss it.
Maybe worth noting is that United Sporting Arms revolvers started out as "Abilenes"..personally I've never found much difference in quality between those and the Sevilles I've owned...the Hamllton Bowen 38/40 reworked Abilene is the one I miss....
contender1: great story, thanks.
There are a small number of folks who are serious about their Abilenes, Sevilles & El Dorados. On the single action forum, there's a great write-up about the history of them.
Many of us believe the pinnacle of those guns were the ones built in NC,, known as the "Chimney Rock" guns. Russ told me that he chose the address of Chimney Rock because it was such a beautiful place, and many folks would recognize it.
The shop where these guns were made isn't a big place. And today,, looks nothing like it did back then. It was sold & turned into a home.
Russ was a meticulous person in many ways. As they were building the place,, I saw the way he did the electrical wiring. I have never before, nor since seen such a clean, picture perfect wiring layout,, EXCEPT on paper by an engineer. You would have thought the wiring diagram had been placed on the walls & such. Straight, labeled, flat wires, no folds or kinks, just as you'd see it on a drawing.
And in handling the guns, Forrest was a picture of a grumpy old man,, who didn't say much,, but did meticulous work in a fashion to make it look easy. But he really wasn't grumpy,, just seemingly in thought a lot. In fact,, when talking to him,, he was always pleasant to me,, even if I was young & lacked the knowledge about many things there.
Russ,, a talker. I used to compare him to my fast talking yankee uncle who always used his hands as he spoke. But both Russ & Forrest were kind to me. They suffered my questions,, and even allowed me to use machines when I need to do so,, if they weren't using one.
And I'd always lament my lack of funds,, along with my desires of one of their fine guns. Back then,, I didn't have much money to spare,, and you could buy a Ruger Super Blackhawk for $200-$250,, and their guns started at about $400. Just couldn't afford one then.
But as a SCUBA diver & all,,, Russ & I used to talk about the steel they used in their guns. He'd say I could take one of his guns diving,, and it wouldn't hurt it. I'd come back with,, give me a klunker to try that with. Russ also had figured out a method of rifling the barrels in that tough steel that was a different process than what others did. Even the day that picture of us was taken,, we discussed that. He said he'd "take that info to the grave." I tried to get him to at least write it down & all to keep knowledge from dying. He refused.
He & Forrest had been through some tough times with US Arms & all. A few people had "done them wrong" according to him. As such,, he felt a bit betrayed.
I think that much of it came from one segment wanting to mass produce,, and they wanted to produce top quality. The El Dorados are certainly the best quality of the bunch.
So,, When I finally got me one,, Russ was quite happy. And later on,, when I was offered the chance to get the gun Forrest had built to use at shows,, I quickly snagged it. I recognized the gun immediately. I'll see if I can post a picture shortly of my two.
Here's a picture of a pair of .45 Colt El Dorados. The top one is mine,, and the bottom one is one of the very last ones they built. As they were closing down, a friend of mine went there, got Forrest to help him & put together the bottom one. There are differences in them.
https://i.postimg.cc/XNksv3hZ/012.jpg
And here's the picture of the sample gun, owned by Forrest,, to show off their potential options. It was actually kinda rare,, as they didn't do many blued guns,, and the brass was very uncommon as well.
https://i.postimg.cc/tgQGdpz3/VBAQ1052.jpg