Give him some credit. He mentioned the light strikes, breakage, as well as the need to clock the barrel and file the sight. If it were G&A they'd be going on about how great the Taurus Curve is.
Give him some credit. He mentioned the light strikes, breakage, as well as the need to clock the barrel and file the sight. If it were G&A they'd be going on about how great the Taurus Curve is.
"Gunfighting is a thinking man's game. So we might want to bring thinking back into it."-MDFA
Beware of my temper, and the dog that I've found...
If you went to S&W armorers school, you were issued your babbitt bar for fine adjustments.Originally Posted by Stephanie B
But the barrel bender I read about uses an arbor press.
On the one hand, when I had my Cimarron/ASM twisted and milled, I shot it on paper and did the geometry. First, FLG milled the rear hog wallow with as much bias to the right as would clean up the V and form a normal width square notch. I then deducted the bias and figured the remaining adjustment to be taken up by rotating the barrel. He got it right the first try. Then milled for elevation. The gun shoots to the center of the (large close) plates standard in CAS.
On the other hand, even a gun shot in at the factory is an approximation. Jeff Cooper once showed a target shot by him and a colleague. Same gun, same ammo; but the groups barely overlapped. Hands and eyes differ.
Last edited by Jim Watson; 11-28-2019 at 11:24 AM.
Code Name: JET STREAM
"Oddly enough, some folks keep house without a lathe and milling machine..."
An ongoing frustration that I don't have them in my own garage. But it's Houston, so I'd spend too much time failing to keep them from rusting. Need to figure out how move out of this moldy mosquito swamp...
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Not another dime.
Interesting that a pro gunsmith just sticks a board through the frame.
We are frequently warned that this will bend the gun and we must have a $200 wrench.
https://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-t...5104-3450.aspx
Code Name: JET STREAM
Thanks for this link. I haven’t read Bowen’s book in years, but I remember that it had at least one laugh-out-loud line on every page. This article is the same.
Just do these by eyeball as well as you can—this thing isn’t going to the moon.
Okie John
“The reliability of the 30-06 on most of the world’s non-dangerous game is so well established as to be beyond intelligent dispute.” Finn Aagaard
"Don't fuck with it" seems to prevent the vast majority of reported issues." BehindBlueI's
I won't say an unkind word about Taffin.
The man has treated me quite kindly when he did not have to.
Years back I was cruising the aisles of a local gunshow when I found a 5.5" .357 Flattop. The grips were handcarved of a deer and they looked to be worth more than the Flattop .357 that they resided on. I really wanted them, as I had previously picked up a very rare 7.5" .44 Magnum Flattop, of which only approximately 1,000 were ever produced.
Ended up the .357, though externally was a mess was actually in good shape internally.
However I did not care for the 5.5" barrel.
Though I did not really know John, we have friends in common, as well as he and my dad both retired from the same outfit.
Not long after I was in Boise attending a show.
Mr. Taffin and I had gone to breakfast (He, Lee Jurrass and I used to correspond a little).
Long story short(er) I told Mr Taffin that my wish was to shorten the barrel and do some frame swapping, though I really had no knowledge at the time how to do so.
I ended up at Mr. Taffin's home after the show, where he produced the barrel and grip frame it is wearing now as gifts.
He proceeded to show me how to swap frames, which I did onto the .44 Flattop. Later I had the barrels swapped by a gunsmith.
So, now I call my .357 Flattop with the frame and barrel given to me by Mr. Taffin, my Taffin Gun:
The pistol actually shoots pretty darn straight, though it looks rough externally.
It appears like it may have laid on its side in a pool of water for some extended period of time, such as in a truck box or something.
Wet saddlebag, I don't know.
I like the look of it.
I never bothered to re-finish it, as that would mess up the cool look.
I never have to worry about the finish when the weather gets bad and I am out bashing bunnies in the deep mid winter snow either!
So that is the tale of my Taffin gun.
It is well vetted as a Jackrabbit SLAYER!
Here are those grips I originally wanted, and swapped grip frames for. They reside on my .44 FT.
John Taffin may not be in this particular part of the gun culture, but his kindness has never been forgotten.
And theres a video at the S&W Performance Center showing them building new revolvers and using what amounts to an open end wrench towards the rear of the frame to snug the barrels up on new guns. About 2:40 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRbUn214yUs
I havent messed with SA revolver barrels yet (I know a guy that can do it if I need it done), but S&W barrels arent that hard to work with. I make hardwood blocks that are somewhat close to the barrel contours and use the ejector shroud or cylinder front lock block to help get traction, and make similar block for the frame. Put a yoke in the frame to help support it. Ks should have an old yoke used that you can grind clearance on the gas flange for the barrel to turn. Blocks can be made from new scraps of oak flooring. I clamp them in the bench vise and in handles made from angle iron or 1x pine boards. A dremel with sanding drums work for some of the fitting of the blocks to the required contours. A handle with two ends gives more even turning force. Its possible to twist the frame if they are really tight and using a single torquing point, as many non-pinned ones are, but I dont believe the so-called "crush-fit" theory. Once out, they turn in smoothly to contact like any other pinned smith barrels ive messed with, a "crush fit" woulndt.
Last edited by Malamute; 11-28-2019 at 08:22 PM.
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”
― Theodore Roosevelt
Because of this:
https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....l=1#post532532
I did this:
https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....l=1#post542116
Revolvers are different...
In a semiauto the recoil is felt when the slide hits the frame at the end of the rearward cycle. By this time, the bullet has looong left the bore...
In a revolver the recoil is felt inmediatly as the bullet is travelling the bore, and the height ove bore is MUCH larger. That's why they are far more finicky to grip strenght and individual shooting technique.
I'm plotting how to make a mandrel to turn an S&W two-piece barrel. I have one that needs to be set back. I sent it to S&W and they said it's fine. (It's not fine. The truth is that they don't have any replacement barrels for this one that they f'ed up when originally building the gun.) And I can't find a smith who will talk about working on this model. So either it's a paperweight, or I grow a pair and figure some stuff out.
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Not another dime.
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