This is the first revolver I ever bought as a youngster:
I bought it mail order from an ad in a magazine, price listed was $24.95, or $32.95 in excellent condition. It was a .45 Colt New Service, formerly a .455 Eley from the Canadian Mounties. I shot it for awhile as a .45 Colt, then had it converted to .44 Special. I had a machine shop install the S& W rear sight, and a gun shop install the Micro ramp front sight and reblue the entire gun. Using some scrap walnut I had on hand,. I made the target stocks. The gun was stolen from a gunsmith's shop in 1972, and I got a Ruger Blawkhawk .41 Magnum to replace it. Afterward I went through several M1917 Colts.
I've gone through several Colt double action revolvers since then, now all my Colts are Single Action revolvers, mostly New Frontiers.
Bob Wright
P.S. As a side note, when starting my custom work, I went to a local gunsmith for the S&W rear sight. "Can't be done," he told me and dismissed me. I figured he just didn't want to fool with me, as he was a highly acclaimed 'smith, building custom rifles for African hunters. So I made a sketch of what I wanted and went to a machine shop owned by an old German machinist. I took him my gun and my drawing and showed it to him, and he said, in a thick accent, "You come back T'ursday." The charge was $60.
Remembering that episode years later, I went to drafting school, learned the trade and spent the next forty years in the engineering field!