What to do with old worn out revolvers?

V

Vilkata

New member
What do you guys do with old worn out revolvers? Maybe, a gun with sentimental value, but that doesn't shoot good at all anymore, who's barrel is worn out?

I have a .22 revolver that's been in my family for ages, and I'd hate to just melt it down, mount it on a wall, or something like that. Guns need to be fired!

It would probably cost a lot to have it rebarrelled, or anything of the sort. This was a fairly cheap gun my family got when it was quite poor, and its been treated pretty rough in its life, until it got to me. It still fires without a hitch, and lately I haven't had a single problem with it mechanically. It's just horrendously innacurate, and I suspect the timing of the cylinder is off a hair, and the bore is shot.

Any ideas? Realistic, or imaginative? It's built fairly burly, it's too bad .32 Rimfire isnt around anymore, I could probably have had this thing bored up to it...

---
 
What brand and model? If its not too old, you might be able to send it in for a rebarrel and make a shooter out of it.
 
If it is/was a cheap Iver Johnson, Harrington & Richardson, RG, Rohm or some other off brand, your choices are few. I have seen and made some creative wall plaques and I like to see a old and often unsafe revolver displayed. If you have a Colt, S&W, Ruger or Dan Wesson, you need to start with the model ID and then search Brownells and Numrich/Gun Parts Corporation for parts. I had a antique and broken hinge derringer that I made a display of. I used a oval plaque that I covered in green pool table cloth with glue. I edged that with a old leather belt. I trimmed the edge with upholstery tacks. I placed yardsale poker chips and some old reproduction large faro cards and brass reproduction cat house tokens on the plaque. I placed the derringer with the broken hinge down so it did not show. I used CA glue to place a couple of empty cartridges on the plaque. I thought it a good way to retire the derringer. Supplies can be found at www.vandykes.com
 
It's an FIE model E15 Texan, a .22/.22 Magnum gun.

And your right! I had never thought of simply buying a new barrel for it, but Numrich has new barrels, of various lengths, for only 40 bucks!!

If I wanted to get a new barrel, new cylinder, and have a gunsmith install them, and just provide an overall cleanup, maintenance, safety check on this old gun, do you think it would be cost effective? I have absolutely no idea how to fix a cylinder timing problem, if it does have one.

So far I'm looking at around 80 bucks in parts... I wonder how much a gunsmith would cost to dandy her up.

---
 
Probably about 3 or 4 times that much. If you want to put 300 or 400 dollars into the pistol, go ahead - but is it really worth the expense? :confused:

If it were me, and the gun had that much sentimental value, here is what I would do. Take it to your 'smith and have him polish and re-blue it, remove the firing pin, refinish/replace the grip panels and make it into a "killer" paperweight for your desk! ;)

Just my $.02 :cool:
 
are you absoultly sure the barrel is worn out. Ive yet to see a .22 wear out a barrel. Ive had a couple guys tell me theres were and with so heavy elbow grease and a good solvent ive cleanded the lead out of there SMOOTH barrels. Bout the only way to wear out a .22 barrel is with improper cleaning.
 
Unless the bore is rusty there's probably nothing wrong with the barrel. The last thing to wear out on a .22 rimfire is the barrel. If the bore looks smooth then you should also know that there have been some models that came with a smoothbore for shooting shotshellss.
 
I agree, it sounds like the bore needs a good scubbing. Check the crown as well.

I, personally, would not sink any money into it buying parts. I would make sure what it had worked, and either shoot it or retire it. I like the paperweight idea.

Other ways I have seen revolvers retired:
Aquarium ornaments
Armoir handles
Front door handles
Gate ornamentation
Clocks
Bookends
The usual wall hanger
 
I have sort of the same kind of situation. I have a 6 1/2" S&W 25-2 in .45acp that I purchased at a gun show already well used, many years ago. I then put a pickup load of 255 SWC's through it during the pin shooting era.

It was parkerized when I got it and is quite ugly. The hammer will push off when cocked in single action so I bobbed the hammer. It's double action stoke is what dreams are made of due mostly I am sure to the pure number of times it has been fired and dry fired. It is quite loose but will drill a one hole group off sandbags at 25 yards.

I have thought of these options.
1. Make it a project to tackle on my own with the help of Jerry kuhnhausen's shop manuel.
2. Save my pennies and send it off somewhere to one of the renouned pistol smiths to do their magic on.
3. Send it to Smith and Wesson and have them "bring it up to factory specs"

What do you all think?
 
Well like I said, this FIE revolver had an extremely rough time, rust, neglect, hardly ever ever ever being cleaned, until it got to me. I'm the one who polished up the bore, cylinders, re-blued some parts, and all of that. My older brother is one of those guys who claims to love guns, but doesn't take the time to care for any of them.

So the barrel could very well have been rusted out, although it looks fairly smooth right now, after countless Bore Scrubber + Bore Snake sessions.

But guys, I tell you, something is dramatically affecting the accuracy of this gun. At 21 feet, I can shoot near-bullseyes all day long with a 2 inch 25ACP Astra Cub. At 21 feet, I cant even hit the target most of the time. Its absolutely ridiculous.

Say, random question guys, when I turn 21 on December 7th, the first thing I'm going to do is go and pick up a S&W 431PD 32HR. And, I live in the country, but there are houses maybe a little over a quarter mile away in a few directions. I have a small pistol range in a secluded gully as far away from all the houses as I could get. My logic, is the gully will channel most of the sound down it, and reduce the heard sound my neighbors hear. It's perfect for shooting .22LR all day long. But I was curious, just how much louder is .32 Short, Vs. .22LR? Say I wanted to shoot oodles of Magtech .32 Short, do you think they're loud enough to really anger my neighbors?

Thanks in advance!

---
 
Howdy
IMHO I wouldn't put a nickel in it, FIE. 22 revolvers are quite cheap around here, somewhere around $150 or less brand new.
As was said before pull the firing pin use it for a paper weight. :)
 
Ya know Gunsmoke, I think your right. I've had some fun with this gun, but I think it's time to retire it at this point. In the long run, I dont think theres a single reason why I should pump $80 worth of parts into it. Seems idiotic.

---
 
In re the 45 ACP S&W M25; S&W will be the factory spec solution. If it were mine, I would send it to www.cylinder-slide.com or take one of their DIY classes. A FIE? Those were pot metal imports. My first suggestion is to determine if it is one of their fake shroud barrels. You will need to unload the revolver first. Remove the screw that holds the ejector rod onto the barrel. Check and see if the barrel shroud will turn by hand, if it does, remove it. There will be an exposed steel tube left, this is the real barrel. It is interchangable with Heritage Rough Rider revolvers. When checking on parts, look for Heritage Rough Rider. Parts will probably need fitting and red Loc-Tite to hold the barrel assembly. The better solution would be to simply buy a new Heritage Rough Rider 22/22 Magnum for around $150.00. IIRC, the cylnders and the barrel tube were the only carbon steel parts in FIEs. The rest of the revolvers were a zinc alloy.
 
As to the shooting range noise question I would talk to the neighbors first to see what they say. Being in the country there is usually not a lot they can as hunting is usually allowed. In my area there is some kind of hunting season all year long so shooting can be heard on any day at any time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top