doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com S&W Single Shots

Waterman,

I tried to find an e-mail from Mark Benenson which relates to introduction date of the Tompkins, but it must have been part of another message as I don't find it. Late 1940s is my recollection.

There was an article in AR when the Tompkins came out, I think actually by Townsend Whelen or perhaps General Hatcher, one of that group anyway. It was much praised.

That is the 99 we were shooting on Sunday. I'll tell the new owner a thing or two about his rifle!

BTW : I spoke with James Tucker today and he said both he and Monte made and checkered grips for Terry's S&W, different styles of target grips made as ONE-PIECE grips. I you look closely at the two piece grips I made for the first gun posted here you will get a perspective on how difficult that was. Made from pipe burl!

And both James and I have quit making handgun grips for other folks, they just take tooo much time, tooo much money. The last set I made cost $1000 and when I told the client he said, "Don't ever tell me they cost that much, just bill me. I can't believe I would pay that much for a set of grips!" They were bookmatch target grips for a large frame S&W, extensively checkered and piano finished. Many, many, many hours!

Steve,
What is "piano finished"?

Brent

Steve,
Over the years I’ve thought about building a Colt single-action in the style of G&H and Kornbrath circa 1924. I have worked most of this out in my head but learned there is no such thing as a pre-war Colt SAA that is anything but very valuable, never mind there are thousands for sale at any given moment. It would be a 4 ¾” .44-Special, S&W rear sight, Colt New Service target front, Engraving in the same place and style as the very early G&H’s, burl one-piece fleur-de-lis pattern grips, just like the early G&H and in a Patton Holster ;-). Dreams are good and they cost nothing.

Brent, "Piano finish" usually refers to a very high gloss and is achieved with varnish or French polish.

Michael, this is as far as I got!
Bought the gun more than 20 years ago when I was infatuated with SAA's. It was the only one I could afford, a First Gen. with Christy .44 Special barrel and cylinder, my favorite caliber. Had a hole in bottom grip frame for strange grips. I don't think you could find a better layout for SAA grips, I looked at hundreds of pieces of wood, this one has no stain BTW and genuine one-piece not glued together grips. Hand polish and engraving were to follow. The S&W and NS sight ideas weren't in my dream, but I like the idea! And I've got the Patton holster from El Paso Saddlery!
The best thing about it was the very valuable Colt books I bought a the time and still own!


It's not too late! although I've always wondered if it would letter to Pat Garrett!

Pretty nice pistol to say the least.
Thanks for the clarification. Seems obvious in hind sight. But leads me to another question - I think I'll start another thread for it.
Brent

Steven,

Great pistol, again it seems we think along the same lines. That is one of the best sets of SSA grips I have seen and one piece to boot, I'm impressed. Also a blued frame, which I like. As things happen I was at the range today with my SAA clone blasting away and having a great time. All this talk of SAA I realized it had been a while.


I've been admiring this for some time, any idea who did the work?
http://www.hallowellco.com/Custom%20Wells%20Fargo%201849.htm

Michael, here's a photo of my own SA Colt with S&W rear sight. This is a 'J' frame sight because I found that the somewhat larger 'K' and 'N' frame sights were simply too large for the Colt backstrap, without welding a knot onto the top rear of the strap. The elevation adjustment on the larger-frame sights requires a deep slot cut forward into the strap; the cut would have weakened the issue strap unacceptably and I didn't want to add a knot, so I used the smaller sight and have had splendid results with it for almost 40 years now.

This particular SA left the Colt factory in 1894 as a 44-40 with 7.5" barrel and ivory grips. I bought it from Thad Scott around 1970 as a 5.5" 22LR with homemade grips, with some slight amateur metal 'smithing' unfortunately already performed on the strap. I converted it back to original caliber specs with a spare 44 Special cylinder and then shot it as my preferred belt gun and test mule SA for the next 35 years, never even bothered to correct the amateur buffing job. Wore out the replacement NOS Colt 44-40 bbl (~10K rounds), then used it as a 22LR, 22WMR, 357 Mag, 41 Special (a wildcat but a MOST splendid combination!), 45 Colt plus I have at least one more bbl/cylinder set hoarded back for when I get tired of it as-is (G).

I've been rebuilding these 1st-gen SAs since 1970, have restored many dozen junkers to nice shooting condition for myself and a few friends. I really like them but there are an untold number of fakes out there so caveat emptor!

BTW the Colt cylinder throat and bbl groove dimensions are a nightmare of conflicting reports and measurements, but it IS possible to get a good matchup by knowing which generation (1st, 2nd, 3rd) part to substitute. I won't hijack this thread any further but will supply info to anyone requesting it via email or on another thread.
Regards, Joe