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condition — it could not be fired. Theheadspace was so tight the cylinderwouldn’t rotate with cartridges in itand one chamber was cut so shallow around wouldn’t seat. The space notused for the headspace was seeminglyadded on to the front, causing exces-sive barrel/cylinder gap. It was time tovisit gunsmith Glen Kyser atBuckhorn Gun Shop.

Simple? Yeah, RightAll Glen had to do was open up the

headspace to the proper dimensionand set the barrel back to re-set thebarrel/cylinder gap. Simple? Wrong!About the only thing right on thewhole gun was the wording “44 SPE-CIAL” on the barrel. Glen found boththe cylinder bushing and base pinwere crooked, so they had to bereplaced. Glen made new parts. Whenhe tried to smooth out the action andset the trigger pull, he found thetrigger was so dangerously soft it hadto be replaced. The cash register wasringing again.

Next a new bolt and hand werefitted. We made it through all of thisand all that was left was to set thebarrel back. Glen pulled the barrel andasked me to take a look at it. In thecenter of the barrel was a ring, not abulge, but a very small, almost indis-

cernible, perfectly circular ring cut inthe barrel. Although I had a couple ofColt .44 Special barrels in my projectparts box, I decided the ring was notlarge enough to hurt anything so westayed with the original barrel.Enough metal was removed to makeone complete turn and thebarrel/cylinder gap was properly set.The ejector rod housing was slightlyshortened, too.

I had removed the beautiful pearlgrips and set them in a safe place untilthe project was finished. Now it wastime to test-fire, so Glen asked me tobring the pearls over for the finalcheck. The grips also turned out to bea little loose so instead of retrievingthe Great Western, I left it there for thegrips to be properly fitted. This nor-mally requires opening up the grip’spinholes, filling them with epoxy, andre-cutting them for a tight fit.

Paying The PiperA few days later my Great Western

.44 Special was ready to go. The shopmanager, Mike Rainey, also an excellentgunsmith, met me along with Glen andsaid I’d better sit down. I knew the totalbill would probably equal the originalprice I had paid for this .44. They gaveme a list of all they had done andmachine time required. They felt so

badly they gave me a large discount. The only thing Glen could figure was

the gun was originally put together withno thought of really trying to make aworking gun of it. Perhaps it was one ofthe last Great Western single actionsassembled, perhaps the fellow who putit together just didn’t care, perhaps noone thought anyone would ever try toshoot it because of the lack of head-space. Perhaps.

All’s Well That Ends WellJust as with the Colt, I passed the

point of no return and it was either fix itor consider the money paid as just a baddebt. The good news is the result is anearly perfect, custom-built .44 singleaction made to my specifications andthe Great Western .44 Special doesshoot well. I always tell folks faced witha money situation to just go ahead andsix months later they will not even missthe money. I took my own advice andnow I don’t miss the money nor do Ieven want to think about how muchmoney I have invested in these two .44single actions.

They, whoever they are, say bad newscomes in threes. I just got this nickel-plated 4" Triple-Lock at a rock-bottomprice because it has been so messed with.I’m not sure I want to dig another moneypit. The man was definitely right who said“If it looks too good to be true, it is.” $

CAMPFIRE TALES Continued from page 114

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114 GUNS MAGAZINE • OCTOBER 2006

MONEY PITS

™

The cards were stacked against meand what makes it really weird is Ishuffled and dealt them to myself. Itwas a cold, wet Saturday and I spentmost of the day at a cowboy actionshooting match. I was tired, wet, had fourblack powder firearms to clean and I wasdumb. It was also gun show day and Iwas going to do both the match and showthe same day. The show was in its lasthour when I arrived, so Ihad to work quickly to findbargains. Dumb!

Halfway through, Ifound that all elusive bar-gain. There on the table wasa 3rd Generation 71⁄2" ColtSingle Action .44-40 foronly $650 — a bargain! Itdidn’t occur to me towonder why such a bargainstill remained. Dumb. Thebarrel and the cylinderlooked new compared tothe pitted frame. The sellersaid it had gotten wet andboth barrel and cylinderwere replaced. The actionseemed quite smooth andOK, and it locked uptightly. The mainframe hadobviously been refinishedand the grip had a differentserial number than themainframe. With all of thisI should have put it back on the table andgone home. Since it had been there allday, I could’ve come down after church,really taken my time and looked it overthe carefully. Instead my prize went homewith me. Dumb.

A Closer LookArriving home, I first cleaned all the

black powder guns, oiled them thor-oughly and put them away. After arefreshing shower and clean clothes myeyes seemed to work better and I saw

things I hadn’t noticed before. Thebarrel was definitely Colt, but thecylinder wasn’t right. The backstrap hada notch at the bottom for a shouldershock and the mainframe seemedthinner than normal. When I dismantledit I found homemade springs whichwould last about a dozen cyclings.

The cylinder was Italian, the back-strap and triggerguard were from areplica percussion revolver and the framehad definitely been polished thinnerbefore being refinished. The $650 pricetag wasn’t looking so good now. Monday

morning, I purchased a new 3rdGeneration .44-40 Colt cylinder, all newscrews and springs, along with a newbolt and hand. Now the price tag was upover $800. I called Eddie Janis atPeacemaker Specialists and arranged tohave him do a complete action job and,since the notches on the hammer weremessed up, I asked him to weld it and re-cut the notches. Can you hear the cashregister ringing?

When Eddie got the Colt he found thehammer was welded already and needed

to be replaced. By now the point of noreturn had been passed and it was eithergo all the way and fix it right or abandonit. One way would mean spending a lotmore money while the other would belosing all I had already invested less whatI could get for the parts. We went ahead.By the time it was finished the backstrapand triggerguard were replaced with gen-uine Colt and the only parts used fromthe original “bargain” were the frameand barrel.

Since the mainframe had some pit-ting, Eddie antiqued the rest of the gun

and I installed a new pair ofblack eagle grips, which werefirst artificially aged bysanding them with a piece ofmesh screen used for sandingdrywall. The bad news is theproject cost me more than abrand new Colt. The goodnews is it is perfectly timedand shoots exceptionallywell. It handles like a dreamwhile looking as if it hasendured many cattle drives.

Lesson Learned? Almost

I vowed it would neverhappen again. But it did ina totally different way. Ittook six years and this timeit would cost more to makeit right. Everyone knows.44 Specials are a specialpassion with me. I amalways on the lookout,

especially classic sixguns from the1950s or earlier. This time my prizewas a very rare Great Western .44Special. In my 50 years of shootingand accumulating, I have seen veryfew Great Western .44 Specials. Thisone was the perfect specimen.

With its nickel-plated finish, 51⁄2"barrel marked “44 Special” and fac-tory pearl stocks, it appeared quitebeautiful and the extra bonus was itwas unfired. I bought it. I soon foundthere was a real reason for its unfired

continued on page 113

The money pits, Colt SAA 71⁄2" .44-40, Great Western 51⁄2" .44 Special, andmoney pit designee, S&W Triple-Lock 4" .44 Special.

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