A collection of posts often on colt E- and I-frame revolvers: pythons, model 357s, officer model specials, etc. Topics not limited to: action jobs, fixing Bubba-gone-wrong gunsmith mistakes, and revolver porn. And sometimes I'll wander off the reservation and type random nouns and verbs that have nothing to do with our sole purpose, because who the hell can really pay attention that long?

Saturday, May 16, 2009

another SA-only officers model match


Just picked up a second OMM converted to single action only.

(For reference, the previous thread is at:
factory SA-only OMM)

Unlike the first one this was almost certainly done by someone other than the factory.

Here's the pistol all in one piece:




I am a sucker for fully checkered stocks. These are completely pristine. I'd almost think they were just made other than the green corrosion by the medallion on the inside:




One theory before was that an easy check for a factory-job was that when cocked the hammer would stop halfway, as it does on this one:



However, when you take the sideplate off, you see the half cock is not b/c of a stop inserted into the frame, but rather b/c the hammer cocks using the *bottom* of the trigger sear! In a sense the cocking notch has been removed from the hammer, cut into the trigger sear, and the hammer toe turned into a sear:









Removing the hammer and trigger and comparing them (left) to a normal OMM hammer and trigger (right), you can see the hammer was reworked significantly: (1) the DA strut removed (obvious), (2) the hammer toe reshaped, (3) the back of the hammer and the bottom cut in (reducing weight = reducing lock time?)













Here are close up pictures of the trigger sears (SAO on left, normal on right). You can see the sear has been shortened, and a step cut into it to capture the hammer toe:







Here's the hammer toe:



And the spur has been widened significantly, even compared to a python "target" hammer spur:





As you can see from the frame, other than old grease (just bought it!) there doesn't seem to be modifications to the frame. Though, oddly, like the other SA-only I have seen (and other's have?) the serial number is very close to ending in 00 (in this case xxx5599):



And there you have it.

1 comment:

  1. There is a well illustrated article in the January 1986 issue of Guns magazine concerning a customized Officers Model Special. Bob Chow did the short throw, SA-only conversion along a similar line as that used above. George Matthews then installed a dovetailed Micro rear sight and added a ventilated rib. The revolver was finished off by Fuzzy Farrant who modified the grip frame for his target stocks.

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