JT
That is a pretty good price these days. The
Saturday, November 14, 2020, 14:50

.44 Special rarely ever shows up on the used gun rack. The last time I really stumbled on something special was well I took a Marlin .44 Magnum off the rack to look at it closer and saw the barrel was marked .41 Magnum. I headed to the checkout with my checkbook in hand quickly. Nearly 20 years ago Taylors and Company announced a Model 92 replica at the Shot Show. I ordered one however it never materialized.

About 40 years ago I saw a little one-inch ad in the Handgun Hunters International club paper, The Sixgunner. It basically just said Custom .44 Specials. I contacted what was then a relatively unknown gunsmith, however that would soon change.
Andy Horvath of Ohio sent me two of his personal .44 Specials. One was a Ruger Old Model .357 Magnum he had converted and the other held a very special interest for me as it was a Model 1892 chambered in .44 Special. Andy had purchased a .44-40 Winchester as a parts gun, however it was in such good shape he decided to convert it to .44 Special. I had a grand time shooting that levergun. When it went back along with its companion sixgun, I also sent a Ruger .357 Old Model with which Andy proceeded to produce the first “L’il Gun”. Andy turned it into a beautiful custom 4” bright blued, round-butted .44 Special and I featured it in an article along with several other L’il Guns which followed it. Andy has been busy ever since. When Hollywood saw my article they called me and wanted to use my L’il Gun for a movie. I said no way as I have seen how you folks treat guns, however I put them in touch with Andy and he made several L’il Guns for the movie as well as the two main actors, Don Johnson and Mickey Rourke. The less said about the movie they were in, the better.