The beginning of a Colt project...

A couple years back, I bid and won the auction on a 7.5" Colt New Frontier in 44 Special. The gun was new and unfixed. Not a hint of a turn line. A fiend gave me a second cylinder in 44 Special. It required only removing .008" from the front band to fit perfectly.

The action was sloppy. Kelye built me a proper sized base pin, a #5 Keith Style, that cured the problem.

A few days back I found a new Colt 44-40 cylinder on ebay. Very cheap and came with a story.

It was (as the story goes) the cylinder being engraved when the shop got the axe.

Only finished engraving is over one chamber. Some etching on remainder of cylinder.

So, I started work on the cylinder. Removing the outline from the none engraved chambers, fitting to gun and polishing.

The end result was rewarding. Barrel gap of just under .002". Between case head and frame was .003". Throats are all six a tight .431".

I loaded .431" cast bullets and the chamber fine. Barrel slugged .428", so expecting a shooter.

Pictures and range reports after cylinder is blued to match the gun.

Always wanted a dual cylinder Colt. Looks like I may have one soon.