Has anyone tried a "Franken gun"?

[TexasAndy]

Since inventory is so scare right now I'm considering see if I can get the parts together to make a Pietta/Uberti revolver thingy. I see the frames with the arbor may be difficult to get but I wonder how much fitting is required?

 

[sawyer04]

if I can get the parts together to make a Pietta/Uberti revolver thingy.

If the parts are cheap or on hand go for it. Pats are excessively high in my opinion. How is your lathe and mill skills? You'll need some. Good Luck, and keep us posted.

 

[Enfield58]

Flintlock revolver.

Steampunk revolver?

 

[J dirt]

I have put together a few frankennavies from pietta parts.

I current have a couple of spare frames, both with arbors. One is a brass frame and one with steel frame.

If interested, let me know.

Thanks, J.B.

 

[sourdough]

I guess it depends upon what the definition of a "Frankengun" is.

I have found that the Pietta 1851 Navy .36 CNC (~2002-present date) revolvers are very conducive to parts swapping with little to no fitting. Be forewarned that the pre-CNC Pietta 1851 Navy revolvers have different internal dimensions than the CNC guns, thus the bolt, hand, trigger, et al are different. There are also at least three different 3-piece (backstrap, trigger guard, wood) grip assemblies which I term the Small Tail [AZ/1990 (or before) through BP/2001], the Large Tail (BS/2002 through CM/2014), and the Non Tail (CN/2015 through present). They will interchange as a 3-piece assembly to any Pietta 1851 Navy frame (and usually the 1860 Army/1861 Navy), but the parts will not interchange among the assemblies. Clear as mud? If you want to delve deeper I can create a thread about this as I have done previously on another forum.

I would definitely take J.B./J dirt up on his offer. One used to find them on Ebay when new(er) revolvers were available for folks to buy a revolver, part it out, and sell the various parts at (usually) inflated prices. I have always gone to VTI Welcome to VTI Replica Gun Parts - VTIGunparts.com Online Store for parts and they are good folks. However, due to the pandemic in Italy I have no idea what their stocks are like.

Insofar as my Frankenguns, they are not outlandish but are not something that Pietta ever marketed.

My 1851 Navy .36 2nd Model Belt Dragoon (which is not historical, nor was it ever produced by Pietta). It started life as a Pietta 1851 Navy .36 CM/2014. It had ugly dark straight-grained quarter-sawn walnut wood, which I replaced with a figured piece of European hardwood grip I found on Ebay. I then ordered the smooth/plain/non-engraved cylinder and the part round/part octagon barrel from VTI (which are stock items from the Pietta Griswold & Gunnison). I used the load-lever/rammer assembly from the original barrel. I found a squareback trigger guard from VTI that fit the Large Tail configuration. It even has a factory color case trigger which I dare someone to find these days.

Anyone got one like it? Then I guess it is a Frankengun.

Regards,

Jim

 

[Enfield58]

Watch one too many spaghetti westerns and eventually someone thinks they can be like Eli Wallach

 

[S.Kenton]

That’s my favorite scene from the good, the bad and the ugly...

 

[user 33697]

This Eli Wallach scene in the movie brings up a thought. Both Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach had percussion to metallic conversion revolvers in the movie. Did such revolver conversions exist during the civil war years or just chock this up to a historical mistake made by the Italian movie production company?

 

[S.Kenton]

I’d say that the old spaghetti westerns weren’t too terribly historically accurate. I just take them for what they are and that’s good entertainment.