Frankengun 2026

[Waimea]

A bit of history:

July 2019 HK Uriah started a thread about Frankenguns. Those are guns that don't exist in production but someone who has serious skills and time on their hands has put together some very interesting pieces.

Photos ensued.

I'd like to see some updated photos of some Frankenguns.

And HK you are welcome to show off that pepperbox again.

 

 

[watab kid]

i love seeing them , appreciate the workmanship , but heve nothing to offer 

[Nostrum Damus SASS #110702]

This qualifies:

 

You may have seen some of my other posts about it.  It was made up sometime between about 60 and 150 years ago with parts from at least FIVE different Colt SAA revolvers.  I have just recently (two days ago) finished working on it to make it shootable, the problem being that someone A LONG LONG TIME AGO IN A PLACE FAR FAR AWAY did a poor job of converting the cylinder from .38-40 to .44-40, so some work with an appropriate reamer was required.  It is pretty cool.  The parts date as follows: frame - 1878, trigger guard - 1882, backstrap - different but date unknown, barrel - date unknown, hammer - not an original Colt SAA hammer - origin is a total mystery, and grips - FRANZITE brand fake staghorn (FRANZITE grips were made from the 1930s to early 1960s).  I've now loaded up a hundred or so .44-40 cartridges with APP under 200gn RNFP coated pills and will test fire it soon (after donning my UXO suit).

[Nostrum Damus SASS #110702]

And since you asked, here is another one that's probably closer to what you're actually thinking of.  It started life as a Mosin-Nagant 91/30 being carried by a Russian dirt farmer.  I saved it from being a gardening implement and turned it into this EXTREMELY LOUD woods-walkable pig gun.  Pigs hate the 7.62x54mmR cartridge.

Edited January 23 by Nostrum Damus SASS #110702

[H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619]

13 hours ago, Waimea said:

A bit of history:

July 2019 HK Uriah started a thread about Frankenguns. Those are guns that don't exist in production but someone who has serious skills and time on their hands has put together some very interesting pieces.

Photos ensued.

I'd like to see some updated photos of some Frankenguns.

And HK you are welcome to show off that pepperbox again.

 

 

 

Ask. and ye shall receive!

We'll start with these two...



The top is my Big Iron pistol.   It's an Armi San Marco SAA clone with Pietta 1860 grips, and a barrel cut down from a Rossi 92 in .45 Colt.   It's based on the description of the pistol that inspired the Marty Robbins song that used to be on Wikipedia.

Bottom gun is the above mentioned Pepperbox.  It's built on an FIE 1851 frame, and was built by Happy Trails.  It's ostensibly chambered for .357 Magnum, but I usually run .38 Long Colts in it.

 

This technically counts.  It's a Colt 1860 that was made in 1860.   At some point in its life, it was cartridge converted with a loading gate and everything.   Then, at a later point, the loading gate was apparently filled it, and it was rebarreled and recylindered to .32 S&W Long.  The barrel and cylinder seem to be of modern manufacture.



This is much more of a Frankengun than I realized.   It's a first generation Colt, and the original barrel has been replaced with a .22 caliber one.   The cylinder has been sleeved to .22 Hornet, the trigger guard has been replaced with this apparently nickeled one, and it was pointed out to me that is is actually all built on a Bisley frame.   The grips are not original.  They were broken and falling off.

 

 

 

And then there is this, sitting proudly with my Big Iron is what I am now calling my Small Iron.  It's a Pietta.  It has a transfer bar.  It started life as a .357 Magnum.  The barrel has been lined to .32 caliber and the original cylinder sleeved to .32 Long Colt.  The blued spare cylinder is now a .32 S&W Long, and the barrel has been shortened to 3.5"

Both guns MAY see some further modification.  The Big Iron may get its brass trigger guard replaced with a steel one.  The Small Iron may get the transfer bar removed unless doing so is overly complicated.  I had considered putting Bird's Head grips on the Small Iron, as I had a pair and they make the gun "look" smaller.   But, they are Uberti grips and don't fit here.   Finally, especially if I do these additional mods, both guns might make a trip to Turrnbull to be done up really nice.   Another quirk of the Small Iron is that you have to take the ejector off to get the cylinder pin out.  Unless I can figure out if that can be modified, I may just take it off and make it a non-Sheriff Sheriff's model.    Don't know if I'll replace the PVC grips with something nicer.   Time will tell.  

 

 

And finally, there is this.   It's a Mann Accuracy Device that I replaced the cut down stock with a 1903 A3 stock that still has the butt, original rear sights, and a clamp on front sight.  It's a .30 Carbine.   Not much more than a weird single shot plinker.  No alterations of any kind were made to the device, and I kept the original stock so it can go back to its as created configuration.

That being said, if I can ever find one in .30-'06, I will likely restock  it like this one, but put on a reproduction 03A4 Sniper scope.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 23 by H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619

[Krazy Kajun]

I like to see such examples of workmanship that I couldn't begin to perform.  Who said single action pistols aren't interesting.  Thanks to everyone who shared their pictures and stories of their Frankenguns

 

Kajun

[Three Foot Johnson]

Jim March's "FrankenRuger" project.

 

https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2014/03/03/maurice-frankenruger-magazine-fed-revolver/

 

https://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=511297

[Chancy Shot, SASS #67163]

A cowboy I used to shoot with had a left-handed SSA.  It was made from the ground up by a machinist friend of his.  Everything was backward.  the cylinder rotated the wrong way.  The loading gate and ejector were on the left.  I am not sure, but I think the rifling in the barrel was also reversed.  I saw it once and was allowed to handle it.  Will Dunn has passed on and I assume his son has it now.

 

Will also bought a box of pistol parts for $100 at a farm sale.  When He got it home and could really look, there were parts for a complete LeMat pistol in the box.  I was locky enough to handle that also.

 

Chancy

[H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619]

1 hour ago, Chancy Shot, SASS #67163 said:

A cowboy I used to shoot with had a left-handed SSA.  It was made from the ground up by a machinist friend of his.  Everything was backward.  the cylinder rotated the wrong way.  The loading gate and ejector were on the left.  I am not sure, but I think the rifling in the barrel was also reversed.  I saw it once and was allowed to handle it.  Will Dunn has passed on and I assume his son has it now.

 

Will also bought a box of pistol parts for $100 at a farm sale.  When He got it home and could really look, there were parts for a complete LeMat pistol in the box.  I was locky enough to handle that also.

 

Chancy

On the one hand, that's pretty cool.   On the other hand, it has been argued that the SAA IS a left handed gun.   The argument goes the gun can be held, loaded, and fired and reloaded all while held in the left hand.  No need to shift hands back and forth like you do if you shoot right handed.   Of course, when you see how the trigger is offset to the left a little making it position itself perfectly on the right finger but on the joint of the left, the argument falls apart.   It's similar to how the while the thumb safety is on the wrong side, the rest of the controls on a 1911 are easier to manipulate with the index finger of the left hand than the thumb of the right.

Or so it would seem. 

[H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619]

I got a couple more I had overlooked.  Both are Colt 1849's.

First, here is one that has been converted to .32 Colt.

 

When and were the conversion was done, I do not know.  All the number do match, but I don't think it's a factory conversion.

That just doesn't look like any of ones I have seen that are known to have been done at the factory.  When all is said and done, it does lock up properly when it cocked, but jams while cocking it, and you need to wiggle and rotate the cylinder by hand a little to get it to move.

Any experts on these old Colts who can help me are welcome to say so!

This next one however, I think IS a factory conversion, and it's even more Frankenish that they above one.

This one does look like other factory conversions I've seen.  Where the Frankengun status comes from is how you can see the frame clearly says, 31 CAL, which is what these things were, but this pistol is converted to .38 Colt.  Also, the numbers on the frame and barrel match, but the numbers on the trigger guard and backstrap are both different from the frame, and each other.

I have read that as Colt was winding down production on this model, that the last bunch left the factory as cartridge conversions of this type.

 

[Montague Kid]

NYS compliant “Assault weapon”

Also labeled “The Abomination” by my more traditional pard’s…

[Nostrum Damus SASS #110702]

Oh, if NY's UNSAFE ACT-compliant ARs count, then here's another abomination I built a while ago (though I have no idea if it would pass muster under NY's current version of its unconstitutional 2A restrictions):

 

[H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619]

19 hours ago, Montague Kid said:

NYS compliant “Assault weapon”

Also labeled “The Abomination” by my more traditional pard’s…

Does it have a bayonet lug?

[Montague Kid]

I’m working on it😁

what it really needs is a flash suppressor! 

 

[watab kid]

all worthy examples - ive seen others on other sites as well , , i think its part of our American heritage to keep finding new ways to present what we invent - its the evolution of innovation , it what government subsidies stifle , its the real progress of our way of life 

[H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619]

18 hours ago, H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619 said:

Does it have a bayonet lug?

 

Seriously, whenever I see one of those "tachticool" lever actions, I always notice the lack of a lug, and I think it looks like it's missing.