Where can I buy a 6" slab side S&W PPC barrel

[Lower40]

Been out of the shooting sports for years and would like to build another S&W "K" frame revolver..  Where can I purchase a 6" (or 6.5") indexed slab side barrel.  Prefer one in stainless. I see Clark and Brownells has them....anyone else out there?

 

Thanks

[IPSCLUVERRR]

Most of the guys that I shoot with use a blank barrel and slab it to their gun so they don't have to deal with the indexing issues. 

[Tampa-XD45]

On 8/31/2019 at 11:27 PM, Lower40 said:

Been out of the shooting sports for years and would like to build another S&W "K" frame revolver..  Where can I purchase a 6" (or 6.5") indexed slab side barrel.  Prefer one in stainless. I see Clark and Brownells has them....anyone else out there?

 

Thanks

Al's Custom also sells them:    https://newsite.alscustom.com/revolvers.php#barrels

[Lower40]

Thanks for the info..

[Bill Sahlberg]

Powers Custom also has PPC barrels 

I have their Grandmaster PPC gun from 1972

www.powerscustom.com

 

[Tophernj]

Try Ebay.  You may get lucky.

[Tampa-XD45]

On 9/17/2019 at 6:59 AM, Tophernj said:

Try Ebay.  You may get lucky.

Or Gunbroker.  I've had better luck getting S&W parts off of Gunbroker than ordering directly from S&W which sometimes took months to get a part.  

[Lower40]

Brownells has them...the stainless slab is a special order..they are looking into that.

[MuayThaiJJ]

Anyone have a place to go today for these? The links above are dead

[Braxton1]

Hey Nick, the reason the links are dead is that they're spelled wrong.  It's POWERCUSTOM.com, not POWERS.

 

I'd also try Clark Custom in Louisiana or Jarvis in Montana.

Edited March 24, 2023 by Braxton1

[RePete]

On 3/24/2023 at 8:34 AM, Braxton1 said:

Hey Nick, the reason the links are dead is that they're spelled wrong.  It's POWERCUSTOM.com, not POWERS.

 

I'd also try Clark Custom in Louisiana or Jarvis in Montana.

Is Jarvis still around?

 

I have 2 friends that bought Jarvis windmasters  in '87 or '88.  I found them to be nice guns but too heavy.  There was a holster problem because of the width of the barrel (about 2"-2 1/4" wide).

 

1 of the guns was shipped with a stripped hole in the frame from Jarvis and Jarvis would pay the shipping both ways to do the repair.

 

Both of the revolver ended up getting the sides of the barrel slabbed so that the would fit a PPC holster.  What a waste of money in the end.

[Braxton1]

Yep, Jarvis is still around (jarvis-custom.com), but it appears that they don't make revolver parts anymore.   I don't know if they'd do a one-off part.

 

The Windmaster was built by Bill Davis.  That was one of his trademark touches, supposedly so that the gun wouldn't get blown around by the high winds at the PPC Nationals in Albuquerque (IIRC the location).

Edited March 30, 2023 by Braxton1

[RePete]

14 minutes ago, Braxton1 said:

Yep, Jarvis is still around (jarvis-custom.com), but it appears that they don't make revolver parts anymore.   I don't know if they'd do a one-off part.

 

The Windmaster was built by Bill Davis.  That was one of his trademark touches, supposedly so that the gun wouldn't get blown around by the high winds at the PPC Nationals in Albuquerque (IIRC the location).

I remembered Jarvis but you are right.

 

IIRC it was designed for/by John Pride.

[MuayThaiJJ]

On a semi related note, how compatible are revolver barrels?

Let's say I get a Python barrel in .357 -- can I machine it to work with any 357 or 38 frame?

Or if I get a slab barrel for X frame, can I make it work for any S&W frame?

 

thanks guys

(revolver tinkerer noobie)

[Braxton1]

IF you have the machinery and skill to re-thread, you can always do that.  Most revolver brands have different thread specs for their barrels and even those will vary amongst frame sizes.

 

S&W specs are: J Frame, .500"-36 threads. K Frame, .540"-36 threads. L Frame, .562"-36 thread, N Frame, .670"-36 thread.  I can't find the specs for the X Frames.

 

Ruger GP-100s are .625-24 thread

 

Old Python barrels were .553-32; newer ones are .562-36 

 

That change might be why the SmYTHON is a thing....  (a Python barrel on a S&W 686 was a popular thing back in the late 80's)

 

With that said, re-barreling revolvers (even staying with same model/threads) almost always requires a lathe.  To get the barrel to "clock" right, a facing cut often needs to be made on the back of the barrel shoulder.  And use a Frame Wrench.  "Back in the day", it was common practice to vise up the barrel and cram a hammer handle into the frame to wrench the frame off of the barrel.  Many a frame was "sprung" doing this....