I had picked up a 625-6 Mountain Gun in 45 Long Colt a couple of years ago, that had a lot of finish wear, but it was cheaper than I would ever likely find one again, and mechanically it was very tight.

After a couple of years of shooting it the finish and seeing the extra poor "Laser Engraving" , which could only be read if you held the gun at the right angle in the light (all of the engraving was the same this way) I decided to have the gun refinished.

I also had a spare, unfluted, 45 LC cylinder sitting in the parts box, so I decided to send that along to be milled for full moon clips so that I could shoot all of the different calibers that fit when you've done that particular modification (45 LC, 45 ACP, 460 Rowland, 45 WinMag), and would have my own little 45 "Convertible." since I still wanted to be able to use the original fluted 45 LC cylinder, too.

So I drop the gun off at my local gunsmith last February and let him know I'm in no rush. he's also doing a bunch of other stuff for me, most of which I drop off since then and gave higher priority, so I wasn't expecting the 625 back too soon.

Turns out that the owner of the shop (who is not the gunsmith) decides that he wants to do me a favor, so he gets a recommendation from a well known shop as to who to send the gun to to get the cylinder milled and fitted.

He gets the gun back on a day I happen to be in the shop (I'm in there at least one or two days a week). While the milling job was done very nicely, no one was too impressed with the rest of the work, as the previously untouched cylinder was looking bruised and battered. Nothing too major, and since the refinishing was going to be done by the local shop, not too big a deal.

Since the gun was assembled we decided to put a few round through it to see how well it worked, so I went out to the range and dropped in a full moon clip loaded with Winchester White Box ball ammo.

The gun was accurate on the 15 yard target I was aiming at but there was a huge flash that appeared to be coming from the cylinder gap.  I take the gun into the workshop, pull out the feeler gauges, and measure the gap at .017" It was huge! (should have been .004 - .006). Just to make sure I wasn't crazy, I measured a half dozen other N frames, ranging from NIB to one built by the PC. They were all in the .004-.007 range.

Put the original cylinder back in and before I can measure it I realize it no longer works; the hand must have been fitted only to the new cylinder since it no longer comes anywhere near correctly timing the original cylinder.

This was all last week. My gunsmith took everything apart, squared the cylinder faces, set back the barrel, and fixed the timing, then redid the finish. I picked it up today. The cylinder gap with either cylinder now measures .005", shooting it with 45 ACP is a simple pleasure; even my moderately hot 45 LC loads were smooth and easy to control, and the overall finish looks great to me.

I wish it still had the Mountain Gun and Caliber markings, and I've been thinking about sending to S&W to have them engraved (for real) back on the gun, but for right now I'll just enjoy it like it is.

Nice.  Big fan of the short barreled N-frame, myself.  Do you have any preferences for a grip smaller than the stock Hogues? Something that can still accomodate the third finger, but not much longer than the grip frame?

Just about all my short barreled N-frames wear Ahrends RB n-frame grips. They are much smaller han the hogues and just comfortably larger than the frame.

Very nice.  Nothing like an N frame Smith

Quoted: That is SWEET

+1

Nice piece dude!