First, before I get into this, apologies for the long post, but I wanrted to walk you all through my journey!

Around a year ago I posted a MR73 revo I snagged off GB in the group. The MR73 was a police trade in that looked a bit rough on the outside, but mechanically was in perfect working order! At the time, I was really excited to get it, but I knew it was only a matter of time before it went off to someone to get some special treatment. Once I got the gun and made my mind up that I was going to get work done on it, I called several friends and asked who they thought I should sent it to. Four names came up right away... Ted Yost, Karl Beining, Dave Laubert, and Brandan Bunker.

Because I am friends with Brandan (and know his work well), I called him first... he told he he was not doing any work on anything other than 1911's these days and that he just did not have time. I knew if I bugged him enough, he would likely do it, but... why not call the others on the short list and see how the experience would go.

Second, I called Ted. Ted flat out told me he had no desire to work on an MR73 and currently he was only working on Smiths (and maybe Colts if I remember correctly). Either way, Ted said no but did recommend Karls work.

From there I called Karl and we spoke for around 30 mins. He was a real gentleman and we had a nice conversation about the MR73. During the chat, he told me the turn around time would be a bit longer than I wanted to wait. I told him I was going to call Dave and chat with him and make a decision from there.

Last on the list... Dave Laubert. I had never heard of Dave Laubert until I got to listen to him on a Primary and Secondary Modcast. From there his name kept coming up so I decided to really look at what he was doing. At the time, he had just finished up the two gun revo set "spinny twins" which I thought were lights out. I had heard guys like Steve Fisher talk about Daves 1911 work. My chat with Dave was fantastic... He may be one of the nicest dudes Ive ever spoke to (for real). I could tell his revo build philosophy was different than Karls, and he had me intrigued. I asked about wait time, and initially it was much much faster than what Karl told me.

From my chats, I knew if I went with Karl, the revo would be stellar... A spin on a classic revolver, refined to the last detail! I knew Karl would take the thing, do his magic, have it re-engraved, and have the thing looking better than ever. With Dave, I figured the some of the finer detail might get lost, but it would be as if someone took a classic and made it into a modern day fighting weapon... a straight hot rod! Like 69 Camero with a 2020 Corvette ZR1 engine in it.

Whether the above is 100% true, this was what I took away.

Ultimately, I decided to go with Dave... literally it was a total coin flip... So, I sent the revo to dave and thought I was headed into a project with a 90 day turn around. As with all custom work times get messed up, things happen in life, and 90 days turns into a year. Oh well... Its the way it is in custom guns

So thats the back story.

Once I sent the gun to Dave, I told him my vision of the gun and then said, other than the initial thoughts, do your thing, just keep me looped in! It seemed like he was pretty much excited to get into the project and he definitely brought me in on the details as he was going (which was awesome). Because I am a very very meticulous person, I often times expect perfection when it comes to my guns. I am always very upfront about this... and either the smith tells me that he's probably not the guy to do the work (which tells me I don't want him doing the work), or he assures me he will be making sure there are no short cuts taken.

The guidelines I gave Dave were as follows: New rear sight, Gold Front sight, trigger work, adn for him to do whatever the hell he wanted to it! I told him that I wanted his spin on a full blown modern day fighting revo... and that exactly what he did! Some of work done is below:
Remove and shorten barrel from 4" to 3" and resinstall
Crown Barrel
Slab Side Barrel
Recut forcing cone on barrel
Machine to accept new front sight
Make new front sight, Serrate, and install 14k .080 gold bead
Machine receiver to accept one off custom rear sight
Make new rear sight
Chamfer charging holes
Full trigger work
Case Color hammer and trigger
Remove all roll marks from gun
Complete polish on flats and matte blast rounds
Nitre Blue screws

As you will see from the pictures, Dave started a rear sight on the revo... He asked me what I thought. I was very honest and told him I was hoping he could fill in the old channel that was used for the rear sight. He told me he did not think so... and literally the next day he said he liked the idea and worked his magic.

From there he started his work and as you can see from the pics, he sent me a ton of progress shots! I was very impressed and happy that he did as I wanted to share

So, here you all go... The original gun, the progress pics, and the final product (when I get the revo back this week, Ill post more close up pics). Would love to hear everyones feedback!


Here are some pics of the original gun as it came from GB:








Here are the in-progress pictures ave was sending me while he was working his way through...












More in progress pics





















Finished Product!!












As a final note, I can’t say enough about Dave Laubert, his willing to listen and go in any direction were awesome. I’ve dealt with many of the top smiths in the biz and Dave ranks right up there in terms of client relationship and craftsmanship.

That's a beauty. I am partial to 3" revolvers but, that is sublime.

Excollent!  A thing of beauty. And functional art.

And now we are into the "too pretty to use" arena. However I bet that is a joy to shoot.

That looks incredible.

But out of curiosity, why remove the rollmarks?

I can't decide if I like it or hate it.  I think I'd like it better if the barrel was like the original.  I like the new sights though.

Now that's cool!

I’ve been following your gun on Facebook. Dave is great, I hope to some day have a gun done by him

Three reasons...  First the outside of the gun was really bad, so when refinishing it, it had to be taken pretty far down making the marks very "light". Because of this, They would've needed to be all fully engraved.  That brings me to the second reason...  Since Dave pulled the barrel and cut it down, the original barrel markings were cut half way down (You can see it in one of the first few progress pics).  There was no way around that...  He was also slab siding the barrel which removed those markings.  Because of this... The third reason is I personally prefer a very clean gun (I am mostly 1911/2011 shooter and almost all those guns are "naked").  Since the barrel marks were taken off due to the chop and slab... IMO the gun just looks better with the rest of the billboard removed as well.

Hope that makes sense...

Yeah, hes done a great job documenting it for people to follow along.  I would bet to say I am in the very very small handful of people to have a one off MR73.  Id also bet that due to Dave posting so many pics, a lot of people try to snag old police imports and have work done to them!

Daves work is top notch!

Very nice!

Like the Manurhins.  I only have the poor man's MR88. I keep looking at the 73 but the price/value equation never comes out for me.  The used ones are really, really used.  The new ones are just stupid money.

Damn that had to take a ton of work hours.  How does it shoot?  And out of curiosity what did all that work cost?

That looks very nice indeed. I always wanted an MR73 but when one pops up they are to pricey for me. If I ever did get one I would leave it in the same condition the French used it in.

Wow, that is a really stellar, heirloom-quality piece.  I’ve always loved French guns and their excellent quality.

Finally got her home today, a few more pics to share!!

^^My thoughts exactly. What a good looking firearm. The work looks amazing.

Wow!  What a beautiful and unique revolver you have there!   Outstanding workmanship!   Thanks for the nice write up and sharing all the pics!   Congrats on an amazing gun.

Thanks man!  Cheers:)!

Those wood grips look wonky, but, other than that it looks beautiful.

That is beautiful. I have had Dave work on several items for me over the years.  I’m close enough to his shop to stop by in person. He installed an FAL  barrel from a parts kit on a new receiver  for me one Saturday morning while I waited watching him do his thing.

man, I have to take a smoke break after looking at that...

beautiful...

What grips are those?   Stippling looks like Nill-Griffe but shape looks like the factory walnut with gold medallion that have been worked over.

I have an MR73 as well and have been trying to decide what to do with it.

They are Nills, specially made to order from them.  I dont think you can just order them offline.  They are literally amazing in the hand, and the stippling is perfection:)

Beautiful work!

I'm impressed.
Well done OP.

Wow!

I always regret not getting one when they were available, but if I had it would have sat in the safe in the condition I got it.

That's a marvelous gun OP. Usually I nitpick a custom gun saying I would have done this or that differently, but not in this case.

I'm really envious.

I'll be that guy... what happened to the serial number?

m

Figured someone would ask.  The number is actually not the "serial number" of the revolver.  The original serial number on this revolver sits on the frame under the grips.  This odd number was added by the importer... which oddly enough doesnt even match the actual original serial number on the gun.

There was a lot of researching prior to that being taken off...  Thanks for being overly concerned.  Nothing to see there... lol.

Cheers man.

No concern, just curiosity. I've never seen an MR-73 in person, and I don't recall ever noticing serial numbers on photos. It was just as likely that a serial number can be relocated with documentation, and I thought this might be the case.

m

Not sure about the relocation piece.. The serial number of an MR73 is in two places.  Its either on the top left side of the frame on the small portion of where the cylinder opening is... or its on the butt of the frame thats covered by the grips.  I honestly have no clue what the hell CIA was doing when then added their own number on some of the imports.  Its not an import mark...  if it matched the original serial number, I would say that its simply them restamping a serial number, but the serial number on mine vs the original, were not the same...  They added a letter and had a number incorrect.

I don't know much about these Manurhins but I do know that's the nicest one I've ever seen.  Absolutely beautiful!

Very nice.  I have a MR73 that I would like to get rebuled.  I might have to check him out.

Regards

Dave is a wizard....

That isn't only a thing of beauty, but the craftsmanship that went into it is outstanding. Thanks for sharing all the pics, etc.

Mark

Wow