A buddy has a model 10 that he would like to have a longer barrel installed on in .38 Special.Trade-ex has Smith + Wesson [.38 SW] barrels in 5 " Can or will these work on the for mentioned gun using .38 Special ammo? Who can do the barrel swap? Is the groove size the same or close?
Smith + Wesson S+W barrel fit
- Thread starter mbogo3
- Start date
Aside from thread dimensions, one concern might be the groove diameter, which I think is .361 for the 38 S&W vs. .358 for .38 Spec.
Wandering around the net I came aross this link on replacing a revolver barrel. A lot of hand fitting required, which could get expensive.
Wandering around the net I came aross this link on replacing a revolver barrel. A lot of hand fitting required, which could get expensive.
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They fit just fine.
I've done several.
They may need to have a bit taken off the shoulder so they index properly and some off the forcing cone leading edge to set the gap to the cylinder face.
They are NEW OLD STOCK, full of cosmoline.
Some people are worried about bore diameters. They're fine.
The only problem I can see is visual. If your Model 10 has a heavy contour barrel, these have a light contour. Still, at $75 plus tax and shipping they're a steal
I've done several.
They may need to have a bit taken off the shoulder so they index properly and some off the forcing cone leading edge to set the gap to the cylinder face.
They are NEW OLD STOCK, full of cosmoline.
Some people are worried about bore diameters. They're fine.
The only problem I can see is visual. If your Model 10 has a heavy contour barrel, these have a light contour. Still, at $75 plus tax and shipping they're a steal
Presumably only with v. soft bullets, though, that will "bump up" in the barrel?
Damn.... no. "Shipment prohibited outside USA" And they have all sorts, including some heavy in 4 1/8" and 4 1/2"! DAMN.... The 5" tapered aren't listed for Model 10-5, but this might be due to not being drilled for the pin? They could probably be imported but I'd guess the import fees would really bring the cost up.
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I don't see why you couldn't do the same for a barrel. Like anything else under a US export restriction, I'd imagine that as long as the proper paperwork is donw, it shoud be OK. I think what Numrich is saying is that they can't ship it directly. Elssewhere in their shipping policy it says that they don't do export paperwork. Presumably if it was ordered by a company who does the paperwork it should be OK (??):
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Mine have .3575 bores. I don't think they made them any differently than they did the 38 specials. Mine don't care whether the bullets are jacketed or Bullet Barn cast lead.
I've just ordered one of Tradex's as I picked up a Model 10-5 recently that had a bit of barrel ss'd on at some point to make it Bill C-68 compliant. It does shoot a bit to the right and a close look at the addition suggests that the rifling in the addition may be slightly damaged, although it aligns with the rest of the barrel OK. I was thinking of asking Ron Smith to run his .38 rifling cutter through the barrel to clean it up; if he were local I might but without the proper tools and/or skill to do this myself, it's just easier to have Rusty Wood (up the road from me) fit the "new" barrel.
That being said, I'd sure love to get one of Numrich's "oddball" > 4" barrels but the cost of importing one would be unreasonable.
That being said, I'd sure love to get one of Numrich's "oddball" > 4" barrels but the cost of importing one would be unreasonable.
Received my NOS 5" .38 S&W barrel from TradeEx this morning. Neatly packed in a small cardboard box and sealed with reinforced paper wrapping tape. Are these guys "old school" or what? 
Definitely wrapped in grease!
View attachment 254511
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Cleaned it and slugged the bore. Seems to be .355 - .357 as far as I can tell by rotating it a few degrees at a time and measuring. (Apparently there is a trick to doing this properly.)
It's parkerized so will refinish before getting it installed. I have some Mark Lee Express blue which might do the trick after some polishing. Doesn't come with the pin and spring for the extractor rod so will re-use the old one.
Definitely wrapped in grease!
View attachment 254511
View attachment 254512
Cleaned it and slugged the bore. Seems to be .355 - .357 as far as I can tell by rotating it a few degrees at a time and measuring. (Apparently there is a trick to doing this properly.)
It's parkerized so will refinish before getting it installed. I have some Mark Lee Express blue which might do the trick after some polishing. Doesn't come with the pin and spring for the extractor rod so will re-use the old one.
Got the barrel de-parked, starting with a fine steel wire wheel, followed by 400 & 600 grit W&D paper. After this, polishing with a sewn cloth buff and black/grey abrasive polish.
Then on to the instructions with the Mark Lee Express Blue (thank you Budget Shooter Supply): a good soak in lacquer thinner, followed by a strong Simple Green solution before beginning to apply the rust blue. It's fairly straightforward: heat the metal to about 150º-200º F (I used a heat gun on low), then wipe the rust blue on with a cotton pad, wait for it to dry (~30 secs), apply a second coat, then submerge in boiling water for 5 minutes. Remove from water, dry with paper towel or air compressor, and buff the rust off with a piece of fine steel wool (previously having removed any oil with laq. thinner or acetone) or, as I did, with an extremely fine Grobet stainless wire wheel from Brownells:
View attachment 255784
Repeat heating, application, boiling and buffing until desired depth of finish is achieved. Mark Lee suggests it could take 6-10 but I stopped at 5. The final bit of business was to neutralize any remaining acid solution; I made up a solutionn of bicarb. of soda and soaked it for a couple of hours, followed by soaking in oil for a couple more.
The factory polishing, prior to parkerizing, was "military grade" and I didn't try and get the finish to S&W civilian grade (as if I could anyway!) as the rest of the revolver has quite a bit of wear and tear. I think it came out pretty well for a beginner. I tried to be very careful buffing around the letttering.
Here's the top of the barrel after polishing off the parkerizing and after bluing.
View attachment 255785
Next will be to get Peter at Rusty Wood to pull the original barrel and replace it with this one. Eventually I might get really brave abd refinish the rest of the revolver....
Then on to the instructions with the Mark Lee Express Blue (thank you Budget Shooter Supply): a good soak in lacquer thinner, followed by a strong Simple Green solution before beginning to apply the rust blue. It's fairly straightforward: heat the metal to about 150º-200º F (I used a heat gun on low), then wipe the rust blue on with a cotton pad, wait for it to dry (~30 secs), apply a second coat, then submerge in boiling water for 5 minutes. Remove from water, dry with paper towel or air compressor, and buff the rust off with a piece of fine steel wool (previously having removed any oil with laq. thinner or acetone) or, as I did, with an extremely fine Grobet stainless wire wheel from Brownells:
View attachment 255784
Repeat heating, application, boiling and buffing until desired depth of finish is achieved. Mark Lee suggests it could take 6-10 but I stopped at 5. The final bit of business was to neutralize any remaining acid solution; I made up a solutionn of bicarb. of soda and soaked it for a couple of hours, followed by soaking in oil for a couple more.
The factory polishing, prior to parkerizing, was "military grade" and I didn't try and get the finish to S&W civilian grade (as if I could anyway!) as the rest of the revolver has quite a bit of wear and tear. I think it came out pretty well for a beginner. I tried to be very careful buffing around the letttering.
Here's the top of the barrel after polishing off the parkerizing and after bluing.
View attachment 255785
Next will be to get Peter at Rusty Wood to pull the original barrel and replace it with this one. Eventually I might get really brave abd refinish the rest of the revolver....
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