Is this to long?

[madcratebuilder]

The longest Dragoon barrel I can find reference to is eight inches.  This one is eighteen inches!

I'm going to refinish this as a winter project.  The front sight has been removed and a dovetail slot milled parallel with the barrel cl.  A blade has been cold soldered and is more or less a bubba job, actually more than less.  I could make a blade to fit the slot, or I could shorten the barrel.  My dilemma is what barrel length I should go with.

I ran across this pic of one in the raw, I like it.


Open to suggestions, short barrel?  Long barrel?  Rust blue or raw?

[Roosterman]

The shoulder stocked dragoon antiques I have seen all have had standard barrels. Not many made either.

[Hard Mouth]

If it were mine (and I truly wish it were), I'd leave it long, 'cause you already have a holster/scabbard, and for the uniquity. I'd take the shine off the wood and oil it, antique the steel just enough to show "honest" wear, and display it proudly. oh, and I'd definitely want to go see how far out it could reach!!  Fine-looking instrument!!

[Professor Marvel]

What a wonderful find!!! they can seldom be "too long"!
It is difficult to add barrel back once cut :-)  ... With that in mind, since Colt BP  revolvers are the "swiss army knife" of the genre, I would be inclined to leave the existing barrel long, and acquire a second "standard" length for the best of both worlds! Whilst I prefer a deep blue, the "white " finish looks quite fine! many like to use the intriguing vinegar aging finish.

yhs
Prof Marvel

[Paladin UK]

Leave it jest as it is pard!!  ....   Reach out `n` touch!!

Here is a piccie of my `Buntie`..............


Paladin (Whut lurvs his .357 `Buntie`  ) UK

[44caliberkid]

Yep, leave it long.  If you have the talent, fix the Bubba job or have someone do it.  Is it an ASM?   I have an ASM with express leaf rear sights mounted on the barrel like yours, but mine is standard length and isn't cut for a shoulder stock.

[hellgate]

Hey, look, you gotcher self a .44/40 rifle that don't need no steenkin' brass!

[Flint]

Good find, that Dragoon.

Paladin, I presume that buntline is legal in the UK due to the barrel length, makes it a "rifle"?

[August]

One of the guys who comes to our State match every year shoots two Buntlines.  It is really neat to see those barrels hanging out, below the holsters, all the way down to his knees!!!

[WV Scrounger]

You KNOW you Luv the long barrels.....it would be nice to have a Lemat with a barrel like that !!!  Ha !
I wouldnt cut that barrel IF my Life depended on it !!!

[Fingers McGee]

Definitely leave it long.  Refinish it, then patinate it (NOT antique it) to look like it has been in use for about 20 years - holster wear at the muzzle and cylinder; mustard colored tg, thin blueing on the backstrap, etc.  good strong blue and colors with honest wear showing through.

Fm

[Paladin UK]

Fer Flint..

We are allowed Long Barreled Revolvers!!! Stooopid I know but there it is!!

Paladin (What lurvs his Buntie  ) UK

[Drayton Calhoun]

Talk about irony! I just made a post about this Dragoon. If not mistaken, EMF sold this as a combo with a standard and a Sheriff's length barrel back in 1986. Had planned to get one, but when I returned from a Navy deployment, they had discontinued it.

[Dick Dastardly]

Were it mine, I'd keep it long.  I'd also plan to shoot it at SASS matches with another long barreled pistol for the rifle sequences in stage scripts.  You might now win anything, but you'd sure stand out.

DD-DLoS

[Paladin UK]

DD says.......

I'd also plan to shoot it at SASS matches with another long barreled pistol for the rifle sequences in stage scripts.  You might now win anything, but you'd sure stand out.

+1 

Paladin (What likes ta be noticed........pointless goin iffn nobodys gonna notice ya ) UK

[rifle]

I wouldn't antique or patina the gun. It's a real gem and would be better preserved in a "like new state". Like new state with a hot blue,preferably the kind that's "blue-black" like I've seen on some guns. The color some Brownings are which are actuallt dark blue or the color the "American Western Arms" single action were. Don't ask me what the bluing salts type or name is though since I don't know.
Rust blue? If you had a formula and process to get a very fine grained rust blue that shows actual "blue" I'd go for that.Just as long as it wasn't degrading the metal any. Rust blue that's brown would be too dull looking for that grade gun. A rust blue that's got actual blue in the color isn't real easy to get a formula for but you might get lucky if you look enough. You might try hydrocloric acid and nitric acid with regeant grade iron disolved in it and control some blue color to it with sodium nitrate.....if you can find some sodium nitrate in these tight times. It wouldn't take much.
There's always the ole charcoal blue...the authentic non-Uberti type. You know....put the parts buried in wood charcoal(no charcoal for grilling but clean pure charcoal) and heat ot not over 750 degrees for a couple of hours or however long it taook to get a good color. Original Colts were charcoal blued by putting them in red hot coals and taking them out periodically(try to get the parts off the coals in about the time it took for the parts to turn blue then go past that to grey) and rub hydrated lime with a cotton rag on the parts and put them back in the coals. Wear clean cotton gloves. You can use fish oil also to charcoal blue. Colt supposedly used one or the other lime or fish oil. Fish oil will make ink black. The rag of fish oil need be just damp with oil. Not runny and sloppy. If you wish keep it simple and dont burn fish oil carbon or the calcium and potassium from the lime on the surfaces. Just clean real well and put the parts buried in wood charcoals and keep the heat not over 750. If you want ink black then go to 900. I'd stay in the "bluish range" with a max of 750 degrees. You go past(hotter) the heat blue of the metal and watch for the charcoal blue that would follow. It's not a heat blue but a chem process and an actual finish. Oxidation I guess combined with the gases and carbon from the charcoals. Authentic finish done well would turn the gun into an hearloom type grade especially if you put an actual "pack hardened case hardening to the other parts. You know...like I did to those Uberti frames I put pic on voy. Remember Madcrate? Need some pointers on the case hardening? Just ask. I'll help with the little secrete things that make it turn out. You know...those things others hide and then take to the grave with them for some illogical reason.
Anyway....I'd leave the barrel as is and  make a dovetailed site for that slot already cut....hoping the dovetail cut is perfect. If it ain't send it to me and I'll run it on my little mill and make it a perfect 60 degree dove tail cut then you make the site of I would turn one on the mill with the same dovetail end mill so the angle on the barrel and the base of the sight are exactly the same...cut with the same end mill. ect.ect.ect.
I'd make the gun a show piece and a like new custom finish. Then I'd have a good wood case maker make you a nice presentation case for the set up.
It would be cool to have a new tooled holster made that was a show piece in it's own right.
Anyway don't cut any off the barrel if you can help it. Well,maybe a few .001's off the muzzle to ensure it's concentric with the bore and the same at the breech end....being careful at the breech end not to take anymore metal off than need be to concentric that end." Piloted" chamfer face cutter for the perfect concentric face end of the barrel.

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Let me put this, my opinion.  I would have no use for that gun.  Having said that, I think it's one of, if not THE coolest guns I've seen recently!  Who needs a reason!!???  Keep it long!  Find a standard length barrel, DON'T refinish anything, and shoot Hell out of it!  Then smile beatifically at all the comments you'll collect!

SHB

( http://www.thefreedictionary.com/beatifically )

[fourfingersofdeath]

Like Steel Horse, I would have no use for the gun, but I have to admit it is cool and would be fun to use as a plinker, see how far away you can hit em' sorta gun.

I never could understand  the 'antiquing' / 'distressing' / make it look old and worn approach. When I was a kid I used to 'help' my Grandfather who was a qualified plumber and also a carpenter. He contracted to a guy that owned vast tracts of houses in the inner city as well as visiting other homes. It was in the early 50s and some of the homes were very, very basic and the people dirt poor. I can always remember him saying things like 'Michael, these people are very poor and don't even have Calcimine (Plaster and paint cover used to protect/seal ols soft brick walls) / or the paint is worn on their cupboards, etc.

I have to smile nowadays when I see trendy inner city types labouriously chipping the paint and calcimine plaster off walls and country folk, distressing and sanding artifical wear into a piece of furniture to restore it to a condition that owners many years ago woould have been ashamed of embarrased about. I think most gun ownners in days gone by would have been making a great effort to maintain their guns in tip top condition and would have ignored a gun that had a patina and grabbed for the shiny new one.

[litl rooster]

That gun looks unsafe and dangerous...Send it to me for proper disposal..    

[Steel Horse Bailey]

That gun looks unsafe and dangerous...Send it to me for proper disposal..