EZ-change barrels on Colt revolvers?

[DG45]

I was just watching for about the 10th time on TV, the movie "The Sting" and noticed something I'd never noticed before. There's a scene in that movie where a gunman whose face isn't shown opens a cigar box and takes out what looked to be either an unbarreled Police Positive revolver or an unbarreled Police Positive Special revolver. Then he took a gun barrel out of the cigar box and started screwing it in, which presumably he was able to do entirely by hand, since he later shot a woman assassin with the gun.

I 'm not a gunsmith, but I always figured screwing a revolver barrel in was serious business and that it had to be done with specialized tools and that the screw threads had to be cemented in position by loctite or something.

If its actually easy to change barrels, maybe I could buy 2", 3", 6", and 8" barrels to make my old 38 Special PPS with its present 4" barrel even more versatile than it is now.

Anybody ever try this?

 

[Dfariswheel]

That was just a movie. In the movies you can do anything.

Most revolvers, Colt included have barrels that are torqued in place and require a special barrel vise and a frame wrench to change a barrel.
If you break the torque and remove the barrel, when you screw it back on it'll screw on just a little farther, so the front sight will no long by aligned correctly.
One of the few really interchangeable revolvers was the Dan Wesson, and it used a special outer shroud with an inner barrel and nut to tension it.

So, it's just a movie, don't start buying barrels.

 

[SIGSHR]

I suspect a "hitman" wouldn't be concerned with niceties such as barrel/ cylinder gap and correct front sight alignment. I have read-and seen pictures
-of Colt SAAs with their barrels removed for tabletop use, I recall an article
in which the writer actually tested one, it was accurate out to about 3 feet.
Ballistic testing of bullets and casings was already an established technique
in the 1920s, so a savvy "gunsel" would know that a "hot" piece either had to be disposed of or made to "cool" down. Sacco and Vanzetti were convicted largely on ballistics evidence, in 1922 Egyptian nationalists killed the Sirdar-the Commander in Chief of the Egyptian Army. Ballistics evidence was used to hang them.
There was the Merwin and Hulbert revolver that had interchangeable barrels, and changing barrels on the various Colt blackpowder revolvers is fairly easy.
But this sounds on a par with "The Rifleman"'s large loop lever on his Winchester M-1892. A nifty idea but no evidence that anyone ever did it back then.

 

[James K]

I think someone could make up a set of interchangeable barrels for a revolver without using the Dan Wesson system. You would have to fit each barrel individually, then use a screw or bayonet catch (like the FN Model 1911 bushing) to lock the barrel and keep it aligned. But why? IIRC, Dan Wesson (the original company) did a survey and found that some 98% of those who bought their kits never changed barrels once they fixed on what they liked. The original hype had a cop coming off duty and changing his 5" barrel holster gun to a 2" snub for concealed carry. But no one did that; they just bought another gun.

Jim

 

[MKK]

I would be in the 2% of that survey. I change mine all the time. I have barrels from 2.5" up to 8. The 8" barrels are with both a full under lug and one that goes just past the ejector rod.
My loads like certain barrel configurations. If I load a round with mid range powder with a heavier bullet the recoil throws off my sight alignment somewhat through the longer barrel with the short under lug. I will use that round with either a shorter barrel or the full underlug 8". I also have some slow burning powder loads that just shoot better through the 4" than the 2.5" while both are pretty good carry size set ups.
If it were up to me good ol' Dan Wesson Arms would still be producing wheelguns.
Barrel change time only takes about 3 minutes.

Could the gun have been a Dan Wesson in the movie? I thought I saw it but don't recollect that part.

 

[DG45]

No the gun wasn't a Dan Wesson, but it wasn't a Colt PP or PPS either. It was a Colt New Service. (Just looked up guns used in "The Sting" on the internet.)

Jim asked why have interchangable barrels. Well, if I could easily swap barrels on my Colt PPS 38 Special, a 2" barrel would give me a "Dick Special" clone whenever I preferred concealability, and a 6" or 8" barrel would be nice for target shooting, or whenever I anticipate the distance I'd be shooting to be substantial, or whenever I wanted as much power and velocity as the gun could muster. Right now, my 4" barrel is sort of a compromise between the two - and not a bad compromise - but still a compromise. It's not the ideal for either power or concealibility.

I suspect that the idea the movie viewer was supposed to get was that this was back in the depression where pennies counted, and that gunmen had their money problems like everybody else. Maybe the idea that was supposed to be conveyed was that instead of buying a concealable gun, it was cheaper to take the barrel off. Or maybe it was cheaper to avoid ballistic matches by tossing a barrel away and replacing that, to tossing a perfectly good gun away and having to buy a new one. Anyway, I thought it was pretty cool.

 

[SIGSHR]

They do all sorts of things in the movies. In "Rough Riders" TR (aka Tom Berenger) carries a nickel plated ivory handled Colt SAA, TR did own one but at San Juan Hill he carried a Colt M1889 Navy Model salvaged from the Maine. I'm still looking for one of the left handed M1893 Mausers that the Spanish troops use in that movie.