Why?

Let's be honest. Its because of those three little numbers on the side of the frame. Point Five Oh Oh.

Who could resist a little Victorian fiddy cal fun?



So the description made it sound like a train wreck.

The photos kind of made it look a bit train wreckish.

But .500, so....

It showed up today and what do you know? It was a train wreck! Not a big modern mile long train though. More like a little ten car steam engine train wreck.

A couple of hours watching c&rsenal videos for the animations, another couple hours getting it apart and I got the lockwork more or less working (I think I might need a new spring, which should be fun) with the exception of needing to pull it apart again together the ejection back in order(one of the few things that was working right before I started messing with it!)



This thing is, well ridiculous frankly. I got it because I have always wanted one of the break tops chambered in .577. Since I chose having a house over old guns, that's not in my budget, and that left the next step down, a .500.

These are black powder rounds, meant for sheer stopping power, the sort of thing gentleman adventurers hauled off to India or Africa on safari. The cartridge is referred to as .500 Tranter, .500 Webly, .500 Revolver, etc. About 350 grains of lead chugging along at 650 FPS.

As best I can tell, this one was originally made in Belgium, or at least has what look like legit Belgian proof marks. Lockwork looks like Jean Warnant's patent, and it originally had a pryse style latch mounted on the left side.

However... Since then, well it looks like this poor thing met the North-West Frontier's version of Bubba. Who "fixed it" by removing the mechanism (or maybe to give him the benefit of the doubt, it was missing when he got it) and replacing it with a spring steel top mounted latch of shall we say dubious utility.

I mean it holds the thing closed, even when you shake it rather vigorously, but I don't know about shooting it. Although, judging from the wear pattern on it, it looks like someone actually did some shooting after the "repair". I guess if you really, really need a large caliber handgun, you do what you have to, but that was a brave guy pulling the trigger!

Bill R.

Sweet!

I've done the same thing, but it doesn't look as cool as yours..

quote:

Originally posted by .38supersig:
Sweet!

I've done the same thing, but it doesn't look as cool as yours..

I really, really wanted to get it back to “shootable”, since I learned you can make cases from shortened 500 S&W with the rims thinned down, but…

It would take some impressive welding skills to build up the top strap at the latch point. I could maybe see myself filing out a good enough copy of the Pryse locking piece, but when it comes to getting metal all liquid and stick to it, I’m out of my depth!

Bill R

Barrel might need re-crowned too.

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
Barrel might need re-crowned too.

I forgot to mention, there is actual, visible rifling in the barrel. Which is I guess, a nice feature.

But yeah, there’s a few impressive dings at the crown that’s for sure!

Bill R

Super cool.

Very cool, and thanks for the history lesson.

If you don't get it into working condition, I suppose you could always use it as a club!