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DWF Supporters
June 17, 2014
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Hi Guys I have not been on here in a while.
I just added a 744 to my collection of guns and IT IS A BEAST.
So this one came with the 8" vented barrel and a scope installed.
The scope is a silver Burris 1.5x4 in nickle burris rings.
Before I get into the pictures I do have a question about something I have not seen before on the Dans.
The front shroud has no front dovetail, I thought maybe part of a hunter pack but the pictures of the hunters I have
seen all have a front sight. I have to admit it makes for a sleek line to the gun, albeit very large sleek line.
Here are some pictures.
I have included a shot of the minus dovetail.
A comparison to the little dan 715,
And the comparison to my briefcase. It may not be a 7445 but man this thing is big!
And a comical comparison to my daily carry Kimber micro 9 CDP.
DWF Supporters
June 17, 2014
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Okay so here is the picture with my Micro 9.
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Dans Club
February 22, 2009
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A separated IFP barrel assembly, unless your SN# begins with IFP...
Technically, the glass is always full; half liquid, half air....
DWF Supporters
June 17, 2014
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Thanks RWSEM
That gives me th information that I need.
Unfortunately the serial # starts 44 S00 so it is not a complete IFP pistol but at least I know
about the configuration that I bough it in.
A shame it would have been nice to have found a rare one.
April 25, 2008
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Nice 744 there. I would carry the DW and leave the Micro at home.
The Savantist
DWF Supporters
June 17, 2014
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IHMSA80x80 said
Nice 744 there. I would carry the DW and leave the Micro at home.
Not a bad idea but I think I will wait until Eric gets the 4" barrel/shroud ready for me.
Or I could carry my model 715 in 4" configuration, problem is my antigun office would probably frown on this.
Hmmmm how to conceal carry a 744 with an 8" barrel let me think about this one for a while........
Speaking of which Eric contacted me and told me he had a batch in process, so I am excited to add to this package.
Next is an LB grip probably a gripper or an LB special or just plain both for that matter.
Probably need to get a holster unless I want to just carry it gangster style.
DANG adding a new gun gets expensive quick. Ha, ha, ha, ha.
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Dans Club
March 25, 2013
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Palmer made a Deer hunter model that was scoped with no front sight. The one I saw for sale was blue. A forum member won it. Maybe Scorpio?
DWF Supporters
June 17, 2014
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So I have a question for the experts.
When RWSEM brought up the IFP barrel, I did some reading on it.
One of sites mentioned a "Special Lothar Walther barrel with 10 lands and grooves"
Are all 44 barrels 10 lands and grooves or just the LW barrels?
I ask since mine has 10.
It looks like my factory 715 barrel has 6 (maybe 5, hard to tell after blinding myself with the flashlight, LOL)
DWF Supporters
June 17, 2014
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I have to say, whoever last used this gun was very very negligent in cleaning it.
It looked great on the outside but the cylinder was so filthy I thought it had heavy erosion inside and it took 3 days of
cleaning to get it down to smooth inside the cylinder.
Ditto the barrel, rifling looks good, crown looks good, but it took a while to get the grooves all clean it is obvious it sat dirty for quite a while, lots of carbon bonded.
Forcing cone may need relapped but we shall see.
The good in all this is after running all the battery of tests as described on this forum, I found it to be in excellent shape.
Dirty but excellent.
Timing is good,
Lockup is excellent, way better than my 715.
The barrel clearance is around 4.5 thou. with about +-.5 thousandths runout on the cylinder.
Frame is very good with very little flame cutting.
DWF Supporters
June 17, 2014
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Ole Dog said
Palmer made a Deer hunter model that was scoped with no front sight. The one I saw for sale was blue. A forum member won it. Maybe Scorpio?
The question is were they all stamped as a Palmer. Mine is stamped Monson although
I seam to recall seeing it stated that early Palmers still had the Monson stamp and my serial number
places it close to that time frame.
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Dans Club
March 25, 2013
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You have done your research well!! If it is a Monson leftover it would probably have a one line roll mark on the shroud. Circa 1991. There may be a difference in the degree of polishing on the shroud compared to the frame also. If these were S&Ws collectors would pay a premium for them and call them " transition models".
BTW, typically Dan barrels would not be relapped. You are thinking S&W. Lol. Call Norwich or EWK and get a new barrel tube for far less than it would cost to have a gunsmith relap it. That is the genius of Karl Lewis. Rebarreled it, any shape grips, fix the action yourself, leave no marks on screw heads. Parts are mostly drop in. Even those parts that are considered fitted usually work with a used part from another gun.
DWF Supporters
June 17, 2014
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Goodmorning Ole Dog,
Yeah I thought of getting a new barrel, I was just not sure if the 10 lands and grooves made it a standard varrel of if
it was an LW barrel that may no longer be available.
So given the telltales that you given I would say it is a true Monson then.
Polish on shroud matches the frame and has 2 lines of ROLL.
DAN WESSON ARMS
44 MAGNUM CTG.
and S&W collectors can keep the collectables it is nice to have a valuable gun, but
mostly I want a good shooter. CZ collectors do the same thing with the cz75 transition model still no firing pin block
but the new squared off trigger guard.
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Dans Club
March 25, 2013
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Would the CZ 75 transition be like my Tanfoglio TZ 75 series 88. It has the safety on the frame. Only made for 2 years. It came with a 9mm barrel, recoil spring and mag. Plus a 41AE barrel, spring and mag. Quite the obsolete cartridge but I found 150 new rds at a gunshow. Haven't used any. Kind of like a K frame Smith. Only use the 357 for duty. Colt SAA fixed me up with 4 extra 41 AE magazines.
DWF Supporters
June 17, 2014
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Hi Ole Dog,
Sorry I posted up about a week ago but it did not go thru.
Yes and no, the silhouette is very much the same, however from what I have read the seriess 88 has a firing pin block so physically it would be more like the 75B model.
Now from a collectable standpoint I am sure the TZ with the caliber kit is more collectable.
It is very cool that you have the caliber swap kit, that makes it very interesting, especially in an esoteric cartridge like the 41AE. I would imagine the kit is more rare than the gun making it much more collectable than the CZ transition model in my mind. NICE STUFF!
DWF Supporters
June 17, 2014
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So an update.
Yesterday a received a barrel nut wrench from Eric. (such a great resource and vendor)
I tore the barrel off last night and looked things over out of the frame. This is something I have been waiting to do so I could do some detailed cleaning that could not be done very well with it all together.
So with the barrel out, I could see the forcing cone better and the area looked for all the world like it had erosion or leading. This was the side against the topstrap so it may be that I was unable to get a good angle to clean like the rest of the barrel.
But since I have the barrel out I can try some things and low and behold it is just carbon build up or maybe leading on the front edge. See the pictures below. I used a large countersink by hand along the edge with no pressure and the bonding went away. This allowed me to see that while there is a little bit of erosion the forcing cone was not part of it just the leading edge of the barrel.
Here is a picture after cleaning it up.
DWF Supporters
June 17, 2014
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So while the barrel was out I did some of the other cleaning I wanted to get done. This included cleaning the topstrap and the inside front edge of the frame of any traces of carbon. The machining looks a little rough on the leading edge of the frame inside but I am sure it will work just fine.
As can be seen in the pictures there is a little flame cutting on the topstrap but considering this is a 44 magnum I am pleased how little it is. My 715 shows more than this.
I also took this time to polish the bore of the barrel. I had previously cleaned it with JB non embedding compound. Today I took it further with using JB Bore Bright and doing 100 laps of the barrel with the crown butted against my bench to prevent altering the crown area of the barrel. As I previously mentioned the rifling looks very good with sharp edges and no pitting. Hopefully the lapping will make cleaning a simple chore in the future. (Not having owned a 44 Mag before this is something I will be learning moving forward.)
DWF Supporters
June 17, 2014
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So now that he is clean,
"Big Dan" is ready to play.
I have included a few last shots one of the clean gun before it gets dirty again.
Here is a shot of the front of the cylinder after the cleaning I did last week.
The crosshairs are only out of focus because I could not get the camera to focus on that point they do look clean and sharp in person.
It has truly been a labor of love getting to this point. It was much dirtier than the ad would have you believe "This gun doesn't appear to have been fired much at all." The usual marketing BS.
Soon we shall see if he shoots as well as he looks, he is a handsome devil. Ha, ha!
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Dans Club
March 25, 2013
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You will be amazed at how accurate it is.
DWF Supporters
June 17, 2014
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I look forward to finding out.
Hopefully I will get some time later this week, I have been very busy with work mostly out of town and have not had time to shoot at home. I have picked up a little ammo in 44 special and some light 44 magnums for testing and sorting out.
I already have one of my friends chomping at the bit to go shoot it with me, he loved my 715 when he shot it.
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