5-screw .45 Schofield

Glen

Moderator
Staff member
Several years ago, a good friend of mine (Wayne) gave me a barrel off of a .45 caliber S&W Model of 1950, and said, "Here do something fun with this." It was missing a fair amount of bluing, and the front sight was a kluged together monstrosity of pieces, parts, bubble gum, bailing wire, and mysteries of the Universe, but the bore, crown and threads were in nice shape. I sat on the project for a while, and then one day I found a good deal on a beater 5-screw Highway Patrolman, that was period correct for the barrel. I already had a .45 Schofield reamer (from Dave Manson) from a previous project (Ruger Blackhawk .45 Schofield), so I pulled the cylinder out and rechambered it to .45 Schofield. My good friend Dave Ewer fit the barrel to the frame for me (as a birthday present). Then I took it out and shot it. Disappointment. POI was well above POA. We fixed the ground down rear sight, but that didn't cure the problem -- POI was still running 6-8" high at 50 feet with the rear sight bottomed out -- the problem was that monstrosity of a front sight. So, I decided to replace the front sight blade. The base had a 1/16" key slot milled in it, and the boogered up front sight blade had a 1/16" foot, with a 1/8" sight blade, pinned into the slot in a fairly sloppy fashion (and the pin hole was also boogered up). I tried to drive the pin out. No go. I tried to drill the pin out, which is when I discovered that they had used a hardened pin, so I ended up damaging the pin hole even further. Long story short, it turns out that because the sight blade was wobbly, even after they pinned it, they epoxied the whole mess in place. It took repeated applications of heat, beat, and hope, and it only gave up ground grudgingly, coming out in pieces, but I got that confounded sight blade out, and the slot was still in good shape. I got a piece of 16 gauge sheet steel (which is very, very close to 1/16" thick), and this morning I sat down and fabricated a new front sight blade that is tall enough to get of POI to jive with POA. I had to drill an oversized hole (.086") to clean up the boogered up pin holes, and use a correspondingly oversized roll-pin, but it all came together rather nicely. I'll take it down to the range later this week and get everything zeroed.
.5-screw 45 Schofield with new front sight.jpg
 

oscarflytyer

Well-Known Member
If you hadn't posted the 'rest of the story' on the front sight, it looks fine and would have had no clue. Now, those deck screws, otoh! lol!

Very nice piece. Not familiar with a 45 Shofield, but it's a 45, and yours looks like a ton of fun - AND I know it will see cast only!
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
Am I correct in saying that the .45 Schoefield is the missing ".45 Short Colt" which led to
the common saying, decried by many, of .45 Long Colt, for the more properly named .45 Colt?
I would presume that it can be loaded to perform with modern powders to whatever the
normal SAAMI pressure level .45 Colt loads can do, but probably not a good idea to push
to the ".45 Magnum" levels used in Ruger Blackhawks with the .44 frame. AFAIK, the N-frame
guns are fine with normal .44 Mag pressures, but not the Super Blackhawk/Redhawk level loads.
Of course, with less powder volume, perhaps full cases of 2400 or H110 are within sane
pressure levels.

Please comment on this cartridge at your leisure, Glen. My only awareness of the
cartridge was as the chambering for the S&W Schoefield used briefly as an alternate
standard to the 1873 Colt SAA on the frontier. Were any other guns ever chambered in
this cartridge from the factory?

Bill
 
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Glen

Moderator
Staff member
Yes. As you noted, the .45 Schofield was originally chambered in the S&W Schofield revolver, and was also known as the ".45 S&W", so calling it the ".45 Short Colt" (which many did, because the cartridge could be fired in the Colt Peacemaker) is kinda like calling a short bed Ford pick-up "a short Chevy" because Fords and Chevys take the same sized tires. Yes, the .45 Schofield could be loaded to higher pressures, but I'm not going to that with this old revolver. It will be loaded with 235-250 grain cast bullets at 800-900 fps. Off the top of my head, the S&W Schofield was the only gun factory chambered for the round. Personally, I think a 5-shot L-frame .45 Schofield with a 3-4" barrel would make a great carry gun
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
I think you are on a good track with the 5-shot L-frame in .45 S&W/Schoefield.

I happen to have a S&W 396 Night Guard, which is a scadium airweight L-frame .44 Spl 5 shot.
It is a bit large for summer carry, but fine in winter. The one fly in the ointment is that
S&W set it up for 200 gr bullets, so it shoots about 12-18" high with my preferred
Keith 250 cast HPs.:angry:

The front sight can be replaced...but is a really nice night sight. :sigh:
When I do carry it, it has Blazer 200JHPs in it. Until I can figure out a taller
front sight, which will probably be a home made fiber optic, it will be used
that way.

Bill
 

RBHarter

West Central AR
I have an N frame also chambered for Schofield . It was originally in 45 ACP and it's abuses were many long before it came to me .
My thinking is that having been in 45 ACP that any load held below 20,000 psi is in little danger of damaging the proud old lady . This gets you a 250 up to about 800 fps with a fair safety margin . The old triple lock is a bit of a tank to try to carry CC but it's comfortable enough as an OC in the field I will eventually cut a slot for a dime in the front sight boss for a permanent fix for the way too short front sight .
Unless I stumble across a new cylinder and barrel Ms April 1918 is likely to live out her days as a Schofield companion gun for a reworked 92' .
 

Glen

Moderator
Staff member
This gun now shoots directly to the sights, and looks like it has some real promise with the Lyman 452423 at about 850 fps (6.5 grains of Unique).
 
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