Thinking of building a budget PPC type revolver ....which parts should i consider?

Hi, not sure why exactly but i've been thinking about building a ppc type revolver.  I struggle physically due to a rather debilitating injury so i won't be competing....it's just for fun. I only shoot paper, hopefully nice little groups.....Such a project i hope will afford me a project, something to keep my mind busy and  I like the way the ppc revolvers look. I know some might find it perhaps silly. 

Budget is a realistic concern but i want to try to keep it under $600 or $700 if at all possible. Here in California we get hit with $100 transfer fee and of course tax so i've got to keep a close watch on things....I thought perhaps i might be able to find a suitable C&R revolver and a good quality used take off or a new old stock barrel blank.

Wondering if there were any specific models of revolver that you might recommend for me to search for....and where one might find good quality take-off parts. 

I have a very talented and very wonderful friend who has a professional lathe who can help me.

thank you.

Many fine used PPC guns are out there.
Many built on the S&W mod 10’s.
I paid $500 for my first one. 
Something like a 1” bbl with an Aristocrat rib setup
Or an older one with an Bomar rib.

In California, try and find a Bill Davis gun.

This one is a “MOJO” by Joe Leinenger (retired) on a mod 64 action.

that looks really nice....thank you for the information and for sharing your photo. I've so far not found anything as nice as that but i've only recently begun to search. hopefully i'll be able to find something similar or at least secure the parts to develop a similar platform.

Hiya,

When I was shooting PPC in the '80's, I so wanted a Fred Schmidt short cylinder K frame but his backlog was over 2 years so I picked up a S&W 686 "Silhouette Model" with a 6" lugged barrel and a 4 position front sight that gave me the 7, 15, 25 and 50 yard elevations. An action job and a light chamfer on the chambers, I never felt at a disadvantage to the pipe guns. 

Might want to put them on your list to look for, they made 586's with the 4 way sight as well but I understand those are hens teeth.

Hope it helps,
Tom

thank you, will look up those models as well as the sight feature that you've noted.I sure appreciate the help.

Where in California are you located?

I'm in San Diego (Southern California)

If your main goal is the project of building one, then a Smith & Wesson K Frame of pretty much any model would work.  I had both a Model 13 (.357 mag, originally a fixed sight duty gun) and a Model 14 that I shot equally well.  One of mine was a slab barrel and the other was fully round but I think both were a 1" profile.  I had ribs with wings on both but do not recall if they were BoMar or Aristocrat. The internal parts were factory but worked over for the action job.  You'll want a smooth, combat style trigger and I liked the combat hammer too but I don't think that would matter as much.  You can probably find take off barrels and ribs on ebay/gunbroker and used ignition parts are also easy to find on the auction sights if you need them.
  Buying everything used should save you some money vs all new parts.

If your goal is owning and shooting a nice PPC gun you can probably find a used one for similar money as building one on a budget and not need to spend the time building it.  These guns do not hold their value all that well unfortunately so buying used is usually the best way to do this unless you want the project.

Good Luck.
John

thank you for responding....really great information.


I really enjoy this forum, people take the time to help and i'm learning a lot....it means a lot.

" I struggle physically due to a rather debilitating injury"

Sorry, but PPC revolver is just not a good choice for you. They are vety heavy to say the least. There are almost no advantages over the regular stock revolver, sans the heavier weight which you may not want and 3 way sights that you dont need since you are not competing. Yes, they look super cool. Buy yourself a cheaper used one, but make sure there is a front lock with either a bearing or ejector lock. There are many that do not have a front crane lock, which is plain wrong.

you make some very good points, thank you. to be quite honest with you've never even held one. i need a project to keep my brain working and active. appreciate the information

Are there any PPC matches still being held?

Second question, can non-LEO participate?

I always thought it was an intriguing course of fire, but I think the last PPC match I was aware of that was local to me was in Canton, Ohio, in the mid or late 1980s, and I was a little too young to participate at that time.

Can non-LEO participate?  It seems to be a match directors call.  They weren’t for a long time.  Apparently even Military Police weren’t welcome.  The real issue is that the combat shooting world passed them by a long time ago.   Even though there were whole departments that had been carrying auto pistols for a decade, the PPC world was still insisting on 38 Special revolvers shooting Wadcutters.  So it lost its relevance.

brand-new wrote:you make some very good points, thank you. to be quite honest with you've never even held one. i need a project to keep my brain working and active. appreciate the information

I think I undestand what you mean. You just want to build a cool a$$ gun Kudos. Get a S&W K frame anything. No matter target components or not. PPC used regular non target and smoothed trigger, then some cut hammer spur and or removed SAO engagement. Get a Bomar, Wichita or Aristocrat rib, likely in 6inch. Honestly I am not sure where to source 6in barrel, but others may suggest. 6in is the most common variant for PPC. Underlugs come up sometimes on Ebay. Else Aristocrat makes one. I doubt you will make pistol in your price range, but maybe 800-1200 if sourcing carefully. I can help you with pointers on clockwork. I think mating barrel properly will be the hardest part, to have even spacing with every cylinder,. Frront lock can.be achieved in 3 ways. Bearing ball in the crane/yoke, ejector pin like original or underlug pin to the crane/yoke.  There are tons of info for S&W. Honestly I think Colt PPC are super rare but awesome. They lock up better due to hand pushing jnto.the crane  closed direction. Supposedly Colt clockwork wears faster and not as abondant (ebay) as SW. Ruger is another great choice for lockup, but harder to get clockwork as smooth as SW.  Especially DA.  I will be happy to help you with his project  Finding parts amd knowledge share.

Sorry for mistypes, dont have glasses with.me.

john bickar wrote:Are there any PPC matches still being held?

Second question, can non-LEO participate?

I always thought it was an intriguing course of fire, but I think the last PPC match I was aware of that was local to me was in Canton, Ohio, in the mid or late 1980s, and I was a little too young to participate at that time.

Still some around.
Michigan has the MPCPA which allows civvies to participate. They shoot primarily indoors, using B-27R targets. Nobody uses the B-36 tiny one anymore.

http://www.mpcpa.org/

They have all the info.

I remember shooting the Canton-McKinley Police Combat  REVOLVER Regionals back in mid ‘70’s

wow....Tripscake thank you. thank you everyone.

a friend mentioned that he saw at a local shop some used revolvers for sale. hopefully they will still be there tomorrow and if so i will try to see if my better half will drive me there. Perhaps they might have something that might work. 

Prior to my injury I had some experience working on my own 1911s, optimizing /fitting custom parts, trigger jobs...... all of which worked out well as they've proven reliable and accurate over many years and many thousands of rounds. I'm slow, generally meticulous and safe.

I have a little experience bedding and working on some of my long range rifles but it was pretty basic stuff, bedding, basic trigger job etc. I remain however very revolver naive. I have a good friend who is a wonderful and skilled metal worker who can help me as well.

I continue to read about the different types of revolvers and their working. I have a few old books such as one by Mr. Sweeney that discusses revolvers at some length as well. i

 hope to learn more prior to taking on the project.

james r chapman wrote:I remember shooting the Canton-McKinley Police Combat  REVOLVER Regionals back in mid ‘70’s

I have only hazy memories of those matches existing at all, but I'm pretty confident that they did and were quite popular at the time. I definitely remember helping set up the barricades.

This is one of the many things that I would love to ask my mom and dad about in terms of the history of our sport, but, well, that ain't happening.

My very hand-wavy memory is that my mom did more of the heavy lifting on the PPC Regional at Canton McKinley, and my dad did more of the heavy lifting on the Bullseye Regional.

I don't think I got pressed into service as a block officer at the Bullseye Regional until I was about 10YO or so, so that would have been 1987ish. I think the big PPC match at Canton McKinley had been phased out by that time. I do not recall the reason why.

It's a shame. From everything I've read, it seems like a discipline that I could excel in, and it sounds like a lot of fun.

Wobbley wrote:Can non-LEO participate?  It seems to be a match directors call.  They weren’t for a long time.  Apparently even Military Police weren’t welcome.  The real issue is that the combat shooting world passed them by a long time ago.   Even though there were whole departments that had been carrying auto pistols for a decade, the PPC world was still insisting on 38 Special revolvers shooting Wadcutters.  So it lost its relevance.

There is an active PPC group Eastern in NY, in the Hudson Valley area. The New York Police Combat League. Monthly matches plus a State Championship and Regional. They do allow civilians to participate, but civilian scores are not sent to NRA. 
The course of fire include both revolver and semi-auto. Both for 1500,s, Duty course, Off-duty revolver and semi-auto and now there is also a course of fire using optics. Also there are both revolver and semi-auto distinguished matches. Majority of shooters are semi-auto, but the revolver segment is holding its own. Many competitors shoot both.  
The NYPCL, is about 30 miles from West Point. Military Police, both active and National Guard are allowed and welcome, but not a lot are competitors as there is virtually no support from the service branches.  
The Nationals in Pearl Mississippi are in September each year, but alas only about 300 shooters in total, much due to the lack of support by departments, not unlike the waning support of Bullseye by the military.  
Many of the same problems that impact Bullseye, also impact PPC.

John, it was a great Regional! I remember the Distinguished match where they walked down the line giving you a handful of random 158 gr R.N cartridges, probably left over from random P.D armory’s.

Picked this one up 15 years ago, used, for about $350. It shot well, don’t know who smithed it.

wow, great deal
sounds like it was a very nice experience

Since nobody ever remembers what PPC is, you can find them on Gunbroker or auctions for less than a decent unmodified model of the same gun. Not many people bid on them. I lucked out these, each one was well within your budget range. They are a lot of fun to shoot, but be aware that they are heavy. The upper one, a S&W model 18, .22lr, was claimed by the seller to be the work of Travis Strahan, but it isn't signed, so I can't be sure of that. (priced right, so I bought the gun, not the story). It weighs over 62 ounces. Below it is a 10-5 .38 special built by Walt Sherman of Tallahassee, FL, and it weighs 56 ounces.
Both sport the Mascot 1 sight that Travis Strahan made.

i'll keep checking. perhaps i will be fortunate in my quest as well.

Clark custom looks like it has all the parts you require to build a PPC gun.
Just need a cheap k frame smith like an old LEO trade in (model 10)

https://clarkcustomguns.com/product/clark-custom-sw-ppc-match-barrels/

thank you

Also,
https://www.midwestgunworks.com/

https://jackfirstinc.com/