A butchered pawn shop “Half Fitz” snubnose needed a new lease on life. Here’s how I converted it to a snake gun and landed a more profitable sale.

by RK Campbell

Sometimes a butchered gun crosses the desk that is worth saving. Other times there is no economical avenue to get the firearm into a usable condition. If the piece has personal value then price may be no object, however, not once in my life have I heard anyone say that but I may yet be amazed. I have dealt with car lot owners when doing mechanical work many years ago and today I deal with his fraternal twin, the pawn shop broker. While some are honest, others are in business primarily to keep the poor man poor. A few are gentlemen I enjoy dealing with. None like to spend money to get a product up to snuff. But sometimes a misadventure may turn into a learning experience.

One of the latest involved a Colt Army Special manufactured in 1911. Truth be known I would have loved to have had the revolver myself, save for one drawback. The original blue was over 90% and, like many Colt revolvers of the era, the action was butter smooth in the truest sense of the word. The revolver booked at around seven hundred dollars and the pawn shop employee paid the maximum that would have allowed a decent 20% profit.

There was, however, a huge problem with the revolver: The barrel had been…

Read more in the April 2019 issue.

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