File this one under "turning a sow's ear into a silk purse!"

I did this one for a buddy who gave me a REALLY good deal on some gun parts. Here we have a tired old POS Charter Arms Undercover. Without a doubt one of the cheapest revolvers I've ever had in my posession. This is his "nightstand gun"...the theory being that if he ever does shoot an intruder, that's the gun the police will confiscate! I have to say, he made me think twice about my nice Colt Gov't Model!

I finished this one in Zinc Phosphate with the cylinder, hammer, and trigger being lightly polished and blued. The metal was really terrible, with deep pits and machine marks. (what did you expect?) I sort of liked the contrast. I had to replace the beat up old grips and buy a few replacement parts from Numrich Arms. The sub-frame (metal part of the grip) is made of aluminum and that I finished in Brownell's Aluma Hyde II Dark Parkerizing...which matches the real park perfectly.

Anyway...totally different from my beloved M-1's, but this was definitely a low-stress project. (My friend said to "do whatever the hell I wanted to"!) Just shows what you can do to ANY gun with a little love and care!

Here's a "BEFORE" picture...


Now "AFTER"....

Not too shabby there. I really like the white lettering, a very nice touch.

I like it. Curious was there any sign of timing issues on the cylinder? I've heard a few people that had these were shaving lead. when shooting.

There was no evidence of shaved lead on this gun, but I wouldn't doubt that that is an issue. This thing was hardly a shining example of the gunmaker's art. However, I have to say that there were some interesting engineering solutions to make the thing work while keeping costs down. The cast-aluminum subframe comes immediately to mind. I have to give them credit for making a usuable firearm that is cheap to buy.

Beyond that, I probably put way more effort into this thing than it deserves. Oh well...it keeps me off the streets.

nice!!

now it needs a ported bbl, scope mount, trigger job, ......

Hey It's nice work Now let's see if you can make a raven p-25 look good, LoL, I'm joking. I do like it alot though great job

AKuser...now that's the kind of joke I expected to get back!

Trust me, I'm not working to become the next "Charter Arms guru" anytime soon! If this weren't a silly project for a friend it never would've gotten done.