Henry Rifle Forums

The wife and I are back safe and sound. I'll put together a separate Substack on the road trip and everything we did. I was able to get the car cleaned up yesterday while she was at skate practice.

We bought it with 6 miles in April. We hit 21,300 yesterday.

I picked up a couple of guns along the way.

Car first post detail






The first gun I picked up is a 1986 DW 44. It's a spiffy gun. It and all of it's parts need a good cleaning.





One small tiny problem. It was the previous owners first centerfire pistol, he put the barrel nut on with a force of 1200 ugga duggas. He rounded over the shoulder of the barrel nut. I suspect he heated it up at some point. When I tried to take it off using the DW barrel tool, the stainless chipped away.




I spoke at length with DW, and I'm waiting on my RMA, shipping label etc. It should be a pretty easy fix. They are also going to check their NOS barrels and make sure the 2.5, 4, 6, and 8-inch full underlug barrels they have will fit and function in this older gun.

The second gun I found yesterday. It's a 25-5 somewhere around 83. The throats are big, all six gauge at .455, bore is 452. I went out and shot 37 rounds of my .452 Matt's bullet loads, probably about 7 or 8 varieties, and I hit everything I was aiming at from 45 ft. I think it will be just peachy, accuracy-wise.

As for the .455 throats. I've got a couple of options. I can swage .454 lead bullets and powder coat them. That'll bring me pretty darn close to .4555, which is a no-pass through, and a .4551 is a pass through. With swaged pure lead, there will be some bullet base obturation, and that should allow for a good cylinder seal.




These are the only marks on it.

Nice pick ups.

Love 'em all, including the car. The color is very cool.

DW 44s are tanks, but that weight really soaks up the recoil. Glad DW is taking care of you.

A Smith 25 in any vintage is a great find. Congrats.

That Model 25 must be very close to unfired. Good catch!

5shot wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 21, 2025 7:58 pm

That Model 25 must be very close to unfired. Good catch!

That was my suspicion also.

Congratulations on both finds, but really nice score on the 25-2.

I had a 25 6" I shot in the local level PPC matches, and it was set up to shoot 45 ACP in full moon clips. I loved that gun and the full moon clip setup for PPC since it made pickup of the brass after each stage a breeze, you never lost any. It was great. The local level matches were just the Stage Five course fired from 7 to 25 yards and that gun was perfect. When my mentor moved me to the State Level and we began shooting the 1500 course, that meant 50 yards. I really needed a dedicated PPC gun and a shooter traded me his spare for my model 25.

Sigh.... I needed, really need, the dedicated PPC gun.

That's a nice looking car, hope you have lots and lot of safe, happy, trouble-free miles with it.

Two nice revolvers too. I have a 744VH, mine came in a pistol pack, having a 6 and 8 inch barrel, along with a ported 6 and 8 inch barrel. The shrouds for both lengths have a slot just behind where the barrel nut sits to vent the gasses. It's amazingly accurate, and as was mentioned, those heavy shrouds sure help soak up recoil.

Really like that Smith as well. The double-ball detent shows someone wanted it to lock up tight, but that forcing cone still has machine marks, so still pretty minty. Really nice looking stocks on that one too.

The 25-5 in .45 Colt has been on my list for over a decade. A buddy brought his mountain gun in .45 Colt down, and I was taken with it.

My only complaint is that I wanted 6" over his 4". That's when he told me about the 25-5s.

The local lgs had it listed forn 999, but took 100 bucks off when i asked.

I'm tickled pink with it. I'll have to swage some .454 bullets in jackets to see how it does.

I've heard back from Kieth at a DW, and they're going to give it a go.

The 25-5 always appealed to me but after reading at length about the throat issues I decided to stay away. I had an 8 3/8 25-5 at the local pawn shop on hold but talked myself out of it.

Congrats on your new revolvers, a couple of classics for sure.