There are many who hang out the shingle:
"Gunsmith", but few who actually live up to the title.
To me, a gunsmith is not the fellow at the local gun shop who
can mount a scope and clean a rifle, but a true gunsmith is a
combination of machinist, metallurgist, artist, mechanic, and
welder, with perhaps a bit of magician thrown in. There are few
who can be counted among the best, but recently I was introduced
to the work of Alan Harton of Single Action Service
in Houston, Texas, and he certainly qualifies.
Having never met Mr. Harton, I had seen some of
his work briefly before, but had never been able to closely
examine any of his revolvers. A couple of weeks ago, I was
talking with a good friend of mine and fellow Shootist,
Fermin Garza, while at the Shootists Holiday at
the NRA Whittington Center
near Raton, New Mexico. Fermin asked if I wanted to see some
nice custom single action revolvers, knowing full well what my
answer would be.
One at a time, he would extract a padded case
with another custom Ruger from his pickup, laying it on a
table in front of me. The guns exhibited many custom features
such as beveled cylinders, barrel bands, custom sights,
re-contoured top straps, big bore five-shot cylinders, etc., but
the high quality of the work is what really impressed me the
most. There is just something about a custom single action that
is done right; subtle differences that are hard to explain with
words, but are readily apparent to someone who has seen,
handled, and shot a lot of custom revolvers. I have seen many
customs that had all the features; cool sights, five-shot
cylinders, and everything else, but they just weren’t
"right". The features on Harton’s guns flowed
together, instead of being merely an assemblage of parts.
The lines were right, the dimensions right, the proportions
right, and the feel right.
One very impressive gun was a Colt Single
Action Army that Fermin dragged out of a pistol rug. It was a
beautiful seven and one-half inch sixgun that appeared perfect
in every way. Then he showed to me the "before"
picture. That old Colt had been blown apart at some time, and
Alan Harton meticulously rebuilt the thing, starting with only
half a frame. The pictures do more to detail that Colt that I
could ever describe. In fact, all of the guns that I examined
are better detailed in the pictures. Enjoy!
One gun that Alan Harton builds that I did not
get to see, but heard about, is a six-shot .32-20 conversion on
a Ruger Single Six frame. I can’t wait to try that one at the
range! Look for a review here later.
If you like what you see here, give Alan Harton
a call. His turn-around time is relatively quick, and his prices
are reasonable. Contact him by telephone at: 713-772-8314
or 713-907-6031.
You can email Mr. Harton at: aharton@hotmail.com.
Jeff Quinn
Click pictures for a larger version.
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