This is a first for Uncle Fudd. I did not build this sweet future gat. This build was dreamed up and built by rudukai13 (Instagram and AR-15 forum name). Rudukai's execution of the build was so nice that I asked him if I could share it with the Uncle Fudd community. He kindly agreed.
Credit for the images below as well as the narrative for the build go to Rudukai. I've just done some editing for this post and added my commentary along the way. As usual, the full parts list with links is at the end.
The core of the build is an Uberti "Hardin" Top Break Revolver. This style of "Top Break" revolver was designed by Major Schofield of U.S. Army in the late 19th century but lost the popularity contest to other contemporary designs, which are still common today. Top Break revolvers from any manufacturer are still referred to as "Schofields."
The beauty of the top breaking action is that you can quickly dump a whole cylinder of used rounds and drop new ones in. It's certainly much faster than the Colt Single Action style of one-at-a-time reloading.
The top break also means that you can add crazy futuristic stuff to the front of the revolver and not have to think as much about blocking the cylinder from opening up to reload (more important to Rudukai and Uncle Fudd than General Schofield). Everything attached to the barrel moves with the cylinder when you break the top open. Cylinder interference on non-top break revolvers required me to cut deep openings in the handguards on my Space Force 6 and Space Cowboy builds, which are based on a Ruger GP-100.
Here's what Rudukai had to say about the inspiration of the build:
"...I’ve always been a fan of different/unique, sometimes even potentially objectionable things. I’d noticed the trend of tactical lever-action rifles gaining steam, and had the idea to do something in the same spirit. I honestly didn’t think to actually build a gun though until I happened to stumble on a press release from Uberti talking about their newest limited-edition Schofield model, the “Hardin” variant from their Outlaws and Lawmen series. The combination of the color case hardened frame with the brilliant charcoal blued cylinder and barrel were absolutely one of the most gorgeous gun finishes I’d ever seen, and the price for one of the revolvers was well within my budget. With a little egging on from friends online after mentioning the idea for the project, I ordered up the revolver and started collecting components for the build."
Gotta love that Surefire X300 on there. Classic Fudd-ery.
You can see the blue and case hardened color combo really well in the image below. I suspect the tacticool crowd would object to the colors. But I don't think Rudukai was thinking of this as his EDC piece.
More from Rudukai;
"Initially, my idea was to have my gunsmith weld or solder small sections of picatinny rail directly above and below the barrel of the Schofield, but I was browsing The Firearm Blog one day when they did a feature on [the] Space Force GP100 and the look of the M-LOK barrel shroud over the classic revolver shape just stuck with me. I took the Schofield in to my local gunsmith Bart Miller out of Legacy Gunsmithing and asked him if there was any way he could think of to attach a MCX handguard securely to the revolver.
"It honestly took him maybe 30 seconds of looking at the revolver to come up with his solution - the stock Schofield has a rib that runs all the way along the top of the barrel. It’s relatively thin and scalloped on either side. Bart had the idea to use two metal dowels of appropriate diameter, placing them on either side of the rib and sandwiching the scalloped area to reinforce the rib with more material.
"He drilled through the rib, screwed the two dowels together solidly, and used the metal dowels as the connection points for attaching the handguard after some significant trimming and shaping to get it to fit properly. The only permanent modifications made to the base Schofield are those three screw holes through the barrel rib to connect the two metal dowels together. The result is a rock solid platform for mounting an optic and other accessories.
"All credit for the difficult work of figuring out how to mount the handguard/barrel shroud goes to Bart Miller and his genius gunsmithing team. Honestly all I did was bring him the revolver, show him some pictures, and say “MAKE” - and he did a beautiful job with it.
After he figured out the hard part, finishing up the build by bolting on the right accessories was quick and easy."
Pretty cool shot above of the Holosun recital. I also like this angle becuase you can see that the handguard doesn't make the revolver much wider than the cylinder.
Full Build List
Optics: Two are shown in the images
Thanks to Radukai for allowing me to share his futuristic revolver build! You can see him firing this puppy on his instagram. I hope his work inspires some creativity of your own.