Hey guys,

This is the Lucky Revolver from the Fallout New Vegas Vid Game... I'm looking to reproduce it in real life. What revolver can I use to base the build on? I know this is going to cost me a mint and then some, so I'm looking to get a decent gun to use.. not too expensive but not too cheap either... thoughts and suggestions???

I'm not very knowledgeable regarding single action revolvers, but this looks relatively close.

that does look close... I'm hoping someone will come up with a colt... I'm not a big Ruger fan

Single Action Army Attached File

oooooo.. yea.. that's it... what do they go for?

Just the revolver... $1,500.00 ish!  For a good price if you can find one near "retail" Colt price.

If you are not concerned with caliber, but more form the a Colt Frontier Scout or Ruger Bearcat will serve as a reasonable foundation.

A Colt New Frontier could also be used at a higher tariff

None of the Colts are still in production, so they will definitely test your economic meddle

Look at cimmaron, uberti, pietta and maybe somebody I'm forgetting. They are all 1873/Colt peacemaker clones.

Find a Colt Cowboy, not a SAA internally but cheaper and they are actually dang good shooters. Considerably cheaper then a Colt SAA.

A Ruger Vaquero would also work.

That said, to have the engraving and other gun smithing work done to make the gun look like your image you are going to spend a boatload of money. The engraving alone is likely going to run you easily over $2000. Figure you will need to have the frame refinished after that and on a gun with so much engraving labor you are going to want a very high polish blue finish (figure another $500) just for that. Want the frame color case hardened? Tack on some more money.

All in all, I would guess if you are starting with a plain base gun, your gunsmithing, engraving, refinishing, etc... is going to run you north of $3500 plus the cost of the gun.

From there, you will need to find a GOOD single action gunsmith. I would suggest guys like Jack Huntington, Hamilton Bowen, Andy Horvath, or Alan Harton (colt SAAs only).
Figure about a 6-9 month lead time on the gunsmithing work, maybe a year for a good engraver to get around to doing your pistol, some time for a place like Turnbull to do the color case hardening on the frame. Back to the gunsmith for final assembly and any cleanup work.
You are probably looking at almost 2 years until you get your gun back.

In the game, Lucky is a .357 Single Action Army style gun.  If I were looking to build one I'd probably start with one of the Ubertis, Cimmarons, etc. Of course to really replicate the feel of New Vegas it'll have to be buggy, occasionally lock up and sometimes bump you completely out of the game.  

To spend the type of money it'll take to reproduce something similar I wouldn't worry very much about a few hundred bucks here or there on the base gun.  You are going to spend several thousand dollars in work, so go ahead and start with a good quality base gun.

So I got curious wondering if you could get laser engraving done on a revolver's cylinder and came across this guy- I know nothing of him other than seeing his website- but $1200 for a fully engraved Ruger doesn't look too bad.  http://thegunengraver.com/prices/

Anyone ever heard of him or seen his work in person?

I'm pretty sure that $1200 fully engraved Ruger is actually more like $2500-$3000 total. The $1200 is only for the engraving work. It does not include the gun itself, jeweling of hammer & trigger, removal of warning label, polish/reblue, cch, action job, fire bluing of screws and pins, custom grips, shipping both ways, etc.

If I were going to go all in on a project like that I'd definitely choose a Colt or a Ruger.  I'd go with the Colt if it's important to you to have a true SAA gun, i.e. no transfer bar safety requiring only 5 rounds to be loaded, hammer mounted firing pin, four "click" hammer pull etc.  If you don't mind it not being an exact Colt clone, Ruger is the best choice.  The "New Vaquero" mid size frame guns are a tiny bit heavier than the Colt but significantly stronger.  The transfer bar safety allows all six rounds to be carried without fear of accidental discharge.  I'm partial to the Ruger's for those reasons only.  I'm a firm believer that Colt would have put a transfer bar safety in the 1873 SAA "Peacemaker" had it been invented at the time.  That said, if you're a single action fan, nothing will ever top the coolness of an actual Colt SAA.

If you really want something like this and are willing to spend the money to get it, the Colt Custom Shop will build it for you.
It will be expensive and will take a good amount of time, but it'll be the best, and will have real value.

They're temporarily not taking new orders....

https://www.colt.com/page/colt-custom

The other way to go is to buy a quality Italian Uberti from one of the importers and have a custom shop do the alterations and engraving.
As a money saver you might consider having it laser "engraved".  There are companies that off this.
You'd probably need to buy a 7 1/2 inch barrel model to allow it to be shortened.