Old Model Blackhawk Convertable

Picked this one up today in a pawn shop! Old Model Ruger Blackhawk convertable .357 Mag/9mm. Rugers website puts it at 1972. I believe the grips to be correct, as Dougans Know Your Ruger Single Actions, the 2nd decade says that Ruger started putting those grips on thel guns in 71. There are a couple things I wonder about. One, the very tall looking front sight. It looks like some of the sights they put on the .45 LC. The other, the grip frame looks to have that baked on paint on it, instead of anodizing. The gun itself does not appear to be re-blued, at least not that I can tell. One other question. The last 3 digits of the serial # are scribed with an electric scribe, but on the rear of the cylinders , instead of the front. All I have seen before this one have been on the front. What say the experts?

Sorry for the crappy pic.

Oh, yeah! Nice one.

I've seen the numbers on both ends of cylinders, but I agree that usually they are on the front.

A tall front sight on a short-barrelled gun isn't unusual. You'll know if it's OK when you shoot it.

PM sent.

yessir, nice one, and pretty much all "normal" as said above we too have seen them BOTH ways as to the stampings, and as for the grip medallions, after the initial "squashed chicken" ones we often see, those crummy plated ones with the blued hardware were the next ones....saw a couple of pairs of those grips at the last gun show, exact same way, blued hardware and crummy plated medallions..........and that sight is just like the ones on the 4 5/8 inch barreled guns we sold......................
if you got it at a pawn shop, bet the was "right"....last ones we saw were well in the $500-600 range, more this past weekend for one in the 31 prefix range, but it was boxed and all...........

But.....Ruger didn't start using the teflon coat baked finish on their grip frames until long after the Old Models were gone. I don't have a date for you on that but am thinking the change was made in the early '80's. If somebody has a Liberty model SA they could check, that would pretty much verify it, because it should be anodized. That in itself tells me it may have been back to the factory.
Does the barrel have the normal "INC." address without the eagle logo?
Ruger used the highly polished "squashed chicken" silver eagle medallions until at least 1975.
Chet15

Chad, the barrel does have the normal "INC" address withouta eagle logo. The grips are a pair I had laying around, as the ones that came with it had some idiots initials on one of them. They where the "squashed chicken" version. I may try to sand them out, but it is kinda deep in the wood so don't know how that will turn out.