Brass Grip Frame?

Heavy duty frame. Have seen many that way, MR3DB-wise. Visual issue with me but not from a strength perspective................Agree they should have gone in the scrap, but strange things happen at 330 PM on a Friday.......... 8)

It wouldn't take many "bubbles" to make a trigger guard break off when dropped. The resulting safety hazard would be serious.

SORRY, VOIDS LIKE THAT WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN USED, PERIOD, AND, DROPPING GUNS IS A CATASTROPY AND NOT IN MY NORMAL REALM OF ACTION/PROCESS/WORLD .

One of my MR3-DBs has some little pin holes in it.. It came to me as a stand alone grip frame that had already been fitted to a gun somewhere along the way. I know nothing of the history.. Maybe came off an original brassie or perhaps out of the scrap pile.. 8)

I wonder how many from the scrap pile made their way back to the factory to be repaired as manufacturers' defects. It may have had something to do with the final disposition/discontinuation of brass gripframes?!

I remain cranky about that huge box of scrapped MR3DB's I mentioned earlier.............Can just see WBR in some form of upset because of the brass washing into the Cylinder frames at polishing and him telling someone to "Get those damn frames out of here; we are spending too damn much time polishing this ****!"

Truly a tragedy. Maybe one day Ruger will do an "anniversary" or other special run with brass gripframes...

I recently purchased a factory lettered brass framed OA that had a small pin hole in the casting right in front of the trigger guard on the recoil shield side. It definitely came from the factory that way. Naturally, knowing my conversion perversion, the frame got pulled and a blued OA frame installed and the gun is now at a new home but the MR3-BD will work well on the 7 1/2" OM FT. :lol:

I recently got a factory brass framed Super. It is one of only 2 Rugers that I own which I haven't changed anything on. I can't think of anything which could improve as it is. I've even grown fond of the 5th click.

Hey Guys those frame were made in Toledo Ohio......the factory is abandon...I have always thought I should climb through a boarded up window and see if a pallet of frames was still in the corner somewhere....I thought JD's book had some info on these and they were priced under a buck unfinished......I volunteer to do a stress analysis if someone donates a frame......I have a Titanium hammer I can pound on it with :lol: :lol: :lol: see ya RR.

Well here is the bottom line.

The gentleman who bought this gun new isn't a collector. He has no idea about the value of old models or brass grip frames or any of that. All he knows is that he bought the gun new the same way I got it from him. With two cylinders and a brass grip frame. I believe he is sincere and telling me the truth. He has no reason not to.

However, just like so many of you told me on this forum, Ruger will only confirm the gun as a BKH36X. The lady at Ruger told me the gun shipped in Jan of 73. She said it wouldn't surprise her in the least, because of when it shipped, if it left the factory with a brass grip frame. But there is no way to verify it.

To me the gun is "way cool" and I believe it to be a BHK36XB. Another interesting gun for me to show my friends!

Thank you for all of your input. I appreciate it.

It's a good gun and one to be happy with and proud of. IMO though, w/o factory verifiable documentation that it shipped as a brassie...well

Did he happen to mention when or where he bought it? Maybe there are records at the gun store that could help verify it. If that gun gets verified it would probably be worth five times as much...maybe more!

That's simply a superb gun.

It's a late one, too. The very last Old Model .357 Blackhawk shipped was 31-45190, shipped in May of 1973.

Congratulations on your nice find.

As mentioned earlier, perhaps somebody will eventually see the "other" inspect records at the Ruger factory at the time these guns were made. This is how the previously "unverifiable" brass Frame 80- Super Blackhawks made it to the "verified" list.
And Marshal Buckshot, the other thing I would do just for fun (it doesn't prove anything), but prove without a doubt that the gun has not been reblued in any way shape or form, and from your description of the gun and owner, it sounds completely true that the owner has no reason to tell stories about it. After the original Ruger finish has been guaranteed, then all you have to do is look at the miniscule polishing lines from the brass frame to the blued steel to see if the polishing marks match.
Chet15

No way, would ANY shop or maker ,polish BOTH brass and steel 'together'on the same wheel, the brass would contaminate the wheels and booger the blue job of ANY salt solution, causing 'spots' in the metals finish, that is VERBOTEN around the gun shops and service departments of the factories we ever trained at..................if one "sees" polishing marks , it is from "after the fact" buffing in any particular gun and using a 'harsher' abrasive than really needed ( like wiping down a gun with ones 'flannel' shirt sleeve or an old burlap potato sack......) or as many do today, using a 3M Scotch Brite pad, on a "finished" gun..........

as for the pin holes, "casting craters" ( very miniscule though they be) are quite common in brass, bronze "gun" castings...same went for stainless casting, yes even done by Ruger, ,I refer back to the early Old Armies, in 'stainless' and if one ever tried to polish one out, you can and will "open" other voids or pin holes, file/sand ONE, and open two or three....again, we ran into this often in refinishing firearms............saw 3 'brass frames' on and off guns today at the show, and they had 'casting' pin holes and many shrink "cracks" inside the grip frames...nature of the beast. Bill Ruger had just cause and GOOD reasons to get the 'brass frames' out of his shops.

I mentioned above that I am not an expert, but I still think gas bubbles in a cast piece of metal ( brass or stainless ) are a serious defect and would cause the peice to be discarded (or remelted) by the foundry where it was made or the factory where it was to be used. I really wonder how many of the brass gripframes we see today are in circulation because of unscrupulous business. There are plenty of unscrupulous people who would jump at the chance to sell that scrap metal as legitimate product. I am sure there were plenty of people that took their Ruger to a gunsmith and asked for a brass gripframe, not thinking they needed to verify it's provenance. And there were probably plenty of gunsmiths who were looking for bargains just like every other smart businessman.