LIpsey's Bisley SS flat tops

Update: My Bisley Flattop arrived on Thursday, as planned. They really worked it over. New cylinder, new loading gate, smoothed action, repaired the cylinder broach area(where ever that is), fitted a set of black laminate grips as I requested, and I think the work order said they replaced the hammer too. I don't have access to the work order right now. Anyhow, it looks much better, and functions better too. Perfect it is not, but I fully realize this is a production gun, not a hand built custom. It still has the hammer catching on something sometimes, but not as bad as before. I think it may be the transfer bar, as the hammer has an area that might need a bit of attention to fix this issue. It also looks like they may have installed and fitted a new grip frame, but I'm not sure about that. Reason I suspect this is the grip frame has a slight overhang on the right side of the cylinder frame. In other words, its not flush. It didn't have this issue before. Also, the hammer pin sits a bit too "proud" above the frame on the right side of the gun too. I shot 24 rounds thru it yesterday, and it seemed to be as accurate as I am. Probably much more so. Trigger pull is still a little over 4 lbs, but I think I can live with that. I didn't mention I wanted it lightened, but maybe I should have. The new cylinder has a slight bit more endshake than the original one did, but its probably well within spec. B/C gap is pretty tight too. I do wish they had resolved the hammer issue a bit better, and the grip frame to cylinder frame fit was better, along with the proud hammer pin. I'm hoping the hammer "catching" issue will fix itself given enough shooting. I may buy some snap caps and work it several hundred times to smooth things out a bit more. I still haven't taken any pics yet, but will try to do so before long.

I did some measuring last night after work. The B/C gap is .005" on the left side, .006" on the right. Endshake measured .002"-.003". If you look closely, you can actually see the cylinder move slightly fore and aft. You can also feel it depress the alignment pawl plunger when pushing the cylinder to the rear. It didn't have this much wiggle room with the original cylinder, but I would guess it is still within factory specifications. It looks like the "cylinder broach area" is where the cylinder ratchet rests against the frame. It appears they did some slight machine work there when fitting the new cylinder. The work order didn't specify fitting a new grip frame, so they probably didn't do that as I first thought. According to the work order, they did replace the cylinder, hammer, loading gate, polished the frame, "repaired the cylinder broach area", action(smoothed) and fitted the new grips. Proof fired with the new cylinder. Released for shipping. The good news is the cylinder throats appear all a consistent .4305" in size. A .430" Hornady xtp easily passes thru the throats, but some mystery 240 SWC GC swaged lead bullets I have only go partially thru without significant pressure. These bullets measure .431" above the top cannellure, and .430" above the bottom cannellure. I think these may be old Speer or Remington bullets( I have a bag of 500 of these), but I'm not sure about that. Given those measurements, should I try .430" or .431" lead bullets first?

I thought I'd try some of my mystery 240 grain bullets over the Skeeter load of 7.5 grains of Unique to start with. I also need to pick up some Power Pistol to try in this gun.

I just ordered one of these. Can't wait till it gets here. I have one of the plow handle stainless 44 specials that TALO did some time back, but I've always wanted one with the Bisley grip.

I took some pics of my .44 special Flattop Bisley last night, but I haven't figured out how to transfer them from my phone to my pc, so I can post them here. Can I say I hate Windows 10? Anybody have any pointers for doing this? I had my phone hooked up via USB, but couldn't find where I needed to go on my pc to transfer them to it. I had one of the Flattop .44 special Blackhawks in blue finish with a 5.5" barrel until a couple years ago. I bought mine when they were a cataloged item. Foolishly, I traded it towards a SBH .454 when they first came out. I very much regret that decision. That .44 special Flattop was absolutely the finest fit and finished factory Ruger single action I've ever owned. Kick myself daily for that one. I've recently seen a couple of the SS Talo .44 special Flattops on Gunbroker. I'd love to have one of those too, but can't swing the funds for one right now.

Waterboy, sounds like Ruger took care of you, glad to hear it.

I just bought one on GB. Should be here in a couple of days and I must say I'm pretty dang excited about it.

Yes, overall I'm pretty well pleased. If one is really critical, there are still a couple things that bug me, but nothing I'm overly concerned with. I've already ordered a good set of snap caps(A Zoom), and plan to work the action quite a bit when those arrive. I think that may slick things up even more, at least that's what I hope happens. I do think I need to shoot several more jacketed bullets thru it to smooth out the bore. Those 24 rounds of HSM 240's I shot last Friday did leave a bit of leading in the first inch or two of the barrel. Its only got around 50 rounds fired, so I'm thinking another 100 or so jacketed bullet rounds should help with that.

I just picked mine up this afternoon. Fit and finish look great. Cylinder throats measure 0.431" with a pin gauge. Still need to slug the barrel though. :lol:




edited to add picture.

Nice. I've grown quite fond of mine, but still haven't figured out how to post pics of it. Enjoy.