How durable is the blue or black finish on the GP100s?

I'm considering buying a used security company "blued" GP-100 and am wondering how durable that finish is. I'm familiar with bluing as used on other guns, but for some reason remember those on the GP-100 as being rather dull and different-looking than the usual.

It would be an internet transaction, so I can't inspect the revolver before the sale. Durability is more important to me than aesthetics.

So, what do you think about that finish?

Thanks in advance!

It depends on the individual gun, honestly. I have a 2008 production blue 6" GP100 that suffered some spots of blue wear just from bringing it to the range a couple times in the gray plastic box.....I don't use the gray boxes for transport or storage anymore..the blue looks more like blacking, and doesn't have hardly any "luster", more of a matte, hasty look to it, like the Ruger tech knocked the roughness off the steel and dunked it in the blue tank.

Hot Bluing is a very hard to do process, if it's not done exactly right, it doesn't come out looking good. I read the process for bluing and it makes me wonder why any modern gunmakers even bother with it anymore......I'm glad they do, but it's a process that requires some labor. You have to wash the salts off the steel, and if you don't it can turn white and pasty.....it explains why S&W has gone to mostly all stainless, it's just less labor.

Then again I have a couple blue security trade in .38 GP's that have some holster wear, but don't look bad at all for having been used by a security company. I would guess they weren't used long. The blue seems to be more durable on these two mid 90's era guns.

The polish and blue on the older GP's and Sixes seems to be a lot better. I have some 70's and 80's era Service Sixes with polish and blue that rival any S&W.

Thanks again for the reply! Would you happen to have a pic of the said security trade-in .38 GP that you can either post of email me, showing some areas of normal finish wear?

Also, since you seem to be up on these, what's a decent price for a 4" blued .38 GP these days?

Thanks

I have a late '80s half-lug 6" blue .357 that was obviously carried a bit; may have been an LEO private purchase. The bluing is shinier than later GPs and seems to have held up as well as any bluing of the period including Ruger SAs and S&W DAs that I compared it to. A little off the sharp corners and a little more off the sides of the barrel end where it obviously dragged on the holster. I'd say GP bluing is very good quality, especially in an older one.

My camera isn't the best with close up shots, these are my two .38 Special security guns. They have wear on the muzzles and cylinders but they were probably carried in Safariland fixed sight 4" GP100 holsters, which have a soft suede lining and don't tend to beat the bluing up like the older hard lined leather holsters.

I also have a 6" full lug blue GP100 that looks like it may have been a LEO's gun, too much holster wear for it to be just a hunting revolver. It looks like it was carried a lot but the wear isn't all that bad,it's a mid 90's production.

Overall, if I were buying a Ruger to holster carry a lot, I would just go stainless......it'll save you a lot of headaches If I were a LEO, I would carry a 6" stainless half lug GP100 with small Lett grips......

Honest wear on those two; I kind of like that! Seems the shine and areas of wear confirm Mr. Armstrong's observations.

Thank you both for the feedback!

I don't think I would mess with the cop who's enough of a Hoss to lug around a 6" full lug GP all day every day

It's as durable as any other hot salt blue. The difference in luster is a difference in the level of polish beforehand, not the bluing itself.

This 2008 GP100 has a rough polish job, looks like the new guy did it at 4:30pm on a Friday. I love this gun to death, it was my first Ruger DA revolver and it's a tackdriver, but it's very roughly finished and also someone at Ruger had to take a file and hog out part of the slot where the hand rides, I guess there was a burr there. No one ever said Ruger finishes guns like Korth or 1960's Colt, but they last forever and they just work. The up side is I never have to sweat over putting some handling wear on this GP, or damaging some ultra fine blue job like these guys who handle a Colt Python with white gloves on and don't let anyone breath on it.

Ruger will still reblue your old gun better than anyone else can. By the gun and later you can have them reblue it if you do not like.

MG-70, to answer your question, the blued finishes of today are more durable than those of "recent'?? older guns, i feel the older yet, niter blued finishes are a bit tougher,but more costly & bit harder to do..........but the furmulas changed today, more black than blue, easier to do, more forgiving with different grades of gun steel,and do hold up better,BUT as noted above, LOTS has to do with the "polish' ( finish, before bluing) as for YOUR question as to buying this gun, 'sight ,unseen, I would question the source, coming from ANY PD or security agency,Lord only knows wha tit may have gone through, yes, on the other hand we've seen some that came from PD;'s that were NEVER issued, or even hardly used, but thats is an "ex ception" NOT a norm, and PD's and agencies "need" to qualify, so may shoot quite often...sounds like you may be getting a 'pig in a poke',, a "crap shoot"...
I would ask for a 'detailed" dscription/evaluation from whoever is handling the sale.........................
as shown in some of the pictures above, doesn;t take much to cause & show wear on ANY 'blued' firearm, especially a 'duty/work' gun...........
yep, you can get it and always have the factory redo, wo';t know till you have the gun in your hands...Good luck

I think I'm doing just that. It's just that I've replaced most of my revolvers with stainless versions and this wouldn't "fit" in with that practice or plan. But it's a used gun that's not so common due to caliber, so I guess I'll take a chance.

But if I were to refinish it, it would be something more durable than the original bluing; one of those duracoat, guncoat, ceracoat type finishes.

Stantheman86, those (Hogue?) grips look great!

A good weekend to all!!!

rugerguy said:

MG-70, to answer your question, the blued finishes of today are more durable than those of "recent'?? older guns, i feel the older yet, niter blued finishes are a bit tougher,but more costly & bit harder to do..........but the furmulas changed today, more black than blue, easier to do, more forgiving with different grades of gun steel,and do hold up better,BUT as noted above, LOTS has to do with the "polish' ( finish, before bluing) as for YOUR question as to buying this gun, 'sight ,unseen, I would question the source, coming from ANY PD or security agency,Lord only knows wha tit may have gone through, yes, on the other hand we've seen some that came from PD;'s that were NEVER issued, or even hardly used, but thats is an "ex ception" NOT a norm, and PD's and agencies "need" to qualify, so may shoot quite often...sounds like you may be getting a 'pig in a poke',, a "crap shoot"...
I would ask for a 'detailed" dscription/evaluation from whoever is handling the sale.........................
as shown in some of the pictures above, doesn;t take much to cause & show wear on ANY 'blued' firearm, especially a 'duty/work' gun...........
yep, you can get it and always have the factory redo, wo';t know till you have the gun in your hands...Good luck

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Roger that, good info, and you're absolute right about the crap shoot, given it's sight unseen from an unfamiliar source...

I'm rolling the dice on this one and will report on what shows up!

Thanks again for the feedback!

lfpiii said:

Ruger will still reblue your old gun better than anyone else can. By the gun and later you can have them reblue it if you do not like.

Click to expand...

Cheaper than anyone else but certainly not better. I doubt there's anyone at Ruger who remembers how to properly polish to a bright luster. All the Vaqueros and New Vaqueros have been polished in a tumbler.

I wouldn't worry a bit about a .38 Special GP100 being fired any amount, no security company is going to put enough .38 +P's through a GP to ever hurt it. Those are the best deals out there, you know a security trade in .38 wasn't beat up with monster handloads and you know it wasn't fired a ton. Those companies might qualify quarterly at the most, usually bi-annually or annually. Years ago when I was an armed guard at a nuke plant, we qualified every 6 months. The rest of the time those Glocks rode in a holster.

I don't worry about worn blue in a former duty gun, I just let them be. The gun has been "out there", not sitting in a safe for years. If you want a minty gun, a security trade in is not going to be it.



This Service Six may have been a "range gun" or a "qual gun", which is common for security companies. The security company has the guns that get carried on duty, pretty much hardly if ever fired, just getting passed from holster to holster during shift change, or each guard is assigned a gun and they get put back in the arms room rack after the shift is over. THOSE are the ones you hope you get 8)

Then, at "qual time" the companies, who rarely have their own range facilities, have 5 or 10 guns that get kept in cases and brought out at qual time, and taken to the local range, everybody meets there after their shift with a supervisor, and the guards fire 18 rounds at a target , put enough holes in it to "qual" and the next guys take the "range gun" and do the same. Those qual guns are also used for training when a new group of guards is hired, and turnover is high. Many security companies have full-time trainers, who just do this and quals as their job. Lots of times they just take the range guns to the range and burn up "old ammo". So those may see a lot of use. This is the "dynamic" of the security guns, from my experience.

My gun pictured above looks like it has damage to the finish from being kept in an egg-crate cheap gun case, so it was probably a "qual gun". It's been abused, the ejector rod was taken off many times with pliers or something, and it's been carelessly scrubbed with what looks like bronze brushes, there's scouring all over the cylinder face, forcing cone and recoil shield, typical of people who don't know what they're doing cleaining a gun they don't care about, that doesn't belong to them. But, it's still a great shooter and now it's my "range gun"

Stantheman86,
Another nice sample! I'm not so much worried about a loose gun from shooting .38s as I am about what's left of the original finish. If I was given a true description over the phone, I should be happy when I finally get to see it.

Thanks again for the post!

At least, unlike some of the trade in S&W's, with a Ruger you know the sideplate has't been pried off 100 times and that the timing will be on! One of my bugaboos is a S&W with raised edges all around the sideplate from being carelessly removed a bunch of times, with buggered screws.

That's one of the main reasons I went with Ruger for my "heavy shooters", and after about 10 years of being a S&W guy, the Smiths are now just collector and fun guns. I have some well used S&W's that have sluggish carryup, and you have to crank the hammer back or pull the trigger fast to get them to lock up right. I have never had this problem with a Ruger, no matter how well used. S&W's are classic and great guns, but I just like the timing and the actions better on the Rugers. A gun that doesn't drop the bolt into lockup until you pull the trigger doesn't sit right with me Also why I never got heavily into Colts.