Recent content by Driftwood Johnson

Howdy Long time since I have been here. I see there is a video out there showing Ruger manufacturing their own barrels from bar stock. I seem to recall in years past Ruger was buying pre-rifled barrel blanks and cutting and shaping them to finished dimensions. Does anyone remember this? I am...

Howdy Long time since I have been here. I see there is a video out there showing Ruger manufacturing their own barrels from bar stock. I seem to recall in years past Ruger was buying pre-rifled barrel blanks and cutting and shaping them to finished dimensions. Does anyone remember this? I am...

Howdy Long time since I have checked in here. I have a couple of Three Screw Blackhawks with the Micro rear sight on them. Can somebody fill me in on the details about the Micro rear sights? Were these made by another company and installed on the Blackhawks, or were they produced by Ruger...

Howdy Again Metal Injection Molding is similar to the old sintering process. As stated, powdered metal is mixed in a binder. Then the material is injected into standard plastic injection molding equipment and heated to take the form of the mold. The resulting 'green' part is removed from the...

Howdy Haven't been here in a long time. I just read that Ruger has started using some MIM parts. Is that true? Not making any sort of judgement, just curious. Thanks.

Howdy I have had a few holsters made up by El Paso Saddlery and am very happy with them. http://www.epsaddlery.com/

What? Although most of my Smiths are blued, I have never noticed a sealer coat on the few Stainless guns I have. Regardless, ALL stainless guns, Ruger, Smith, or anything else, will corrode if treated badly enough. Stainless steel is not truly 'stainless'. It is corrosion resistant. There are...

Yes, Colts also had the same 'first click position' as a Ruger Three Screw. Actually it is the other way around. The old Ruger Three Screws pretty much mimicked the old Colt actions. Same 'safety cock' notch position keeping the firing pin back about 1/8" or so from the primer, same half cock...

Howdy As CraigC says, in a perfect world, the cylinder is supposed to lock up at the same instant that the hammer reaches full cock. Practically speaking though, with just about every single action revolver I own, and I own quite a few of them, the bolt pops up and locks the cylinder in place...

Howdy Yes, early 45 Colts had tiny rims. The round in the center of this photo is an old 45 Colt round. All that tiny rim was supposed to do was keep the cartridge from being shoved forward into the chamber when the hammer struck the primer. All early 45 Colt revolvers used an ejector that...

Howdy Again Mike has written four books about Guns of the Old West, Shooting Colt Single Actions, Shooting Sixguns of the Old West, Shooting Lever Guns of the Old West, and Shooting Buffalo Rifles of the Old West. They are all top notch, have a lot if information about shooting the guns and...

Howdy To quote Mike Venturino in Shooting Sixguns of the Old West, 44 Colt is important because " it was Colt's first successful metallic cartridge." The 44 Colt was developed in 1871, two years before the 45 Colt was developed. 44 Colt was developed specifically for the cartridge conversion...

Howdy So how bad is the bulge? Without going into whether or not you got ripped off, sometimes a bulged barrel is not as bad as you think. I bought a lovely old S&W M&P a few years ago that was made sometime before 1910. I shot it a bunch before I discovered a slight bulge in the barrel...

Howdy To carry the discussion just a bit farther, the reason you get a ring with a Colt Single Action Army, or an old Three Screw Ruger is because the hammer has to go to full cock and then all the way down in order to reset the bolt. Both guns have different mechanisms, but they share the...

Thanks! Just Ten bucks? Such a deal.