yessir, as soon as these guns got shipped, sold ,and puit in "use" , the sooner some guys got a hold of 'walnuts' the better, besdies from a selling stand point, to make the inventory "look " different, dealers would put whatever grips on a gun, to make the sale, always after the guns shipped. I know the shops I had worked at , thats what the dealers ( owners) would do. Later on we too did the same thing in our shops,,called "marketing"... :roll:
now add the fact, if they broke the grips, and had to replace them, called the shop or called the factory, I KNOW they ordered the 'walnuts' cause we did too :wink:
But to answer the question asked ,they were NOT NORMALLY shipped from the factory with the walnuts on the 357 Blackhawk or the Single Six as far as we know of, in the late 50's but who is to say what Ruger put on a gun as a "request" ( special order) or whatever...the grips were "in house" during 1956.......................(stag and ivory too.....) :wink: