Custom Jobs

[jules]

GP100

 

[RevolverTelevision]

Woah! What is the clambering? Super interesting!

 

[Wyandot Jim]

Who did the conversation to 45 colt? Bowen? That case color hardening is amazing!

Alan Harton of Single Action Services in Houston did the mods on all my shooters. Alan sent the frames to Turnbull to do the case hardening.

I forgot about these that Alan did. He built up 19 OMs into 3 screw Vaqueros for Joe Bowman "The Straight Shooter"

 

[RevolverTelevision]

Alan Harton of Single Action Services in Houston did the mods on all my shooters. Alan sent the frames to Turnbull to do the case hardening.

I forgot about these that Alan did. He built up 19 OMs into 3 screw Vaqueros for Joe Bowman "The Straight Shooter"

View attachment 97827

Yeah Mr. Harton is a legend.

 

[Wyandot Jim]

Yeah Mr. Harton is a legend.

I first met Alan in 2002 and introduced him to the Ruger Forum Guys. Up until then he wasn't know to many outside of Houston as the Outstsnding Gunsmith that he is. He was doing a lot of work for us CAS shooters in the area. Also it was about this time that he was intoduced to Joe Bowman by one of the CAS shooters. He built up 19 OMs into 3 screw Vaqueros for Joe.
The first guns I had him do for me were Flattops that he converted to 45 Colt among other things. Then the list goes on and on. The last two were the ROAs

 

[RevolverTelevision]

I first met Alan in 2002 and introduced him to the Ruger Forum Guys. Up until then he wasn't know to many outside of Houston as the Outstsnding Gunsmith that he is. He was doing a lot of work for us CAS shooters in the area. Also it was about this time that he was intoduced to Joe Bowman by one of the CAS shooters. He built up 19 OMs into 3 screw Vaqueros for Joe.
The first guns I had him do for me were Flattops that he converted to 45 Colt among other things. Then the list goes on and on. The last two were the ROAs

Does he do double actions too? Ive heard so much about him over the years but have never truly studied his work. Is he retired at this point though or is he not around anymore?

 

[Wyandot Jim]

Does he do double actions too? Ive heard so much about him over the years but have never truly studied his work. Is he retired at this point though or is he not around anymore?

I'm not sure about the dlb. actions. He retired as a machinist then started full time gunsmithing.

 

[Arisin' Wind]

Who did the custom work on that Beauty?

I did the work with the exception of the Ceracoating. I did disassemble and reassemble the revolver for the Ceracoating but a young gunsmith whose name escapes me did the application. He later moved out of state. Swapping the Bowen Rough Country rear sight, the Eagle grips, and the 454 Super Redhawk cylinder was all me.

 

[RevolverTelevision]

I'm not sure about the dlb. actions. He retired as a machinist then started full time gunsmithing.

Ah mk gotcha

 

[RevolverTelevision]

I did the work with the exception of the Ceracoating. I did disassemble and reassemble the revolver for the Ceracoating but a young gunsmith whose name escapes me did the application. He later moved out of state. Swapping the Bowen Rough Country rear sight, the Eagle grips, and the 454 Super Redhawk cylinder was all me.

Oh nice, did you have to do a lot of fitting to get that cylinder in there or was it a drop straight in type of deal?

 

[Hondo44]

Huh???? That's a tad snarky so I'll explain.
No paint involved on any of my guns. All metal finishes. Photo makes that one look a tad greener than it really is. They are actually varying levels of browning.
Here is a couple more done in the same style.

All of these were done to get rid of the HORRENDOUS faux case color garbage.
45 looked like this before.

A Pinto is a two colored horse and a gun with two different finishes.
A Paint is a 3 color horse and a gun like yours with 3 different finishes.

 

[Cholo]

On horses a Paint and a Pinto are both 2 color horses with white as the similar color. A specific bloodline of horse with the two colors is a Paint. Little Joe on Bonanza rode a Paint.

Anyone can feel free to correct me :)

Back to the topic at hand...

 

[hittman]

I think 3 or more colors makes it a calico :ROFLMAO:

 

[needsmostuff]

A Pinto is a two colored horse and a gun with two different finishes.
A Paint is a 3 color horse and a gun like yours with 3 different finishes.

On horses a Paint and a Pinto are both 2 color horses with white as the similar color. A specific bloodline of horse with the two colors is a Paint. Little Joe on Bonanza rode a Paint.

Well apologies to KRuger .
Yikes, I guess the obscure horsey references went over my head and I missed them.
And here 's me just being sensitive bout people thinking Ceracoat. :eek: :unsure:;):giggle:
Obviously I know nothing about horses but now I know a little more.
I have removed the "snarky" quip but left the remainder of my unfocused ramblings.

 

[Hondo44]

On horses a Paint and a Pinto are both 2 color horses with white as the similar color. A specific bloodline of horse with the two colors is a Paint. Little Joe on Bonanza rode a Paint.

Anyone can feel free to correct me :)

Back to the topic at hand...

I can't correct you, you're literally and exactly right.

Paint is a specific breed. Pinto and calico are not and they can be of different breeds.
However, in common vernacular usually fraught with mis-understanding, non-horse wise folks think of a pinto as 2 colors and a paint as more than two colors.
I know totally incorrect! And I'm guilty of perpetuating the inaccuracy, trying to make the point that KRuger wasn't meaning to be snarky to needsmostuff and referred to horse color patterns, not painting his guns.

Like so many gun owners out there referring to revolvers as pistols. Or an automobile gasoline engine being referred to as a motor.

 

[Cholo]

I had a horse person explain it to me many years ago. I called her Paint a Pinto and she explained the difference. I still can't tell them apart LOL

 

[KRuger]

Needsmostuff,
No snarkiness was intended. Admiration of your weapons was my intent. My reference to tricolor paints was to compare your guns to a more rare version of two colored horses; both pintos and paints. Those horses often have a darker color and white for their body/hair color. Occasionally a horse will have a third hair color. Imagine a bay and white horse with a black mane and tail. Sometimes the mane/tail color will also be on the body hair adjacent to the mane/tail. Most often these horses are paints rather than pintos.
On this site, I've seen blued/stainless guns referred to as pintos. Yours took the color differences one more step.
And yes; I'm beginning to realize that obscure horse references can lead to confusion rather than clarity.
Although I can tell a paint from a pinto; I'm not going to try to explain the difference. That would be a rabbit trail we all lost our dogs on.
KR

 

[Joey]

Thank you, if I can't do it, it doesn't get done. It wasn't that difficult. It's actually a friend's gun, he always wanted a ribbed barrel and fluted cylinder on his very 1st 44 Mag from 1961. Carried it every hunting season and back packing over the decades. Had little blue finish left on it.

-Started with a Mod 29 8 3/8" barrel. Cut off the ejector rod housing and contoured the bottom of the barrel to round.
-Turned off the S&W thread which shortened the barrel to about 7 1/4", and cut Ruger threads. When I screwed it into the frame I had to remove a little from the front surface face of the frame so the barrel rib wasn't encroaching into the bevel of the top front corner of the frame.
-Drilled and tapped the hole for the Ruger single action ejector rod housing screw.
- Found the fluted cyl on Gunbroker from the 5 1/2" SBH.
-Polished it to a high gloss all ready for him to send back to Ruger for bluing.

He never did. That was about 8 years ago. He shoots it, cleans it once in awhile and it still looks the same. Never polished it and it never rusted. The frame looks wavy but it's just the bad photography. As well as what looks like the ridges around the cyl pin collar; they don't exist.

WOW, Hondo, beautiful work on a beautiful BH!! I polished a couple of .357 barrels last year, never got around to bluing them. I keep them in an oil bag for fear of rust. That's amazing he never had it blued and doesn't rust! Great work.

 

[Tx Ruger fan]

View attachment 97806View attachment 97807View attachment 97808DIY makeover. Reamed the throats, base pin, reshaped and hand fit a brass grip frame, handmade grip panels, action/trigger job.

View attachment 97806View attachment 97807View attachment 97808DIY makeover. Reamed the throats, base pin, reshaped and hand fit a brass grip frame, handmade grip panels, action/trigger job.

That is impressive accuracy at 50 yards. What was the accuracy before the trigger job and throating? What made the biggest improvement, if any.

 

[Wyandot Jim]

A Pinto is a two colored horse and a gun with two different finishes.
A Paint is a 3 color horse and a gun like yours with 3 different finishes.

And all this time I thought that those hay burners of many colors were called Injun Pones. :) :) :) :) :)

 

[DGW1949]

I wouldn't really call this a "custom" myself....but:

This is my old 3-Screw, nickle plated, polished aluminum XR-3 grip frame, high-polished stainless NM ERH, and collared NM base pin. I bought the holly wood grips off of a previous member who doesn't post here any longer....Over the years, this thing has been rebuilt twice. Not a single one of it's original action parts remain. It's last rebuild also required a cylinder bushing be fabricated/installed to correct an excessive end shake condition. That is also when I installed the new (collared) base pin. If you look closely at the photo(s), you can see that it's nickled trigger got replaced with a blued trigger from one of Ruger's infamous "safety conversion" kits which I modified to work with the original-type lock work....All in all, not as nice as others that's been posted....but I like it.

 

[KRuger]

"And all this time I thought that those hay burners of many colors were called Injun Pones."
So shall we give all the multi shaded guns to my relatives and neighbors and let the games begin? ;)
This thread has really drifted.
KR

 

[needsmostuff]

This thread has really drifted.
KR

Well, we could try and get it back on course. :) But I guess if we need to carry on the horse theme we could go with a Shetland pony I suppose.

This gun is rather divisive, a regular love it or leave it.
Came to me as a parts pile. No base pin, no grips and damaged barrel and ERH.
Seems that when they stripped the hole where you attach the ejector rod housing they simply attempted to weld the housing to the barrel.
Well , that did not work and the parts were trashed.
As the barrel needed to be replaced anyway, I figured I had nothing to lose,,,,,,,,, Hacksaw snubby time. :eek:
Along the way it got an RW grip frame and a SBH hammer and a Bisley trigger. The dovetailed front sight was supposd to be changed for somthing better looking after I tuned it to the proper height. But it is working so well I never get around to swapping it out.
Not a gun for full house 44 ammo but a "Hoot to Shoot" when downloaded.

 

[KRuger]

I bet that pony can buck. It would be fun to give it the "bradshaw barnyard" load. 5.5 gr. w231, 240 gr. SWC deep seated on 44 mag brass.
That load is slightly warmer than commercial 44 mag "cowboy" loads. The 750 fps ones. Not HSM. They advertise 1150 fps.
KR

 

[needsmostuff]

I have been shootin it mostly with these things I picked up somewhere.
Monster hollowpoint + a concave base makes them lighter than they look. About 200gr. if I remember correctly.
Plant that on about 7 gr. of unique. Not real fast but they do fly straight and would probably be devastating

.

 

[Hondo44]

That's unique! Talk about turning a lemon into lemonade! The Colt lightening grip sure beats a birdshead.
Tell us about the finish.

Not as nice as yours but I made something similar for a friend with a single six and the backstrap from a Cimarron copy of the Colt Lightening like yours and Power Custom trigger guard-front strap. This photo is before I made the final grips to fit the Ruger front strap and Colt backstrap:

 

[needsmostuff]

The Colt lightening grip sure beats a birdshead.
Tell us about the finish.

I made something similar for a friend with a single six and the backstrap from a Cimarron copy of the Colt Lightening like yours and Power Custom trigger guard-front strap.

Nothing fancy going on with the finish. Just Stainless with alternating polish and scuff pad. Grip frame is naked aluminum.

I would do it all again with a .22 like yours as they make such wonderful walk-about guns.
It even got its own little holster just for that.

 

[Hondo44]

Very neat gun and holster package!

 

[Boxhead]

My first from Alan Harton circa 2003. A special 44 Special.

My last, a 44 Mag.

A Bowen 44 Special from back in the day you could buy one direct from his site.

 

[Medicmike3762]

Here are a couple of mine nothing compared to some but I am very happy with the pair. Stag gun is a Clement’s 44 special and the gun in ivory was just received from A Harton. Both old model 44 special conversions the gun Ruger should have made!