My .44 Special conversion is back home now. It was an OM .357 Magnum. The gunsmith bored out the cylinder for .44 Special. I found a NM .44 Magnum barrel on this forum and bought it. The gunsmith turned the barrel down in a lathe to reduce the diameter just a bit and to remove the warnings.
The barrel length ended up being kind of "in the middle." We talked about 4 5/8ths and also 5.5". Once it was all done and installed, it ended up about 1/16th of an inch under 5". It has a Belt Mountain #5 base pin installed. A steel ERH. And a taller front sight.
The grip frame was where I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I had basically blown my budget at that point and couldn't afford another $200 to go all steel. So we wanted to just use the original alloy GF. The gunsmith reblued everything else and it looks nice. We finally decided to just do as some here suggested: bead blast it and leave it bare. And so I have a two-tone gun. Which I think looks nice and distinctive but now it has me baffled for custom grip selection!
Something like six months ago I bought a set of stag grips from William Jennings for one of my 1911's. I was very pleased with them. So I started thinking about ordering another set but for a Ruger this time. Actually my first plan was to order a set that would fit the 50th Anniversary Blackhawks. Since I have a .357 and a .44 M on hand with a .44 S inbound, that would give me three guns to try them out on. And I think light colored grips like that would be very nice on an all blued gun. But I mentioned my OM conversion Ruger to Mr. Jennings and he sent some sample photos of what he had in that size. And I see a set I like.
But my question is what will that end up looking like? The bead blasted GF is sort of a dull gray. Right now it has the old Ruger wood grips on it and they seem to look OK. I guess what I'm asking is if anybody else has a photo of stag grips on a gun that is finished like mine? Or any ideas for grips that others have tried on that style of gun?
No, I'm not going to post any photos yet! I'm trying to wait until the gun is actually totally finished before I show it off! And I would like such a public unveiling to actually be sort of a review as well with some targets for record. I've only plinked with it a bit at this point. My first thought on shooting it is that maybe the higher front sight was a mistake. It gives me lots of room to file it down but it shoots quite low right now. I adjusted the rear sight upwards into the middle of its range to get it close with a 240 grain reload. I could always go back to the front sight that was on the original or the one on the .44 Magnum barrel. Need to actually settle on what I want my basic load to be so that I can customize the sights to "fit" it.
Gregg
The barrel length ended up being kind of "in the middle." We talked about 4 5/8ths and also 5.5". Once it was all done and installed, it ended up about 1/16th of an inch under 5". It has a Belt Mountain #5 base pin installed. A steel ERH. And a taller front sight.
The grip frame was where I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I had basically blown my budget at that point and couldn't afford another $200 to go all steel. So we wanted to just use the original alloy GF. The gunsmith reblued everything else and it looks nice. We finally decided to just do as some here suggested: bead blast it and leave it bare. And so I have a two-tone gun. Which I think looks nice and distinctive but now it has me baffled for custom grip selection!
Something like six months ago I bought a set of stag grips from William Jennings for one of my 1911's. I was very pleased with them. So I started thinking about ordering another set but for a Ruger this time. Actually my first plan was to order a set that would fit the 50th Anniversary Blackhawks. Since I have a .357 and a .44 M on hand with a .44 S inbound, that would give me three guns to try them out on. And I think light colored grips like that would be very nice on an all blued gun. But I mentioned my OM conversion Ruger to Mr. Jennings and he sent some sample photos of what he had in that size. And I see a set I like.
But my question is what will that end up looking like? The bead blasted GF is sort of a dull gray. Right now it has the old Ruger wood grips on it and they seem to look OK. I guess what I'm asking is if anybody else has a photo of stag grips on a gun that is finished like mine? Or any ideas for grips that others have tried on that style of gun?
No, I'm not going to post any photos yet! I'm trying to wait until the gun is actually totally finished before I show it off! And I would like such a public unveiling to actually be sort of a review as well with some targets for record. I've only plinked with it a bit at this point. My first thought on shooting it is that maybe the higher front sight was a mistake. It gives me lots of room to file it down but it shoots quite low right now. I adjusted the rear sight upwards into the middle of its range to get it close with a 240 grain reload. I could always go back to the front sight that was on the original or the one on the .44 Magnum barrel. Need to actually settle on what I want my basic load to be so that I can customize the sights to "fit" it.
Gregg