What's the lowest known SER# Longe frame Super? Ruger never gives you a letter stating that it was shiped with the larger frame, "so" id like to know what "we" (you) know.
Scott
Scott
Longe Frame "Super" ???
- Thread starter mr.deerstalker
- Start date
I don't know about SteveRuger's #6 (might be a standard frame), but his #27 is a long frame. And flatgate's #31, and Ruger1441's #38, and...
chet15
Hawkeye
weaselmeatgravy said:
I have #4 noted as an LF. #6 is a SF and #9 is a LF.
Chet15
flatgate
Hawkeye
mr.deerstalker said:
That's 'cause nobody cared and nobody "took notes"....
JMHO,
flatgate
chet15
Hawkeye
flatgate said:
Yup....is true. For everybody who has manufacturing jobs....do you take notes on running production changes? I'd bet most of you think the piece you just assembled looks like the last one you assembled.
Guns is guns...and after going 8 hours a day at your workplace, week after week, year after year, guns is still guns.
For assembling the 300 or so Long Frame Supers, the only person that would probably know anything was different was the guy who fit the grips...and he was probably just as much a pee-on as the next guy.
Chet15
wheezengeezer
Bearcat
A little history and description of the long frame?
flatgate
Hawkeye
wheezengeezer said:
Certainly! "General consensus" deemed the hard kicking .44 Flattop a bit too brutal. Two prominent, influential friends of Bill Ruger, Herb Glass and Elmer Keith, recommended a change in grip frames to a larger, heavier design that would dampen the sharp recoil from the recently released .44 Magnum cartridge. Both Gentlemen made reference to a Colt Dragoon grip frame. Ruger responded with, of course, a very elaborate investment casting of a "Dragoon Like", but one piece, large grip frame for the .44 cal. Blackhawk. Ruger also implemented a few other changes, i.e. the protected rear sight and a wide trigger. A prototype model was built and sent to Keith for testing. Keith was very pleased. I quote from Sixguns, the '61 edition....."It was a great improvement over any single-action cartridge gun I had ever seen or used.....". Keith returned the gun to Ruger with a few suggestions. Keith goes on to state "Bill had to have that gun back at the Factory for further study and sent me the second prototype, the one used for photos in his ads. This one had a slight change in width of the grip and also the length of the grip and was even better than the first." (My emphasis on the word length.)
So, at this point we've just been introduced to the Super Blackhawk. The early prototype had a "long" grip frame and the second had the "standard" grip frame. While Keith was testing the first prototype Ruger went ahead and cast up approximately 300 of the "Long" grip frames. After further testing Ruger realized that Keith was right and the "Standard" grip frame was utilized on the production line. Of course, Ruger wasn't going to throw away the first design so the Long Frames were randomly used during early Super production. The image below shows that first prototype, the gun that was photographed then sent to Keith.
This image shows the 2nd. prototype Super, the one Keith mentions above. The 3rd. prototype was sent to a "cabinet shop" so a beautiful Mahogany Case could be made for the Super Blackhawks! That gun is in a private collection. Image below.
This gun's image was used in the Super Blackhawk Owner's manual throughout Old Model Production. Note the grain in the actual grip panels as compared with the Manual's image.
Now you know the rest of the story!
flatgate
The Prototype Super will on display in Tulsa.... J/S
Geeze, now I'm sitting here imagining my 7-1/2" .44 Flattie with a "Dragoon" grip frame . . .
flatgate
Hawkeye
Ale-8(1), kinda like this?
6-1/2" "50th Anniv." Flattop with a Dragoon grip frame but with a rounded trigger guard and a Bisley hammer...
flatgate
6-1/2" "50th Anniv." Flattop with a Dragoon grip frame but with a rounded trigger guard and a Bisley hammer...
flatgate
Nope.
Like the second prototype you pictured above . . . but with standard OM hammer.
Like the second prototype you pictured above . . . but with standard OM hammer.
flatgate
Hawkeye
The "second prototype" has the standard Super Blackhawk topstrap. It's not a Flattop.
It has a rounded front Micro style sight like a Flattop......
flatgate
It has a rounded front Micro style sight like a Flattop......
flatgate
OK, in the upper photo it looked like a Flattie to me.
Nevermind
Nevermind
radicalrod
Hunter
It was a FT until they welded on some "EARS" :shock: :shock: :shock: SWEET.....RR.
chet15
Hawkeye
Yes, there are a lot of features on that prototype Super that make it very, VERY interesting.
Chet15
Chet15
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