my bearcats

jpdesign · Jun 3, 2011

here are my bearcats, one old and one new.

the new one I have tinkered with a bit. Action job, wolff spring, belt mountain base pin, reshaped butt, started polishing, and I decided to jump ino grip making with both feet and made my first set out of elephant ivory.

The old model I have done and action job, and it also wears elphant ivories. These I purchased in an auction and they were listed as imitation. to bad I could tell they were not. it is about to go to a local gunsmith to be made into a convertable with a second factory cylinder. I also have an extra barrel. When I take off the ejector housing the barrel unscrews by hand. Having not handled anoth old model I don't know if this is normal or not. I assume it may have been done to keep the barrel and frame from siezing. It shoots quarter sized groups at 20 yards so I am not worried about accuracy. I am going to ask about having the second barrel cut to 2 inches and being able to swap them out.

I like the wider hammer on the new model, so I am contemplating ways of changing the hammer spur.

Jimmy[/img]

flatgate · Jun 3, 2011

jpdesign said:
it is about to go to a local gunsmith to be made into a convertable with a second factory cylinder. When I take off the ejector housing the barrel unscrews by hand.

Have you compared the length of your "extra" cylinder with a .22 magnum cartridge?

Your barrel should NOT unscrew by hand. It needs to fit tight enough to meet "torque specs". I would assume fitting it tighter will make the front sight be really crooked.

Wow, the grip story is awesome. I'm lucky enough to have one set of ivories in my Bearcat collection...

flatgate

Hondo44 · Jun 3, 2011

jpdesign said:
When I take off the ejector housing the barrel unscrews by hand. Having not handled anoth old model I don't know if this is normal or not. I assume it may have been done to keep the barrel and frame from siezing.

I like the wider hammer on the new model, so I am contemplating ways of changing the hammer spur.

Jimmy[/img]

The easiest way to tighten your barrel is to wrap the threads with thread sealing teflon tape. Just a couple of layers will allow you to tighten it and still have the front sight straight up and down and you won't have to worry about seizing. Don't try to make it too tight or crank too hard on that alloy frame.

The easiest way to get the wide spur hammer is to send it back to Ruger for the transfer bar conversion. You will get a wide spur hammer for free and postage paid. You should get your old parts back but, if you're worried about getting them back, remove them first. When it's returned remove all the conversion parts except the hammer and put back together with your original parts. That's what I did because I also like the wide SBH style hammer.

jpdesign · Jun 3, 2011

put a CCI Maxi-Mag next to it and it is long enough. This is a gun that was made in '72 according to Ruger's site and serial number. THat may have something to do with the cylinder being a tad longer, and the barrel loose. was made on old tooling that was worn.