Ruger's Bearcat comes full circle

[chet15]

Well, looks like the Bearcat has come full circle! The original guns that came out in 1958 had plastic grips without medallions. Now, just saw both models at the DSM gun show this past weekend and they also have plastic grips without medallions (brown laminate). Let me know if anybody sees any earlier guns with plastic grips than 93-46635 for the SBC4 and 93-46826 for the KSBC4.
Chet15

 

[Quarterbore]

Now if only they would make a convertable model again too :wink:

 

[contender]

Dern! I missed checking the one on the list at SHOT to see what it was,,,! Then again,, I'm not sure it was on display either,,,!

 

[rugerguy]

once again, manufacturing costs "prevail".......... :roll:

 

[Firsttimegrampa]

I don't remember seeing any Bearcats at the Ruger display at the Shot Show.

 

[contender]

So it wasn't just me missing seeing one.

 

[WIL TERRY]

HHHHHmmmmmm......I have never ever seen a BEARCAT with "plastic" stocks.

 

[BlkHawk73]

once again, manufacturing costs "prevail".......... :roll:

Business 101

Costs cutting measures aren't necessarily bad. With grips especially, if they're such a huge issue to begin with for the consumer, there's a LOT of aftermarket choices available.

 

[rugerguy]

absolutely, any reduction in the "process"( Less steps) , less "hands on" and any lessor costing material will suffice...........
Yes, the "plastic" used by Ruger in the early bearcats, was much like Colts "Coltwood" and I recall Ruger called it "Wonderwood" not wood but a "polymer"................................

 

[JCW64]

Chad, I saw a NIB stainless Bearcat today at a gunshow sn 93-46485 that had the brown laminate looking grips. I assume that is the grips you are referring to.

 

[Ale-8(1)]

Pushing the discussion just a little . . .

I had always understood that the original Bearcat grip panels were some kind of inexpensive wood impregnated with some kind of epoxy or "plastic" stuff, rather like Cary's grips of "stabilized" wood.

Is this incorrect?

 

[rugerguy]

polymers, poured, & mixed, to LOOK like wood.................as said above, both Colt ,as well as Ruger had their own version ( supplier? vendor?)
Engineers /chemists call it "polymers",I call it "plastic", so is 'hard rubber'.
Bill Ruger once said " plastic is for cap guns, we use hard rubber...." :roll:

Bar S Grips, up in the northwest, can make ANY shade and texture of 'ivory', and each is poured ,so no two look alike....Glenn does a great job
How hard would it be to make the "mix" look like ANY type ,grain , of wood?

 

[chet15]

Chad, I saw a NIB stainless Bearcat today at a gunshow sn 93-46485 that had the brown laminate looking grips. I assume that is the grips you are referring to.

Yup, those are the ones. And your number predates the only other KSBC4 I've seen by several hundred.

 

[chet15]

Dan: They aren't all polymer or plastic. Take a real close look at them. Turn them to the bottom tapered edge and you'll see a separation line at the top surface of the grip. This looks to me like actual wood grain at the outer surface (maybe like the top layer of a veneer or something (walnut is debatable...not sure what wood that grain structure represents...could be rosewood or maybe even birch), and then underneath is your plastic or polymer or whatever. Turned on the backside and it does look like the Colt wood plastic type stuff you are talking about.
Chet15

 

[rugerguy]

recall reading in maybe Dougans book or Wilson, some time back, about the "Wonderwood" and will have to try the hot pin trick for "plastic"don't let laura catch me melting one of her bearcat grip panels....... looks, feels and acts like "plastic" to us........
back then, Jay Scott put a wood backing on their "plastic" grips, NOT any veneer or topping........

 

[chet15]

recall reading in maybe Dougans book or Wilson, some time back, about the "Wonderwood" and will have to try the hot pin trick for "plastic"don't let laura catch me melting one of her bearcat grip panels....... looks, feels and acts like "plastic" to us........
back then, Jay Scott put a wood backing on their "plastic" grips, NOT any veneer or topping........

Yes, it was called Wondawood. But take a pair of Bearcat grips out and look at them. You'll see that a top layer of fiber was used for the outer surface of the panel, to give it more a woodgrain structure instead of something that just looks like plastic.
Chet15

 

[Ale-8(1)]

From J.C. Munnell's early work "A Blacksmith Guide to Ruger Rimfire Revolvers 1953-1973" we get . . . "plastic-impregnated simulated rosewood grips without medallions".

From R.L. Wilson's "Ruger & His Guns" we get . . . "Grips: two-piece plastic impregnated".

From J.C. Dougan's "Ruger Pistols and Revolvers 1949-1973" we get . . . "WONDAWOOD grip panels without a medallion".

And from Dougan's earlier "Know Your Ruger Single-Action Revolvers 1953-1963" we get . . . "an epoxy matrix composition woodchip grip panel".

I have always assumed these to be a mixture of wood sawdust/chips and some kind of "plastic" or "epoxy" binder. I do not have a set of the originals to examine.

 

[rugerguy]

and Laura says NO way I am to stick any "hot pin" in the front or back of ANY of her grips, or some one will die ............. :shock:
( the chemist down the street says they are polymer and I trust her opinion..........) :wink:


so one of you puter 'geeks' Google ANY of those terms, wondawood, coltwood, etc and see what they have to say.................the old guys from back in those days , and were in 'charge' are dead , gone to pasture, or living in San Moritz..................sounds like another "story" coming to me. 8)
Far as I'm concerend , the early ones are plastic, and they went to wood.
and as said, went full circle and back to polymers to be 'PC'........

 

[Ale-8(1)]

If they've gone to "plastic" it's for cost benefits, nothing more.

Sometime you gotta show me some original WONDAWOOD panels.

 

[mattsbox99]

I was a little miffed to see blued BC4s for $400 today at a local shop...