First off, thank you to all for posting all the different variations of Blackhawks.
Like so many of those of similar vintage to me, I grew up watching westerns, first at the Saturday matinee , then on the tele. From that initial exposure, despite my youth, I quickly and correctly concluded that the SAA, in its various iterations, was/is the most beautiful revolver ever wrought by the hand of man, especially in nickel plate (now polished stainless) steel, with stag or faux stag grips.
Some years ago I purchased a used, but as far I can tell, never fired stainless .357 Blackhawk with a 7" BBL. I put on a pair of faux stag grips. I also stripped the revolver and polished it to look like bright nickel.
Then I put it aside without even firing it. I was just too busy. A few years passed and I decided to get it out and try it. I took an older buddy with me who was a life long cowboy mountain man and shooter. I brought along some .38 cal wadcutters, so we would be running target grade ammo through it. We measured off 25 yards from the truck and put up a PPC silhouette target. We formed a rest on the truck roof using a rolled up blanket. I shot the first 3 rounds. All 3 rounds were touching. My buddy fired the second three. He had 2 touching, and the third within 1/4" of the other two.
We then knew this one was a shooter. But only off a support as the trigger pull was heavy and gritty. Another friend insisted he could do miracles with my trigger, and had me feel a couple of his revolvers. What he did was amazing; light, crisp, reliable.
Since I was fairly new to town, but the local shooters knew I had/have a garage full of PPC trophies, if we were to have several of us out informally shooting, if I showed up with a PPC revolver, I would be accused of having an unfair advantage.
But with that Blackhawk I had an ultimate sleeper. Here was a very pretty SAA with PPC revolver grouping ability. Of course its sleeper status only lasted as long as no one else shot it. But i just could not let that go on very long, because this revolver is just so much fun to shoot. Anyone with any skill can look very good with this revolver.
Since this started out based on appearance, I've got some involvement there too. Some years ago, during the then-Tuolumne County Film Festival, my bride met a young leather craftsman who had been commissioned by the Roy Rogers - Dale Evans Museum to make a limited edition of Roy Rogers holster rigs. Without saying anything to me she ordered this as a surprise gift.
When it arrived, in its fitted shadow box display case, I was blown away by its beauty and craftsmanship. An adult version of the rigs I had been emulating in my youth.
There was a flaw however. The holster set came with a pair of replica SAAs. These crude replicas clashed with the beauty of the leather rig. I decided to order a pair of high polish stainless Vaqueros in .45 LC (the same as the cartridges in the belt). Their appearance was flawless. I added sambar stag grips, which are the ideal (to me) finishing touch.
This rig is now on a living room wall in our western decorated home.
So my involvement Ruger SAA clones has a lot of meaning to me. Never once, watching those B westerns in my youth, did I ever foresee that something I had so admired so long ago would now be there to shoot as well admire.
We can mature. If we are fortunate enough we can grow old.
But God willing, we won't ever have to grow up. We can keep those memories that link us to where we started. There is something of value there.
SAAs, especially Ruger SAAs, have had a part in all of this.
