Bowen Perfect Packing Pistol Grail Gun

[tt66]

John Taffin was the first writer that I remember that wrote of the Perfect Packing Pistol. Loosely they were 4" barreled revolvers and the caliber started with a 4. I still have many Guns and Ammo magazines with different articles of different versions.

I have always been fascinated with the work of Hamilton Bowen and when I had the oppurtunity for this, I jumped as quick as I could.

It started as a 1967 model 357 Blackhawk. I am a 1967 model as well so that was a plus. Bowen converted the cylinder and barrel to .41 Rem Magnum, my favorite caliber. The cylinder has the black powder chamfer and the cylinder is recessed to allow the longer .41 cartridge to fit inside the smaller .357 frame. A standard Ruger .41 barrel and ejector housing were shortened to 4". A new front sight with interchangable blades was added as well as a Bowen rear sight. It has a Bowen locking basepin. The XR3 RED gripframe was modified for a lanyard and the grips are a beautiful pair of walnut crafted by Roy Fishpaw. The grips are marked, dated and serial numbered to the revolver.

To me the most striking feature is the scalloped recoil shield and loading gate. Between that and the 4" barrel, it is a real joy to carry and not to bad to shoot. One of the finer finishing touches is the way he removed the .357 Mag lettering on the frame and replaced it w the correct .41 Magnum designation. I has been shot and has some cylinder rash from riding in a chest holster. To me the cylinder rash is wonderful, now I can carry it as it should be and not worry if it gets another mark or two.

Thank you for letting me share my Perfect Packing Pistol !!

 

[fhsjrm]

That's really cool!

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

[ISCS Yoda]

Nice work. Sixgunner would be proud.

 

[2152hq]

Nice OM conversion!. Love those grips.
About the biggest bore & highest pressure round you can stuff into an OM 357 Blackhawk frame.

Looks like a 357Maximum cylinder might have been used in the conversion. That gets you extra length at both ends of the cylinder, Back end for recessed rims. Up front for extra cartridge OAL (better bullet selection available to the user).
The bbl length inside the frame window is shorter to allow for the longer cylinder.

The rebated recoil shields give a nice touch.
I like the added side frame rebates as added onto the Colt custom SAA's also. They are copied from early lightweight, short bbl'd SAA guns done by Croft and a few other custom gunsmiths of the 20's and 30's.
Rugers don't lend themselves to the rebates done to the forward side edges of the frame as the Colts do. Ruger places their Ser# there on the RH side. Rebating the frame there will remove it,,a big Don'tDoIt!

But I have seen some Rugers done that way and then the mechanic just restamped the # either there or on the bottom of the frame. Take your chances I guess.
Bowen would never do side rebates on Rugers for that reason (ser#).

 

[VictorLouis]

That looks almost like a flat gate. Gorgeous piece.

 

[Fishinfool]

Congrats on a quality and well thought out rig. Great example of a PPP. Bowen does fantastic work.

The Ruger pictured below is a favorite of mine for rambling about in the woods when moose and bear are sharing the trail with me. It's no custom Bowen, but packs easy, and hits hard.

Larry

 

[Johnnu2]

VERY NICE INDEED......wishing you many years of enjoyment packing it.

J.

 

[Muley Gil]

Nice OM conversion!. Love those grips.
About the biggest bore & highest pressure round you can stuff into an OM 357 Blackhawk frame.

Looks like a 357Maximum cylinder might have been used in the conversion. That gets you extra length at both ends of the cylinder, Back end for recessed rims. Up front for extra cartridge OAL (better bullet selection available to the user).
The bbl length inside the frame window is shorter to allow for the longer cylinder.

The rebated recoil shields give a nice touch.
I like the added side frame rebates as added onto the Colt custom SAA's also. They are copied from early lightweight, short bbl'd SAA guns done by Croft and a few other custom gunsmiths of the 20's and 30's.
Rugers don't lend themselves to the rebates done to the forward side edges of the frame as the Colts do. Ruger places their Ser# there on the RH side. Rebating the frame there will remove it,,a big Don'tDoIt!

But I have seen some Rugers done that way and then the mechanic just restamped the # either there or on the bottom of the frame. Take your chances I guess.
Bowen would never do side rebates on Rugers for that reason (ser#).

I believe that is the regular .357 cylinder rechambered to .41 Magnum. The .357 Maximum revolver was built on an elongated large (.44 Magnum) frame. The cylinder would be too large for a medium frame conversion. The overall length of a .41 Magnum cartridge is 1.60". The overall length of a .357 Magnum cartridge is .1.59".

The Old Model Blackhawk revolvers had recessed cylinders already.

 

[fishwishin]

As a fellow '67 model I have nothing but love and respect for this wonderful piece!

 

[Onomea]

Beautiful!

I, too, once had a Bowen...

 

[Philbert4]

Beautiful pistol. Many years ago I read an article by Jim Wilson where he had Hamilton build a similar gun on an OM 357 BH. Inspired, I located a NM BH in .45 Colt. I had Hamilton perform the same upgrades as in the article and many of those you've done. In addition, he CCH the frame, trigger and hammer. Fantastic work of art that is a joy to shoot. Hamilton Bowen is the Master.

 

[tt66]

Thank you all for the compliments.

Muley Gil, you are correct about the recessed cylinders. I checked my other .41s and they are recessed. Not sure what the cylinder was to begin with, but it measures 1.710. I have two other factory Ruger .41 Mags and their cylinders measure 1.715. Both of my Old Model .357s measure in the 1.6" range.

 

[cowboy4evr]

I lucked into a really nice Ruger NMBH 4 5/8" barrel in 41 magnum yrs ago . Someone spent considerable $$$ up grading it . It has a Bomar rear sight , red ramp front sight , steel grip frame ( better balance ) and cleaned up the action . The condition was like new , no bluing loss or muzzle wear . I only paid like $415 for it . The cylinder throats are correct in size and there is no choke where the barrel threads onto the frame . It is very very accurate . Regards Paul

 

[Shark Bait]

That's one beautiful old school Ruger SA. Congratulations! I like guns with a little wear on them too. I don't keep safe queens for long, usually.

 

[Charlie Foxtrott]

Awesome gun!

Nothing there not to like! Nice score!

 

[2152hq]

I believe that is the regular .357 cylinder rechambered to .41 Magnum. The .357 Maximum revolver was built on an elongated large (.44 Magnum) frame. The cylinder would be too large for a medium frame conversion. The overall length of a .41 Magnum cartridge is 1.60". The overall length of a .357 Magnum cartridge is .1.59".

The Old Model Blackhawk revolvers had recessed cylinders already.

The 357 O/M Blackhawk cylinders are not recessed,,at least all the ones I can recall seeing.
The other calibers on the O/M Ruger design have recessed chambers AFAIK.

Something is going on there. With recessed chambers, I'd bet it wasn't a rechambered O/M 357 cylinder.
That's unless of course Ruger did use the feature in some production of the O/M 357, then I'm wrong about my guess. That's happened before!

The front face of the cylinder looks extremely close to the inside edge of the frame window as compared to a standard 357OM Blackhawk . That's what made me think the longer cylinder was fitted.
..
It may just be the angle the pic was taken too.

IIRC on the O/M 357 I worked on recently the distance from the front face of the cyl to the inside of the frame window was .080 +/-
A longer cylinder can be fitted w/o mod the frame within the .080 distance of course. Additional room can be gotten from opening up the window a bit. too. A little here and there. Easy on a SAA and the Ruger frame is pretty stout.
The Ruger O/M 357 cylinders are 1.600 +/- OAL non recessed length.
That's just the cylinder body length itself, not inclu the ratchet or the front bushing.

 

[ddixie884]

I believe that is a custom cylinder with the recessed chambers and the extended length. It sounds like it is long enough for real Keith bullets crimped in the groove. Great caliber choice. Really nicely done custom.
Thanx for sharing.............