Model 29 no dash

[rbrbrb6]

I know many of you will be screaming blasphemy on this gun but I promise, it was this way when I got it! Several years ago I commissioned a custom single action in 41 Special and it was to be built on an old model Ruger single six. Now this is not a simple build due to both the conversion form rim fire to center fire but also because the 41 Special is nothing more than a shortened 41 Mag. Same rim size, same diameter, just the same amount shorter that a 44 Special is to a 44 Mag. After a couple of years with no progress and the project prepaid I asked the 'smith if he would like to take the project off his to do board and just send me something he might have in his shop of comparable value. He was tickled to get the opportunity to shorten his work list by one gun. He was even willing to offer his own personal model 29 he had reworked plus a Thad Rybka holster in exchange.

I decided I would make the trade and sent him an FFL and soon afterword the gun hit my local shop. When I opened it I found a model 29 no dash wearing sambar stag grips and a thin mountain gun style barrel. John had basically made a pre mountain gun mountain gun by taking a model 28 barrel, reboring it to 44 caliber, removing the lettering then fitting it to the gun. Based on the S prefixed serial number the gun was made in late 1958 or early 1959 so I guess you could say it was one of the oldest model 29s to be refit into the 4" tapered barrel configuration. Overall a neat old gun that I often pack when riding mules in the hills either on the belt or in the right side horn bag.

 

[DWalt]

Just how does one convert a Ruger Single Six to a .41? I don't think I ever heard of that being done.

 

[rbrbrb6]

It can only be done on one of the old model Ruger without the transfer bar and the resulting gun is a five shot cylinder which actually means you only carry 4 in the gun since the old models are like the Colt single actions in that you never carry a live round under the hammer. I believe John was the first to do the conversion but now Alan Harton does it as well if I am not mistaken. After waiting so long for this one which never came to fruition, I decided to have Andy Horvath do a 41 Special on an old model 357 which is the midsized frame and we could keep it a 6 shot gun albeit with only 5 carried at any one time. The Horvath gun is the one I had Andy use a model 57 barrel on.