I bought the base revolver back in 2004. A decent gun except for the 2 extra scope mt holes in the top strap. IIRC $110 was the price.
I didn't do anything with the gun till starting last Fall. But it was an intended project like so many others. Just waiting for time.
I wanted to do something to the top of the frame to rid it of the Ruger adj rear sight & protective 'ears'.. Nothing really wrong with it. It's just what projects are all about.
I thought about the Single Six look, the Colt Flat Top Target. Then I saw one reshaped to a S&W Fixed sight M&P frame look.
SO that's what I went for. I opted for the Colt SAA Target front sight style base with pinned in blade.
Caliber was orig supposed to be 44special. But somewhere along the 15yr wait I changed course to 45Colt.
I have a bbl and cyl reamer for both. But 45Colt gradually won out for some reason.
The 45cal bbl is from a NM Ruger as it had the roll marked warning lable on the left side. Same threads as the OM. (Same threads as the 3rd Gen Colt SAA too)
That roll marking had to go so I tapered the bbl to remove it. The bbl was slightly larger in dia than the orig 357 tube. I left the 45 bbl it's orig dia for about an inch coming off the frame and then it straight tapers to the muzzle.
The front sight base was rough milled to shape out of a piece of CRS. It's base having a matching dovetail to one milled very shallow in the top of the bbl. The orig Ruger front sight having been hacksawed off and then the area tapered with the rest of the bbl during that operation.
The front sight base is fitted and soft soldered in place. The slot for the blade is 1/10th " wide. Once the base was in place it was 'squared up' as I say in the mill and then filed & polished to blend in with the bbl surface.
The blade was made after everything else was done on the gun actually and the height left a bit high by my guesstimate before shooting trial.
The frame T shaped cut-out on top where the adj sight once stood was fitted with a very close fitting block of steel. I didn't want any seam or edge to show as I was going to hard solder(Silver Solder in old school terms) the block into place,,not weld it in.
The extra rear scope mt hole that had been D&T's I filled so it wasn't 'there anymore when you look at the underside of the top strap.
I left the orig rear sight elevation screw hole open under there. That is where I fed the solder wire into the assembly when soldering.
The front D&T'd scope mt screw hole I left alone for now. I would fill it in and make it dissappear later after shaping the top strap and cutting the sight groove, as the hole was positioned right in the middle where that groove would be.
After soldering all together, the top was flattened off and the sides trimmed all around to give a nice starting point for the reshaping effort.
I started at the front ring and with files alone the process was not at all difficult. Just time consuming and some very small adjustments from a true S&W were to be made. Just differences in the overall configuration of the frames. But I think it came out to be what I wanted.
At the rear of the top strap, the block that was soldered in place was made to drop down and across so it just came over the top of the hammer.
I would be using a new hammer, a Power Custom 'Bisley Style' hammer made for the OM Ruger. The height is the same as the orig hammer, but I had to remove some metal from the new Power Bisley hammer as seen by the pencil mark on it so it would fit the S/A grip frame..
The hammer is nicely made. I did recut the 'checkering' on the spur as it appears inverted like the old pressed checkering on gunstocks from the 60's. To cut it I had to anneal the spur (only). Even then the metal was tough to rework, but I got through it OK. I polished up the beadblasted finished look of the part. The 1/4 and 1/2 cock notches will need just a touch shortening to make the trigger drop in sooner. I fully expected to do some fitting to the part and it not be a 'drop in'.
The grip frame I used is a steel Ruger frame intended for the Ruger Old Army percussion revolver. I had sold off the orig alloy frame and the orig grips years ago intending to do this project. I bought the steel Ruger grip frame as a 'part' from Brownells way back then. Also a steel ejector rod housing to replace the alloy factory part. A Bullseye ejector rod as well.
I doubt the steel Ruger grip frame is available anymore though Power custom whom I bought the Bisley hammer from still sells steel grip frames for Rugers. Even in the earlier Colt shape (XR3).
The steel grip frame took a bit to fit up so the seams were nice and tight. Then polishing both frame and gripframe together gets you a nice surface.
The Rugers were noted for a nice blue and decent polish but they were wavy for sure and you can really see it if you start in polishing one. Lots of high and low spots on the frame sides.
The new steel ejector rod housing had to be fitted and that was tedious. The bbl being straight for about an inch then straight tapered made the straight ejector tube in need of a similar shape only in reverse to mate up to it.
So spotting it to see the high spots and careful filing and fitting finally nets you the fit you need.
The tapered bbl removed some of the depth of the Ruger ejector rod screw threads. Now hanging on by about 2 threads only. The 6x32 threads I thought needed something better. So I cut a blind hole in the bbl where the threads were and fitted a lug that sat above the bbl as well as down in. Staked and lok-tite in place. The lug is threaded 6-48.
A new ejector housing screw made w/ 6-48 threads to fit. The housing fitted snug to that lug and against the frame when assembled so the lug actually takes the recoil, not the screw.
The new Bullseye eject rod needed a tiny shim soldered & fitted to the top of the bolster right next to the Bullseye head to keep the thing from scraping along the bottom of the bbl. Small little things like this take up lot
of time. You can't see it, but it's one of those many little things that makes a difference in handling.
New grips made from American Walnut. A forearm blank that I've had since the early 70's. I thought I probably should start doing some things with this stuff before it's too late!
Same blank I made a set of grips for a pre-27 357 project a year or so ago.
Cut, flattened, fit, shape. All with mostly hand tools. Cross cut saw, coping saw, good sharp rasp(s) and files. This is where a drill press or mill(drill) comes in really handy in drilling the grip screw and escutcheon holes. With a positive stop and the ability to position the pieces w/precision, this job can be very easy. Trying to eye-ball and guess can be a disaster and ruin a lot of hard work.
Still need final sanding and then finishing in this pic
The grips may get checkered,,maybe not. Haven't made up my mind yet like a lot of things.
The trigger was a small problem right off as the new grip frame uses the Wide Ruger SUper Blackhawk trigger. The OM Blackhawk left me with the narrow OM trigger.
Could have bought a Wide Ruger trigger, or soldered a block into the guard to take up the extra room. Or make a trigger to fill the space.
I opted for #3
I took the orig OM trigger and cut it off just below the pivot hole. My add-on work would show outside the gun, the splice and braze joint of it would be up inside the frame.
The new trigger part was made from a 3/8" sq block of CRS about 2+" long. Heated red and slightly bent into a trigger like curve to help with the shaping that would come later.
The part of the orig trigger needed to be spliced to the new trigger.
I cut an overlapping matching joint on the two parts. I used a jewlers saw to slice the new CRS trigger part to get a fairly clean edge to start with and then file each part to match.
The two
were fluxed and clamped together and brazed.
The one piece was then filed to shape as a new trigger. I wanted something other than the 'stick trigger' of the SAA style. The Webley style or styles of late 1800 Euro revolvers always looked nice to me. So that's the direction I went.
When I got done I was happy with it. When I installed it it worked fine but I didn't like the Ruger trigger return plunger behind the trigger visible inside the trigger guard. Kinda ruined the whole idea.
So I took it back apart, filled in the Ruger trigger return plunger hole in the grip frame with a soldered close fitting plug and finished it off.
Then from the inside of the frame drilled another trigger return plunger hole higher up (and centered) in the frame behind the trigger.
New plunger and spring,,some fitting and behold it works fine and does not show inside the trigger guard. If you turn the gun upside down you can see it up inside there.
I rechambered the 357 cylinder to 45Colt. I made a couple reamers to ream out the chambers in steps to get me to the point of using a .452 straight reamer and then the Clymer 45Colt reamer.
It took a while, but my old Taiwan mill/drill did me well in the task.
I added the BP chamfer to the cylinder edges afterwards.
I took it out and shot it at my range last week.
Elev needed no adj at all, Shoots about 1 1/2" to the right. But that may be me and the mid 20's high wind day. Test target was only a file separater card on the crank out target to 15yrds. Imaginary center. Great time for forgetting the range bag!
First rd into the berm as a 'Test' round. Then 4rds touching. Not bad.
About .001end shake and .003 cyl/bbl clearance. 11* forcing cone. I had set the bbl back a thread when I installed it so I could reface it.
Light load of a 200SWCL, 4.5 RedDot W/W case.
Very comfortable to shoot. I'm happy with it.
No 'Ruger Only' loads of course, but I only load the lighter stuff anyway. Anything a Colt can handle, this will handle just fine. Just a range toy.
Maybe shoot it a couple more times and then disassemble it again, finish the polishing up and engrave it .
Then set it on the shelf and do something else.
I didn't do anything with the gun till starting last Fall. But it was an intended project like so many others. Just waiting for time.
I wanted to do something to the top of the frame to rid it of the Ruger adj rear sight & protective 'ears'.. Nothing really wrong with it. It's just what projects are all about.
I thought about the Single Six look, the Colt Flat Top Target. Then I saw one reshaped to a S&W Fixed sight M&P frame look.
SO that's what I went for. I opted for the Colt SAA Target front sight style base with pinned in blade.
Caliber was orig supposed to be 44special. But somewhere along the 15yr wait I changed course to 45Colt.
I have a bbl and cyl reamer for both. But 45Colt gradually won out for some reason.
The 45cal bbl is from a NM Ruger as it had the roll marked warning lable on the left side. Same threads as the OM. (Same threads as the 3rd Gen Colt SAA too)
That roll marking had to go so I tapered the bbl to remove it. The bbl was slightly larger in dia than the orig 357 tube. I left the 45 bbl it's orig dia for about an inch coming off the frame and then it straight tapers to the muzzle.
The front sight base was rough milled to shape out of a piece of CRS. It's base having a matching dovetail to one milled very shallow in the top of the bbl. The orig Ruger front sight having been hacksawed off and then the area tapered with the rest of the bbl during that operation.
The front sight base is fitted and soft soldered in place. The slot for the blade is 1/10th " wide. Once the base was in place it was 'squared up' as I say in the mill and then filed & polished to blend in with the bbl surface.
The blade was made after everything else was done on the gun actually and the height left a bit high by my guesstimate before shooting trial.
The frame T shaped cut-out on top where the adj sight once stood was fitted with a very close fitting block of steel. I didn't want any seam or edge to show as I was going to hard solder(Silver Solder in old school terms) the block into place,,not weld it in.
The extra rear scope mt hole that had been D&T's I filled so it wasn't 'there anymore when you look at the underside of the top strap.
I left the orig rear sight elevation screw hole open under there. That is where I fed the solder wire into the assembly when soldering.
The front D&T'd scope mt screw hole I left alone for now. I would fill it in and make it dissappear later after shaping the top strap and cutting the sight groove, as the hole was positioned right in the middle where that groove would be.
After soldering all together, the top was flattened off and the sides trimmed all around to give a nice starting point for the reshaping effort.
I started at the front ring and with files alone the process was not at all difficult. Just time consuming and some very small adjustments from a true S&W were to be made. Just differences in the overall configuration of the frames. But I think it came out to be what I wanted.
At the rear of the top strap, the block that was soldered in place was made to drop down and across so it just came over the top of the hammer.
I would be using a new hammer, a Power Custom 'Bisley Style' hammer made for the OM Ruger. The height is the same as the orig hammer, but I had to remove some metal from the new Power Bisley hammer as seen by the pencil mark on it so it would fit the S/A grip frame..
The hammer is nicely made. I did recut the 'checkering' on the spur as it appears inverted like the old pressed checkering on gunstocks from the 60's. To cut it I had to anneal the spur (only). Even then the metal was tough to rework, but I got through it OK. I polished up the beadblasted finished look of the part. The 1/4 and 1/2 cock notches will need just a touch shortening to make the trigger drop in sooner. I fully expected to do some fitting to the part and it not be a 'drop in'.
The grip frame I used is a steel Ruger frame intended for the Ruger Old Army percussion revolver. I had sold off the orig alloy frame and the orig grips years ago intending to do this project. I bought the steel Ruger grip frame as a 'part' from Brownells way back then. Also a steel ejector rod housing to replace the alloy factory part. A Bullseye ejector rod as well.
I doubt the steel Ruger grip frame is available anymore though Power custom whom I bought the Bisley hammer from still sells steel grip frames for Rugers. Even in the earlier Colt shape (XR3).
The steel grip frame took a bit to fit up so the seams were nice and tight. Then polishing both frame and gripframe together gets you a nice surface.
The Rugers were noted for a nice blue and decent polish but they were wavy for sure and you can really see it if you start in polishing one. Lots of high and low spots on the frame sides.
The new steel ejector rod housing had to be fitted and that was tedious. The bbl being straight for about an inch then straight tapered made the straight ejector tube in need of a similar shape only in reverse to mate up to it.
So spotting it to see the high spots and careful filing and fitting finally nets you the fit you need.
The tapered bbl removed some of the depth of the Ruger ejector rod screw threads. Now hanging on by about 2 threads only. The 6x32 threads I thought needed something better. So I cut a blind hole in the bbl where the threads were and fitted a lug that sat above the bbl as well as down in. Staked and lok-tite in place. The lug is threaded 6-48.
A new ejector housing screw made w/ 6-48 threads to fit. The housing fitted snug to that lug and against the frame when assembled so the lug actually takes the recoil, not the screw.
The new Bullseye eject rod needed a tiny shim soldered & fitted to the top of the bolster right next to the Bullseye head to keep the thing from scraping along the bottom of the bbl. Small little things like this take up lot
of time. You can't see it, but it's one of those many little things that makes a difference in handling.
New grips made from American Walnut. A forearm blank that I've had since the early 70's. I thought I probably should start doing some things with this stuff before it's too late!
Same blank I made a set of grips for a pre-27 357 project a year or so ago.
Cut, flattened, fit, shape. All with mostly hand tools. Cross cut saw, coping saw, good sharp rasp(s) and files. This is where a drill press or mill(drill) comes in really handy in drilling the grip screw and escutcheon holes. With a positive stop and the ability to position the pieces w/precision, this job can be very easy. Trying to eye-ball and guess can be a disaster and ruin a lot of hard work.
Still need final sanding and then finishing in this pic
The grips may get checkered,,maybe not. Haven't made up my mind yet like a lot of things.
The trigger was a small problem right off as the new grip frame uses the Wide Ruger SUper Blackhawk trigger. The OM Blackhawk left me with the narrow OM trigger.
Could have bought a Wide Ruger trigger, or soldered a block into the guard to take up the extra room. Or make a trigger to fill the space.
I opted for #3
I took the orig OM trigger and cut it off just below the pivot hole. My add-on work would show outside the gun, the splice and braze joint of it would be up inside the frame.
The new trigger part was made from a 3/8" sq block of CRS about 2+" long. Heated red and slightly bent into a trigger like curve to help with the shaping that would come later.
The part of the orig trigger needed to be spliced to the new trigger.
I cut an overlapping matching joint on the two parts. I used a jewlers saw to slice the new CRS trigger part to get a fairly clean edge to start with and then file each part to match.
The two
were fluxed and clamped together and brazed.The one piece was then filed to shape as a new trigger. I wanted something other than the 'stick trigger' of the SAA style. The Webley style or styles of late 1800 Euro revolvers always looked nice to me. So that's the direction I went.
When I got done I was happy with it. When I installed it it worked fine but I didn't like the Ruger trigger return plunger behind the trigger visible inside the trigger guard. Kinda ruined the whole idea.
So I took it back apart, filled in the Ruger trigger return plunger hole in the grip frame with a soldered close fitting plug and finished it off.
Then from the inside of the frame drilled another trigger return plunger hole higher up (and centered) in the frame behind the trigger.
New plunger and spring,,some fitting and behold it works fine and does not show inside the trigger guard. If you turn the gun upside down you can see it up inside there.
I rechambered the 357 cylinder to 45Colt. I made a couple reamers to ream out the chambers in steps to get me to the point of using a .452 straight reamer and then the Clymer 45Colt reamer.
It took a while, but my old Taiwan mill/drill did me well in the task.
I added the BP chamfer to the cylinder edges afterwards.
I took it out and shot it at my range last week.
Elev needed no adj at all, Shoots about 1 1/2" to the right. But that may be me and the mid 20's high wind day. Test target was only a file separater card on the crank out target to 15yrds. Imaginary center. Great time for forgetting the range bag!
First rd into the berm as a 'Test' round. Then 4rds touching. Not bad.
About .001end shake and .003 cyl/bbl clearance. 11* forcing cone. I had set the bbl back a thread when I installed it so I could reface it.
Light load of a 200SWCL, 4.5 RedDot W/W case.
Very comfortable to shoot. I'm happy with it.
No 'Ruger Only' loads of course, but I only load the lighter stuff anyway. Anything a Colt can handle, this will handle just fine. Just a range toy.
Maybe shoot it a couple more times and then disassemble it again, finish the polishing up and engrave it .
Then set it on the shelf and do something else.
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