Unusual New Model Ruger Blackhawk 357

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  • Last Post 20 April 2020
mashburn posted this 15 April 2020

I have a new model .357 Ruger Blackhawk, with a 6 1/2" barrel, that I purchased years ago that has some unusual characteristics. First of all there is not a warning stamped on the barrel and the ejector housing is steel instead of being an alloy The serial# is 33-655XX. The grip frame is the standard alloy. This revolver was very well fit and is the most accurate Blackhawk that I have ever owned.. I wonder if this was a early new model and there were a lot of older parts on hand and they used them up in early production new model Blackhawks. How unusual is this or am I just un-informed on Rugers  Rugers were never my main cup of tea. .Does anybody have any ideas? 

I JUST ANSWERED MY OWN QUESTION ABOUT THE WARNING ON MY RUGER BLACKHAWK BARREL. ACCORDING TO MY RESEARCH THEY STARTED THE WARNING IN LATE 1977.

Thanks,

Mashburn

David a. Cogburn

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RicinYakima posted this 15 April 2020

Frame was serialized about March 1977. Housing is aftermarket and yes, some were made really well and others not so well. FWIW

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mashburn posted this 15 April 2020

Hello RicinYakima,

Thanks for the response and info. Tell me, why is there not the dumb warning stamped on the barrel. I think the ejector housing is factory. I have one off of an old Blackhawk that looks just like it and also the polish and bluing on the barrel and housing are exactly a perfect match. The missing warning on the barrel is my biggest puzzle.  My thought of it being a early model barrel wouldn't go along with the 1977 manufacturing date, so there goes one of my ideas.

Thanks,

Mashburn

David a. Cogburn

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mashburn posted this 15 April 2020

Bud,

Did you mean to say it was January of 1977, you just said January. I'm sure your barrel will have the warning stamped on it also.

Mashburn

David a. Cogburn

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RicinYakima posted this 15 April 2020

I don't think it is the original barrel either. When silhouette shooting got big in the late 1970's, there were lots of "new" Rugers made into better target shooters. I don't know, just adding suggestions. That is where Hamilton Bowen and many others started.

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mashburn posted this 15 April 2020

Hello RicinYakima,

Thanks again for your reply. I have thought the same about a possible re-barrel job but who would go to the trouble or expense of re-barreling with an original Ruger barrel. If they were going to do a rebuild the trigger would have been reworked and that is the worst thing about it. I have started to do a trigger job several times but I always don't because if it is an factory original goof up, I don't want to change anything about it. The barrel is marked like all early factory ruger barrels. As far as silhouette revolvers, I've gotten a hold of a lot of them and you can tell they have had the heck shot out of them. I bought this gun in the late seventies and it was in like mint condition. I had my doubts if it had ever been fired. My second retirement was as a practicing gunsmith and I can spot a rebuild immediately. I have trouble walking great distances and standing on my feet for long periods, if not for that I would have taken it to the Wannamacher show in Tulsa and get some ruger collectors to look at it. I hope somebody reads this post that is a expert in such things and I can find out for sure. You may be right,who knows, but I think it left the Riger factory in its present condition. Thanks again and maybe someone might answer our question.

Thanks a bunch,

Mashburn

David a. Cogburn

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BigMan54 posted this 15 April 2020

I have one with a SN prefix of 32-XXXXX. Bought it new in Dec 1974. Has an alloy ejector rod housing.  At one time i could keep 6rds in a one hole group at 25yrds with Max load of Lyman #358156GC over 2400. Had 35,000 of those rounds thru it. Wish I could say it was as accurate as the 1st time I shot it. Can't see/shoot well enough to really tell. But it has an action as smooth as a baby's bottom.

It has no bbl warning. I think the bbl warning's started post 1978. 

I've never seen a steel ejector rod housing on a Revolver other then a Super Blackhawk or any STS NM Revolver. Those have always had steel ones since the New Models started. Can't remember about the Bisley's.  My STS old Vaquero's have steel.

Just too many models in the last 20yrs to remember. 

Sorry i can't be of more help.

Long time Caster/Reloader, Getting back into it after almost 10yrs. Life Member NRA 40+yrs, Life S.A.S.S. #375. Does this mean a description of me as a fumble-fingered knuckle-draggin' baboon. I also drool in my sleep. I firmly believe that true happiness is a warm gun. Did I mention how much I HATE auto-correct on this blasted tablet.

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mashburn posted this 15 April 2020

Hello BigMan,

First of all, I'm glad to hear from you and I hope all is well. You just sent some interesting food for thought. The barrel warning time of adoption has got me to thinking more now, with your information. I bought a new Blackhawk in 76, of course it had the 100th anniversary stamped on the barrel and I am almost certain it had the crappy warning. I bought a used new model that was somewhere of the same age and I am almost certain it contained the warning on the barrel. I may be wrong of course. I was thinking that the warning started with the new model blackhawks. I'm sure when more people read this, a lot more info will come out.

Thanks again,

Mashburn

David a. Cogburn

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Coydog posted this 15 April 2020

I just looking at my Rugar 357 mag New model BH and it have no warning on it. It have a Steel enclose for the interject rod. The way it looks it was made in  1981.By the number 33-559xx checking on there site if I read right . I bought it used. I just have the name of Ruger on it and made in CT. Dose Ruger not come out with the warning then . 

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Bud Hyett posted this 15 April 2020

Bud,

Did you mean to say it was January of 1977, you just said January. I'm sure your barrel will have the warning stamped on it also.

Mashburn

Deleted the original posting as it was screwy and did not say what I meant. The .44 Magnum Super BlackHawk and .45 Convertible from Freeland's in Rock Island, Illinois  They had just gotten them in January and Lee Bunch knew I wanted the .45 Colt. He made a good deal on both.

He later asked me if I had shot them since they were made in 1976 and  not marked with the warning label, they were  desirable as collector items.. I had bought ammo and went straight to Doonan's to shoot them both that day.

Farm boy from Illinois, living in the magical Pacific Northwest

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BigMan54 posted this 16 April 2020

Just checked all My older NM Ruger's.

NM Blackhawk .45 Combo bought Jan 1978 Has Warning. 

NM Single-Six bought May 1976 no warning, no 1976 Anniversary stamp.

M77R bought Sept 1976 no warning, Has 1976 Anniversary stamp

Mini-14 (180)  bought Mar 1976 no warning, no anniversay stamp

Security-Six (151) bought Mar 1976 w/ 2 3/4" bbl has no warning, rebarreled to 6 " in Sept 1976 has no warning and no annivesary stamp.

All the rest were bought after 1979 or bought as used guns made before 1976.

Long time Caster/Reloader, Getting back into it after almost 10yrs. Life Member NRA 40+yrs, Life S.A.S.S. #375. Does this mean a description of me as a fumble-fingered knuckle-draggin' baboon. I also drool in my sleep. I firmly believe that true happiness is a warm gun. Did I mention how much I HATE auto-correct on this blasted tablet.

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mashburn posted this 17 April 2020

Hello Coydog,

So the mystery continues. I think there is some info missing in the Ruger records.

Thanks,

Mashburn

David a. Cogburn

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mashburn posted this 17 April 2020

Hello Bud,

Your information deepens the mystery. The response from your dealer is the kind of stuff that I've heard from other supposedly knowledgeable Ruger people. When I get in the right mood I'm going to spend some time looking up Ruger information.

Thanks, Mashburn

David a. Cogburn

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Bud Hyett posted this 17 April 2020

At the Seattle NRA Annual Meeting many years ago, I talked to the "most knowledgeable" Weatherby collector at their Weatherby exhibit across from the ASSRA exhibit. He was pointed out as the man with the answers.

I asked him about the early Weatherby rifles built on commercial FN Mauser 98 actions. I was curious as to pressure marking the bolt lockup over time on the Mauser 98 design. He assured me that no factory Weatherby rifle was ever built on a Commercial FN 98 action. I have held such a rifle in my hands at the Paramount, CA store.

I fear that if all the "knowledgeable" "correct" "expert" "collector" persons in all firearms fields were laid end-to-end across our great country, they'd point in all directions.  

Farm boy from Illinois, living in the magical Pacific Northwest

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mashburn posted this 17 April 2020

Hello again Bud,

I also have seen a early Weatherby built on a commercial FN action. There was a man, who used to live here, who I am sorry to say passed on several years ago. Mr. Blankenship was working with Roy Weatherby in Weatherby's early days of beginning. He is who had the FN actioned Weatherby that I have seen. Not only was he a former employee of Weatherby but he was also a close friend and running buddy of Mr. Mashburn, of Mashburn Arms fame in Oklahoma City. I have been a Mashburn fan most of my adult life. I have three of his shop made chamber reamers. I have built rifles chambered with all 3 of them. My favorite is the .17 Mashburn that I am working on powder coated bullets for at the present. When I was 17 years old and working in a service station before college started, I had a experience that started my addictive mind to blow up. This was in 1962, when a customer stopped by one day and showed me a new rifle cartridge he was playing with. It was a .17 Mashburn Bee and the rifle had been built by Mashburn Arms. Now I have that reamer here in the shop. You share my opinion about firearms experts. Most of the people around today never saw some the rifles and handguns of our day and have no idea of what they looked like in their original state. I have fooled so many experts in sales of old Winchesters and such that I had doctored up and they couldn't tell they weren't bone stock originals. Mainly because they have never seen an original. Mr. Blankenship's  son had been trying to get me to come over for a visit and get reacquainted and look at his fathers guns about 4 years ago. I never did and now, he to is gone. Many regrets on my part.I wonder now what his most recent wife did with his guns.

I also at one time owned a early Browning rifle built on a FN Commercial Action. What is going to happen when we older gun people are gone?

Thanks for the information and the visit,

Mashburn

David a. Cogburn

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BigMan54 posted this 18 April 2020

My Dad had 2 Weatherby Rifles built in the early 1950's on a pair of Left-Hand magnum Mauser actions. I think the actions were made by "Brevex". I do remember Him telling me that the actions alone cost as much as His complete Winchester M70 w/ Scope in .270Win.  Dad was a Diamond Setter, started making the Big Bucks about 1950.

I had My eye on a Browning Safari Grade in .300 H & H at Leach's Sporting Goods when I went into the Service in July 1971, when I came home after recruit training it was gone. I held on to the money waiting for another chance to buy one. Browning discontinued them in that caliber in that year. Or so I was told back then. Never come across one since. That I could afford. 

When I think of all the Guns that I bought and sold. Guns that could be worth a fortune today.  Like the Ruger SRM in .357Max or the Dan Wesson M15-2 Pistol Pac, I just wanna cry. 

Then I remember the guns I've held onto and the good faithful service and pleasure they've given Me. So It all works out in the end. For every Gun I've sold, there's a good one I've kept.

Like that old worn NM Blackhawk in .357Mag.

 

Long time Caster/Reloader, Getting back into it after almost 10yrs. Life Member NRA 40+yrs, Life S.A.S.S. #375. Does this mean a description of me as a fumble-fingered knuckle-draggin' baboon. I also drool in my sleep. I firmly believe that true happiness is a warm gun. Did I mention how much I HATE auto-correct on this blasted tablet.

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mashburn posted this 19 April 2020

Hello Bigman,

I feel for the gun people who weren't around in the hey day of all of the nice firearms that were available and I don't believe that there will ever be that much quality again. All most people want now is black plastic crap. When I was a kid in high school there was an old retired military man who lived right across the road from my school. He was a gun collector and had ammo stashed in about every caliber imaginable. His den or playroom, which ever you wish to call it, was in rustic knotty pine tongue and groove. There wasn't a place on all four walls that didn't have a rifle displayed on it. It would make a 15 year old boy, who loved firearms, think he was in gun heaven. He would sell or he would trade for another rifle, just as long as he didn't have another one like it. He never asked for differences in any of his trades. I somehow scraped up a few dollars and bought a gun from him. I shot and hunted with it for a while and was constantly thinking about all the guns he had for sale or trade. At that time in my life, I couldn't think about buying anything so I took the original back and traded for another. This became a very enjoyable habit. I would go trade for a gun, shoot it for a while and then go back and trade it for another. I did this for over 2 years. I eventually kept one but I can't remember what it was.

Here is what kind of fellow he was. A friend of mine came up with a .30 Cal. M-1 carbine and we had no ammo and in this part of  extremely rural Southeast Oklahoma at that time, you weren't going to find any. Someone told us to go see this fellow. He went out to his rock building in the back yard, unlocked and  gave us a Army ammo can of .30 Cal. M-1 ammo. You talk about tickled to death. We would have been happy with a few rounds and we were prepared to pay for what little we could afford. He was one super nice man. god rest his soul. This took place in about 1958.

Mashburn

David a. Cogburn

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wd-30/40 posted this 19 April 2020

I've got the same series (51) Ruger 357 Mag which started out with 2-3/4' barrel and replaced it with a 6" . However this barrel has the "Warning" stamp. Taken several deer with it here in Iowa which requires a minimum of a 4" barrel length on handguns. Replaced the stock grips with Pachmayr "Grippers".  

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mashburn posted this 20 April 2020

Hello wd-3040,

Thanks for the response and information, again this deepens the mystery. There must be a lot of people in Iowa who shoot.

Thanks again,

Mashburn

David a. Cogburn

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