Blackhawk .357?

DanP

New member
While at the shop on friday waiting to pick up my newest toy, I was looking at the used rack and saw a very nice, practically new 6" SS BH in .357 with a tag of $350 or thereabouts.

Visually all was well, not much if any firing, the action beautiful as expected.

Opening the gate, the chamber would be a bit too far clockwise for ejection, not really a big deal and given a recent post by the forum guru's normal in later SA Rugers.

So a couple of questions:

* I thought BH / RH were hard to find in .357?

* What is a fair offer for the above?

Mind you that, sucker that I am, I would have just bought it on the spot if it weren't for the "two guns in a day" thing... the action was so "there"!

P.s.: this would be the first SA I own in at least 10 years.
 
The .357 is rare in the Redhawk, but not in the Blackhawk - that's probably the most common caliber for the BH. It's also a GOOD caliber, mind you - the New Model BH is so overbuilt for the .357 it's almost comical...you can give it a steady diet of the wildest hunting-grade fodder you can find, it won't even notice. (The same frame can handle .44Mag and WAY beyond :D.)

That "cylinder lineup" issue is a well-known flaw of the New Model series Ruger SAs. There's three cures:

1) Have a gunsmith set it up to "freewheel" so that when the gate is open, the cylinder spins both ways. Cost: dunno...$60 plus shipping, minimum prolly?

2) The Power Custom freewheel pawl is installable yourself, comes with good instructions, less than $40 and you don't need to ship the gun anywhere. Does the same as choice #1.

3) Power Custom sells an alternate hammer/trigger setup where the cylinder lines up perfectly when the gun is half-cocked. This also gives you a really nice trigger, and if you want you can order Bisley-type hammer/trigger parts instead of replacements for what ya got. Also self-installable. Total cost, just under $200 which is steep, but considering it's the equivelent of having a gunsmith do a good number on the trigger, might be worth it to you, esp. if you want to switch to Bisley-style parts.

We have a thread going describing all these bits:

http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=80872
 
Blackhawk price

Dan:
As for pricing, I bought my 357 Blackhawk Convertible (comes with second cylinder in 9mm) for $295. Each cylinder had one box of ammo shot through it before I bought it. So to me, $350 seems high for a used Blackhawk. I did buy mine private sale, though, so you're paying for some gun shop overhead at that price.
 
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