I have just acquired an old Ruger Blackhawk 44 Mag
- Thread starter the45er
- Start date
Grips are a matter of personal preference. It wasn't just "heavy recoiling" six shooters that were designed to roll up in the hand, ALL calibers of SA's used a variation of Colt's "plowhandle" grip, from .22s through .45s.
I don't find pachmyrs "sticky", just softer than hard rubber, wood, and plastic. And my .44s & .45s still roll in my hand, the big difference being the muzzle winds up around a 70 degree angle, rather than 110degrees...
The oversize grips also reduce the injury to my hand shooting heavy loads, by filling in behind the triggerguard. Shooting 250gr slugs at over 1100fps, I found my middle finger getting bashed by the trigger guard during recoil. The grips I use make my guns easier and more comfortable to shoot, which is the entire reason I use them. Period. I don't care if YOU don't like them. You should use whatever you prefer. I may be a wimp, but I know I'm not a grip snob.
Model12Win
Moderator
Ain't seen a much more "sharp" .44 Blacky in all my years as them flat tops. BEUTS.
Evidently you never had the "pleasure" of shooting a Flattop Blackhawk .44 Magnum with factory ammo as I did back in the sixties. It had a five and six inch barrel (I think it was six...in any event shorter than a Superblackhawk), and when it fired, it would "slip down in the hand" and the 90 degree angles on the sides of the frame would put a whole lot of hurt to the web of one's hand. It was just too painful to shoot. There was an article in one of the then popular gun magazines (Shooting Times or Guns & Ammo), that explained the "proper technique" for shooting those hand cannons. According to the article, one had to keep significant pressure on the little and next finger to keep the gun from rolling up in the hand and striking the web of the hand. I tried it and it worked...much, much less pain. The gun burned in a fire 4-5 years later but not before I put several thousand cast Keith-type bullets through it with a healthy load of Hercules 2400. "Let it roll up in the hand", my butt!
WarPig1976
New member
Oh, so you learned how to shoot a big bore without Hogue's. Good point!!!
Keith loads? He didn't suggest rubber grips to Bill Ruger. According to "Sixguns" by Keith the grip design is exactly the way he told Bill Ruger to make it. "Perfect" I believe, is the word he used.
I don't think someone who uses rubber stocks on a single action is a wimp. I will defend JaredSHS's opinion on how to shoot a single action though. Mostly cuz he's correct. Not about the wimp part but about the correct use of the gun.
Elmer Keith was a odd fellow. He very much liked the frame of the Ruger Super Blackhawk in 44 Mag, he called it the Dragoon style frame. Keith had small hands and never complained about the squared off rear of the trigger guard rapping the middle finger of the grip hand under recoil. But it does rap mine with more powerful loads. So I tend to swap out grip frames for a more comfortable one. The gun rides up in the hand and the arm rides up as well. It never get's beyond about 70 degrees.
Usually the gun should ride up in the hand, just like JaredSHS described. But with more powerful loads like the 44 Mag , for many shooters, it don't work well, so some use the Pachmyer's.
Personally I'm not fond of rubber grips on single actions. To me and many shooters they don't feel right or act right. You may notice that Freedom Arms with it's 454 Casull guns mounts the traditional wood stocks on their guns. But folks have to choose what works for them.
tipoc
Elmer Keith was a odd fellow. He very much liked the frame of the Ruger Super Blackhawk in 44 Mag, he called it the Dragoon style frame. Keith had small hands and never complained about the squared off rear of the trigger guard rapping the middle finger of the grip hand under recoil. But it does rap mine with more powerful loads. So I tend to swap out grip frames for a more comfortable one. The gun rides up in the hand and the arm rides up as well. It never get's beyond about 70 degrees.
Usually the gun should ride up in the hand, just like JaredSHS described. But with more powerful loads like the 44 Mag , for many shooters, it don't work well, so some use the Pachmyer's.
Personally I'm not fond of rubber grips on single actions. To me and many shooters they don't feel right or act right. You may notice that Freedom Arms with it's 454 Casull guns mounts the traditional wood stocks on their guns. But folks have to choose what works for them.
tipoc
Bob Wright
New member
Maybe not, as there was no .44 Magnum until 1955 or so. But there were some pretty hot .44 Special loads in use back then. Many folks were pushing heavy .44 Specials loaded with the 250 gr. Keith bullet at around 1200 ~ 1300 f.p.s. And some .401 calibers were on the verge of 1500 f.p.s. with 200 ~ 220 gr. bullets.
Bob Wright
Did make me think back though. With the original Blackhawk in 44 Mag the recoil was more than I wanted so I replaced the alloy grip frames with brass. I could deal with 44 Spl. through it though. I don't remember, either they came from Ruger or were aftermarket. That helped a good deal with 44 Mag. I kept the original grips on it though, as they worked fine for me. Little finger under the butt as with all single actions.
A good many stock designs are available.
Like I said if a person likes rubber stocks and shoots better with them, good.
I think many women look fine wearing a shirt that bares their midriff. I think men look silly in those shirts and should avoid them. I believe rubber stocks on a single action are in some way just wrong.
I don't feel the same way about rubber stocks on a da M29 though. So go figure.
Either way I am not qualified to be a fashion consultant.
tipoc
A good many stock designs are available.
Like I said if a person likes rubber stocks and shoots better with them, good.
I think many women look fine wearing a shirt that bares their midriff. I think men look silly in those shirts and should avoid them. I believe rubber stocks on a single action are in some way just wrong.
I don't feel the same way about rubber stocks on a da M29 though. So go figure.
Either way I am not qualified to be a fashion consultant.
tipoc
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The 44 Blackhawk and Super Blackhawk were/are the same size frame. The difference being the steel vs. aluminum grip frame.
The original prototype 44 Blackhawk was built on the 357 frame but was changed to the larger 44 frame when it went into actual production.
Jim
I respect your opinion, but many disagree, including Colt.
perhaps the problem is the word "rubber" is rather ...flexible...
there are many kinds of "rubber" and include both hard rubber, gutta percha (a form of hard rubber), soft rubber, and both oversize and "traditional" size grips.
Colt began putting "rubber" grips on the Single Action Army a few years after they began production. Gutta Percha (hard rubber) were the standard grip for commercial guns for generations. Only the govt contract guns got walnut grips, from the 1880s on....
So, while you may not feel the oversize rubber style looks right, (and how about oversize wood?? is that ok. style wise??), just saying "rubber is wrong" kind of goes against what Colt did for many years before WWII ended SAA production.
You are just plain wrong. My original Flat-top, three-screw, .44 Magnum Blackhawk (made in the fifties), obtained in about 1964 (used) had a smaller frame (XR3) than the Super Blackhawks I bought when that Blackhawk burned in a fire in about 1970. The grip area was smaller and the Blackhawk had the round trigger guard whereas the Super Blackhawks had that squared-off back of the trigger guard.
http://www.gunblast.com/Hamm_Ruger-SA-GripFrames.htm
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I'm talking about the frame itself. I know the grip frame was slightly smaller but you implied the whole gun was smaller :"but the much smaller Blackhawk in .44 magnum? A whole different animal".
Jim
buck460XVR
New member
Exactly what I meant. Unfired(which shooting changes dramatically
) is preferred, but after that condition is #1. Still the more times one takes it to the range, the more chances it has to get damaged, broken or scratched. I never worry about collector value with the guns I take to the range....they are for shooting. Those I don't want to damage any more than they already are......stay in the safe.Lot of words there 44 for a small subject.
I apologize for not having been more explicit. Had I known you were reading this I would have addressed myself only to you.
If you were following the thread I thought it was clear that I, and others, were referring explicitly to the Pachmyer and other oversized soft rubber grips that enclose the backstrap that have appeared over the years and that some folks use on their single action guns to reduce felt recoil. They also don't allow, so much, the gun to slip up in the hand under recoil. That was what was under discussion in this thread. Over the generations many shape grip frames have appeared on single action wheelguns. Many variations of the standard plow shape, Bisley variations, birdshead, etc. Many materials for the stocks on those guns in a variety of shapes. All these and more evolved so people could accomplish their shooting better at specific jobs.
If folks shoot better with the soft rubber grips that enclose the backstrap then go on. Like I said, I don't care for them, I think they are butt ugly. Like I also said I don't head up the gun fashion police. There is no such outfit. Heidi Klum will not rap on your door at 3 a.m. and demand you swap out the stocks on your Rugers (though some of us might like Ms. Klum showing up.)
Franzite made stocks of hard plastic for a long time in a number of configurations that some like. I find them slippery. But not bad looking. What was that composite material that John Wayne's grips were made of? I've seen some of Micarta and G-10 recently.
tipoc