Is the Ruger GP100 the Greatest Double Action Revolver Ever Made?

Hammie,

It's a personal preference.

I have K frame revolvers with barrels in 2.5", 4", 5", and 6".

For general use and shooting, I prefer 4". Always have, always will.
 
I don't have enough experience with revolvers to know which one is the best ever. I do know that my 4" GP100 is a joy to shoot, and I shoot it well. It has a very good trigger that has improved over the years. It can handle full house .357 mag loads or powder puff .38 wad cutters equally well. I think it may be the best value in the current market, but that is just my opinion. Your milage may vary.
 
Yes it is but I would say any ruger is. That is just my opinion. I love my super redhawk also. They make superb wheel gun at good prices
 
The Model 27, 627 and the 686 and 686+ fill that niche. The Ruger is a fine revolver but Some of us prefer further refinement that is lacking in the GP-100.
Ruger can however claim the greatest ever title in the single action category for the Blackhawk in .45 Caliber convertible.
 
Colt—Mostly defunct.

S&W—Mostly Hillary Holed.

Taurus/Rossi/Charter/Rock Island—Need Not Apply.

Ruger—Making the GP without internal locks since the mid-80s.

If you want a well made American medium framed .357 untouched by gun control concerns, Ruger is the only viable offering left. Good thing it is a really good revolver that can be made pretty great with minimal effort and expense.

To compete with it, you have to either buy a Colt from the 1990s or before, a pre-lock used Smith, or never photograph the left side of a “modern” Smith, due to outright ownership embarrassment over what they have become.
 
If it's just opinion I'd say a Korth is THE BEST double action revolver made.

The Texas Longhorn Arms (Grover's Improved, Texas Flat Top, or really ANY model) is THE BEST single action revolver ever made.

Of course both of these are going to run you North of $5K easy (if you can find a TLA). Silly to buy one of those when you could buy seven or eight Rugers? For most people it's a resounding, yes. But, there are always a lot of people out there who are looking for, "THE BEST", and are willing to pay for it.

I don't think it's ridiculous to say that Ruger's are a very good value, or that for the money many people think they're the best. No mass produced anything is going to be THE BEST. In guns, as with anything else, there are diminishing returns, and a premium paid for a superlative beyond it's reality.

Willi Korth and Bill Grover were engineers/businessmen who both set out to make THE BEST pistols. Not what would be commercially successful, but THE BEST. I think they both found success, but only because they actually achieved THE BEST.
 
Ruger—Making the GP without internal locks since the mid-80s.
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True, but since you opened that door, I'll note they have gone to MIM.
And while I really like my 3" version, which serves nightstand duty, I would hardly consider it the "greatest".

Jim

 
good but.....

Good guns, but fall a bit short of greatest. As suggested, the Python is a good candidate for the zenith revolver, so too the early Registered Magnum N-frames.
 
MIM is almost always used as a pejorative when discussing firearms. Using manufacturing methods and materials that allow the GP100 to be sold for less than a 686 and others, while maintaining the kind of quality that is being discussed in this thread makes it clear that MIM when done well is not inferior.

Of course there are still folks saying that polymer and the internet won't last. :D
 
Nothing wrong with MIM parts... Properly done and in the right application. There have been low quality mim parts in the past, but its fairly mature technology now and no longer deserves the boogey man status bestowed on it by the internet. How a part is heat treated means way more.
 
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