Young Man Afraid Of His Horses

[Sharps40]

Back half of the ramp is a bit long and plain. I started to rib it. 16 lines per inch. An expensive checkering file is not needed. A simple bolt threading file works fine to start the grooves and nearly finish them. The final touches come later, pointing up the tops of the ramps and the bottom of the grooves with a simple triangle file. Enough for now. Much more draw filing to do on the barrel to remove some or all of the pits and there's still that pesky grip frame conversion....

 

[Sharps40]

Grip frame almost completed. Fit is wonderful.....function is perfect with a good clean break at 4 lbs not having touched any of the internal parts. Just a touch of take up before the break. Last item on the grip frame is to plug the trigger guard front screw hole and redrill it to match position of the front screw hole in the ruger frame. Other option is to plug the ruger frame and redrill and tap to match the grip frame hole pattern out front.

The frame in place and an insert to convert it from flat mainspring to coil mainspring. A bit of metal removed from the tang of the trigger guard and a new L bracket made up and screwed into place to retain the coil mainspring.

Here, hammer forward and back....fine function.

The clearances to be refined for better fit but here at 90%, good fit and function with hammer forward and back.

Hammer forward and back, a small notch in the underside of the backstrap clearances the mainspring strut.

And here, hammer forward and back, a groove in the underside of the trigger guard clearances the mainspring as it travels up and down through compression and release.

 

[Sharps40]

Well, at least now we know, the Colt 1860 frame fits to the New and Old Model Blackhawks with only a little work!

 

[Sharps40]

Just playing with grips tonight. May still use the Mercers, or try to use them.....I havn't decided. For now, checking size, and the VA Dragoon grip panels for the mercer grips might be just large enough to pare down to a fit on the 1860 army grip frame.

The 1860 Army template over the VA Dragoon tracings. A good bit of fitting would be needed. But no more than fitting up that last pare of horrible bear paw grips in amboynia burl. In any event, I can leave the grips a touch long over the bottom of the frame as needed for even more length for big hands. I'll play with the burl walnut for a bit though too.

Here, the tracing shows the closest Ruger factory grip panel fit is the Super Blackhawk and even it is not enough. There is enough on the back strap to fit but the 1860 army grip is closer to the trigger and about 3/16 or more of the triggerguard bow is left uncovered by the super Blackhawk panels.

So....off to the burl....too thin at 1/4" but if I get really industrious, I might back them in bloodwood. Very stable, gives a red brown line and much stronger/stiffer than the crispy grained burl wood, so, a possibility of a neat look and reinforcement.

I cut out 8 grip panels. One broke on the twisted grain, these are the panels I picked out as potential grip panels for this or another revolver with an 1860 grip frame. They are a bit muddy here with one coat of urethane rubbed in to see how the patterns look. They'll clarify with finish and sanding and polishing.

 

[Quacker]

Man those are gonna be beautiful! I'm putting in my order!

 

[Sharps40]

Theys pretty but thin. Have to back them up and taper them wider to the bottom. I ain't sure I'll like the look....we'll see. Still thinking hard about the Mercer wagon wheel/lance grip panels too. Time will tell. For now....packin for 10 days of deer hunting!

 

[Hayata]

Just playing with grips tonight. May still use the Mercers, or try to use them.....I havn't decided. For now, checking size, and the VA Dragoon grip panels for the mercer grips might be just large enough to pare down to a fit on the 1860 army grip frame.

The 1860 Army template over the VA Dragoon tracings. A good bit of fitting would be needed. But no more than fitting up that last pare of horrible bear paw grips in amboynia burl. In any event, I can leave the grips a touch long over the bottom of the frame as needed for even more length for big hands. I'll play with the burl walnut for a bit though too.

Here, the tracing shows the closest Ruger factory grip panel fit is the Super Blackhawk and even it is not enough. There is enough on the back strap to fit but the 1860 army grip is closer to the trigger and about 3/16 or more of the triggerguard bow is left uncovered by the super Blackhawk panels.

So....off to the burl....too thin at 1/4" but if I get really industrious, I might back them in bloodwood. Very stable, gives a red brown line and much stronger/stiffer than the crispy grained burl wood, so, a possibility of a neat look and reinforcement.

I cut out 8 grip panels. One broke on the twisted grain, these are the panels I picked out as potential grip panels for this or another revolver with an 1860 grip frame. They are a bit muddy here with one coat of urethane rubbed in to see how the patterns look. They'll clarify with finish and sanding and polishing.

Grips are GORGEOUS!

 

[Sharps40]

The fit is pretty good. The VA Dragoon grip panels are big and long enough to fit up. Even some extra to extend the length of the grip a touch more. Mainspring and grip screw lay very close together. Playing with that for now in the fitting, but as installed, function is perfect.

Got a bit happy with the right panel and removed the forward edge first and went to far....so...not sure if I've ruined it or if I can fix it with a black, brass or wood line between grip and frame. May have to buy a new panel. But for now, I think I'll finish up fitting.....after deer season.

Busted a doe walking to my shop.....gotta get her....she vexes me.....busts me out regular.....then after the season, I can sit down and focus on my projects!

 

[Sharps40]

While I await my 1500 deer stand appointment......and now that Pixie is free of intake manifold coolant leaks......a bit of work on fitting the Rich Mercer Wagon Wheel grips. As indicated, these are large for the 1860 Army Grip Frame as they are cast of urethane for the VA Dragoon.

Made of a softish urethane (which is sposed to yellow like ivory, who knows) I decided it was necessary to move them up and forward by about 1/8" in each direction to get coverage on the trigger guard and the back strap.

Being for the larger VA Dragoon revolver, I'll also extend the blackstrap down as discussed for a much longer grip....good for larger diameter fingers/bigger hands. It'll remain slim and closer to the trigger than the Ruger grip frame but even longer than the extra length the 1860 Colt Army grip provides over the original Ruger grip.

With the movement up and forward, it'll be necessary to relocate the grip screw bushings about 1/2 screw diameter further back, so I'll fill the original bushing holes with black tinted epoxy and redrill/counterbore later.

Fitting up and forward, pretty simple but tedious. Prussian blue, find the high spots, knock them off, fit, file, try until the panels are about where I want them.

Once both are about right, some wax to prevent epoxy mess on the outside of the grip, some tape to mark off the edges and fill the bushing holes with black tinted epoxy. Later, I'll slightly relocate the brass bushings for the grip screw, giving the mainspring clearance from the screw.

Since the tinted epoxy will take more than a day in these cooler temps to kick over, time to do a bit of draw filing on the barrel and remove most of the pits on the left and right side. Not all the pits will come out without dishing the barrel too much for a good look but the majority come out and it'll look good with a rust blue finish over a 120g polish.

Here above the ejector rod housing, a very visible area.

And here, immediately above the Ruger Lettering, another visible area. Can't really go much more and stay off the lettering. But 90% of the pitting is gone.

 

[Quacker]

Awesome work. I always look forward to seeing the progress!