New grips and polish on the birdshead

[olyinaz]

After a week on the road it was great to spend a few hours today working on my birdshead. No, not MY bird sized head - my Ruger!!

I started by putting some new grips on it. I like 'em. I'd rather have something more exotic and maybe will some day, but these are an improvement in both looks and comfort over the originals in my view.

I also spent some time polishing the revolver the way the factory should have but doesn't. This model did not come with the excellent looking Montado hammer but instead had a Super Blackhawk hammer installed pretty much stock - little to no polish. It was ridiculous and looked and felt terrible. I reprofiled the top of the hammer to make it look like a proper cowboy gun hammer and then polished the thing. The cylinder notches were left largely unpolished and the cylinder itself was dull and looked about half way (another word came to mind...) polished so I did those too. The front sight and rear sight notch on top of the frame needed some. And lastly, the ejector rod housing was - I kid you not - completely UNPOLISHED on this gun. It looked like it had been fetched straight out of a parts bin and slapped on.

What the flippen heck?? My early edition Montado looks like a gem! How did Ruger fall so flat on its butt in two years? And I've got a Bisley that I've yet to attend to with pretty much all of the same issues. Thank goodness I actually enjoy doing this kind of thing...

Edit: I forgot to add that I also polished away the cylinder turn line and then buffed the feed ramps into the bolt notches (staying away from the notches themselves) and also buffed and polished the TOP of the bolt to a mirror shine in order to minimize turn marking and peening of the cylinder in the future. The bolt, as delivered from the factory, had a surface roughness about like 600 grit sand paper so it's no surprise that these things mar our cylinders given how Rugers are timed.

But she's lookin' pretty now! Here you go, a limited edition Birdshead Vaquero in .45 ACP:





Whatcha think??

Oly

[Pitchy]

Say now that`s dern right pretty, nice job and nice picture.

[adirondakjack]

VERY nice!

[claybob86]

Looks great! Do you have a "before" picture?

[chadbr]

Looks fantastic... What did you use to polish?

[kimwcook]

Looks like you've done a great job. Nice picture.

[RIHMFIRE]

That is very sharp looking....

[hightime]

Nice, I like it a lot.

Owen

[stickfred]

Whatcha think??

Oly

I think it looks great oly. You've done a fine job.

[damienph]

WOW!! That looks like chrome or nickel plate.

And, I like those grips too.

[olyinaz]

Thanks guys. I don't have a good before picture (wish I'd thought of that).

What did you use to polish?

If there are rough machine markings left over I hit it with 400 grit until I'm satisfied that the final polished result wont look like buffed stipling. In this case the cylinder notches were the worst offender with the sight cut on the top strap even worse but less visible. The ejector rod housing needed some work in this regard also as did the muzzle (a cautionary prospect to be sure, but with Ruger's deep triple angle muzzle treatment it's very easy to stay away from the inside cut and the rifling). I follow this with 600 grit and then with 1500 grit, all wet/dry paper types and a good cleaning between stages so that the material is not contaminated with the grit from the previous stage. Lastly, I sit with a cloth and good old Mother's Mag Polish (God bless whomever originally came up with this stuff) and just rub and polish while watching TV etc.

This is what works for me but I hold no illusion that it's a process that a professional would endorse. Heck I dunno, maybe a gunsmith gasps and spits his coffee when reading this. All I know is that I'm super careful about it, worrying over small bits with little pieces of paper for a commercially nonviable amount of time, often taking it all the way to end polish and then going back to square one because it still just doesn't look right. So that's my warning: YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY.

And I should say that I've seen people get good results on well finished guns (smooth brushed finish - no machine marks) by going straight to the Mother's Mag polish. What bothers me however are those machining marks that they used to remove in final finishing back in the day. I like the vintage Colt or Smith nickel plated look - not the thin chrome over crappy rough steel look.

And mine are still far from perfect if you look close, but a lazy Sunday afternoon is about all I'm willing to invest in a gun that's already supposed to be high polished (not counting the hammer, I did that the other day and it took a few hours of fiddling since it was my first).

Cheers,
Oly

[Rimfire McNutjob]

I love the look of a short barreled SA with the Bird's Head grip. Really nice looking. A Bisley styled hammer would perfect it.

[Rube Burrows]

Sure is a sharp looking revolver.

[Old Savage]

Looks great and how did you polish it?

[olyinaz]

Looks great and how did you polish it?

Look up in the thread a few messages above yours Doc.

Oly

[O.S.O.K.]

Purty. I like that hammer - nice job all the way around!

[Chuck 100 yd]

WOW !! SWEET ! Tell me about the S.N.???
I have never seen one marked that way. No prefix ???
Special run??
I love it!

[olyinaz]

WOW !! SWEET ! Tell me about the S.N.???
I have never seen one marked that way. No prefix ???
Special run??
I love it!

Yeah no kidding! Photoshop special run!!

The SN was standing out so clear in the photo it gave me the creeps so I zapped the first digits off of it.

Oly

[Pop Watts]

Great picture of a very nice little gun Mate,

Pop.

[Ysabel Kid]

Most awesome!

[claybob86]

... for a commercially nonviable amount of time...
Oly

Reminds me of my projects! Well said!

And again, very nice work!

[Griff]

Very nice. I don't even like shiney guns... and that one's super lookin'!