Bisley grips

[Rusty]

Several years ago I had a Ruger Bisley Vaquero that was a great shooter. I ended up trading it off but really do miss that Bisley grip. Jr. has a 5 1/2" Superblackhawk that handles great but has the standard grip.

What exactly would be involved with placing a Bisley grip on a standard frame? Is it just a grip swap or do you have to swap the trigger and hammer as well? How hard are these parts to come by?

[shooter]

I'm no expert, but from what I understand the swap includes the grip frame, hammer and trigger. It's not cheap, either, but I much prefer the Bisley grip frame. Midway USA had all the parts necessary last time I checked. They had several different options for the grip frame. They had blue, stainless and brass choices. They had factory Ruger parts as well as aftermarket frames from Power Custom I believe. Good luck with whatever you decide.

[Rusty]

I WOULD consider a factory Ruger edition in .44 special, but it's a limited edition offering thru Lipsey's but I couldn't find any. The Bisley option rates higher to me than the magnum factor. .44 Special might even be better anyway.
Thanks I'll check out Midway.

[765x53]

You might consider a set of Herrett's "Shooting Star" grips.
They give my 5 1/2" SBH a feel that is very comfortably point able and recoil absorbing, similar to a Bisley.
They often appear on e-bey.
You would need grips coded "RR", for the XR3 Red. grip frame.

[AJMD429]

I put a Bisley grip frame on my Super Blackhawk, after getting a Vaquero Bisley from a forum member and liking the grip way better.

Here's a forum thread on the Ruger grips I found very helpful - http://www.levergunscommunity.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=34247

You don't have to swap hammer and trigger, but most folks do. I strongly prefer the Super Blackhawk wide but 'tall' hammer, and flatter trigger, so I didn't swap out those parts.

I was going to swap them just for a test-run, and I guess I could have (one was stainless and the other not), since the fit was fine mechanically, but there would clearly need to be lots of final fitting so the frame and grip were smooth where joining. That told me that I may want to just buy a separate 'oversize' new frame vs. "swap" one, which would mean fitting TWO of them, and if the frame was wider than the grip I didn't want to have to file or grind on a frame.

I ordered a stainless one from MidwayUSA but after ten months they finally said they kept trying and trying to get one from Ruger, but so few came and I was way down the list of people having already ordered them. I switched to a 'blued' one (unfinished non-stainless) and got it within a week. I had hoped to do a 'practice run' on a stainless gun I had first, not wanting to deal with blueing/reblueing.

It didn't take more than a couple hours with a grinder and hand-files to get the new grip frame to match my gun.

For the finish, I decided to use a CeraKote bake-on finish, since I had half a can left over from doing a magazine tube for my 'Night Scout' project. It is a strong and evidently hard-to-chip finish, that is smooth and tough - but it IS a sort of 'cobblestone' matte texture, definitely it does NOT match the original Ruger blueing job..! I just wanted to get a finish on it for now, and decided if I really liked the grips I could always have the whole gun buffed down and re-blued professionally, or perhaps even do the frame in CeraKote to match. Probably I'll just leave it as-is, and enjoy it. This picture doesn't show the contrasting finishes all that well, but it's the best I've got. The brass 'brad' is in the picture because during all this stuff my brass 'bead' front sight fell out, and I used a brass brad to fashion a new one, held in place with some JB-Weld.



I used the original Super Blackhawk frame on a less-kicking caliber Blackhawk. For me, the .44 Mag and semi-hot loaded .45 Colts really need a Bisley grip; for .357, .32-20, and .22 LR I can do fine with the small-hand-favorable "normal" grip frame. I suppose a really stout .357 load would buck some too, but if I want 'stout', I go with the .45 Colt or .44 Mag.

[Mohillbilly]

Check your old "ordanary" grip with a magnet . Bet it's steel . It may be something is useful on a 9 1/2 single six to better balance the gun or add weight to a super or get rid of a Knuckle rap on a dragoon grip .