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Reviewing the 50th Anniversary Blackhawk.
It was the year of years in the middle of the decade we now call the Fabulous Fifties. That wonderful year nestled in the middle of that wonderful decade was 1955. It’s the year Disneyland opened; Dem Bums, the Brooklyn Dodgers beat the New York Yankees in the World Series, and understandable music was provided by Pat Boone, Tennessee Ernie, Nat King Cole, the McGuire Sisters, Mitch Miller and a young fellow by the name of Elvis Presley. For me it was the beginning of my senior year at John R. Buchtel High School and all of us went to see Blackboard Jungle and cheered on Mister Roberts as the captain’s palm tree went over the side.
TV was still in its infancy and all black and white, four gallons of gas cost the same as one gallon of milk, and great changes abounded in the automotive industry. Chevrolet went from a stodgy family sedan with six cylinders to V-8 powered cars specially aimed at youthful drivers. While Ford not only brought out one of the most beautiful cars of all times the Crown Victoria Hardtop, they also introduced the Thunderbird.
Great Changes
The first magazine dedicated exclusively to firearms, GUNS, arrived in January 1955 and before the end of the decade it would be followed by several imitators. Colt introduced what would become their Cadillac of Sixguns, the .357 Magnum Python; while S&W countered with three great new models, the .45 ACP 1955 Target, the .357 Combat Magnum and just before December disappeared, the first .44 Magnum. Ruger, which had started in 1949 with a 9-shot .22 semiauto, offered a .22 Single-Six in 1953, and then in 1955 upgraded the Single-Six to an adjustable-sighted .357 Magnum called the Blackhawk.
Sweet Dreams
The first I knew of the Blackhawk was from a life-sized picture in Outdoor Life of the 45⁄8″ .357 Magnum single-action sixgun. We lived in a very small house at the time and my bedroom on the second floor had walls going up about four feet and then angling towards the center. There, above my bed to be the last thing seen at night and the first thing seen in the morning, was that picture of Ruger’s .357 Magnum Blackhawk.
That was 1955 and it would be 1957 before I ever saw the real thing. By then I already had a charge account at Boyle’s Gun Shop and when that Blackhawk arrived it became my first new centerfire single action sixgun. Boyle’s had an outdoor range where we all gathered on Saturday afternoons to shoot our Ruger .22 Single-Sixes and Marlin .22 leverguns. Along with that .357 Blackhawk came a box of ammunition.Up to this point I had never fired a .357 and had yet to see a .44 Magnum. Many complain about gun deliveries being slow today; in the 1950s it took years, not months, to see many in the new models.
Lessons
The cylinder of that .357 Blackhawk was loaded with factory 158-gr. .357s, I coiled my little finger under the butt, rested my hand on a cement block just as I did with the .22 Single-Six, and squeezed off a round. I don’t know what hurt worse, my finger being smashed between the butt of the cement block as the Blackhawk recoiled, or the sharp pain my unprotected years experienced. By the following Thursday that pain in my finger was gone, however the ears still hurt. That was probably the beginning of the level of deafness I experience today.
The box of .357 Magnum ammunition was cherished, and once I had 50 empty cases I ordered a Lyman #358429 single-cavity bullet mold. My
long suffering mother put up with the lead splashes all over her kitchen stove and the side of the refrigerator and I began to learn about bullet casting. I had a Lyman #310 Tong Tool complete with a bullet sizing die and a powder scoop inscribed “15 gr. #2400” and I was in the business of reloading my own ammunition.
Those 50 cases were loaded using the #2400 powder scoop and the Keith bullet, and I soon learned to never load ammunition without trying it in the chambers first. Most of the cases, which could not be full-length resized with the Lyman #310 tool, would not re-enter the chambers of the .357 Blackhawk. Those that would were too long as the bullet, which Keith had designed in the early 1930s for the .38 Special, protruded through the end of the Blackhawk’s cylinder when loaded in Magnum cases. Obviously, none of this was going to work.
Doing It Right
A Lyman All American single stage reloading press was ordered along with dies for both the .357 Magnum and .45 Colt, both of which included full-length sizing dies. The 173 gr. #358429 Keith bullet would not work with .357 Magnum brass in the Ruger .357 Blackhawk, however it not only worked fine in .38 Special brass, the latter was much easier to acquire and definitely much cheaper. My first .357 Magnum Blackhawk became a Heavy Duty .38 Special using the standard Keith load of 13.5 grains of #2400. This is a very heavy load, one I only used in the .357 Blackhawk and is much too heavy for any currently-produced .38 Specials. In fact it’s actually higher in pressure and muzzle velocity than much of the .357 Magnum factory ammunition offered today. It worked fine in the .357 Blackhawk.
Old Timers
The new Ruger .357 Blackhawk arrived just in time to be included in Elmer Keith’s Sixguns. Keith said at the time, “Ruger had his first two pilot models at Washington D.C. at the N.R.A. annual meetings and later shipped them to me here for testing. Both proved very superior guns needing only some changes in height of front sight. Both were very accurate. They shot well with .38 Special handloads, with my bullet, and also with full factory .357 Magnum and Magnum reloads. The gun feels heavy but it’s perfectly balanced and is very well built to handle the heaviest safe sixgun pressures. The flat-top is a beautiful job and a Micro rear target sight is set down flush with the top rear of the flat top frame making a most pleasing outline as well as low sights. The frame of this new Ruger closely follows the design Harold Croft and myself dreamed up 30 years ago, except that the top strap is even thicker and heavier, and does not extend to the rear quite as far. We would have preferred a slightly larger frame and a cylinder a bit larger in diameter, especially for the .45 Colt cartridge, but this .357 Ruger is one honey of a gun and amply heavy for the .357 and .44 Special and will give standard chamber wall thickness if Bill ever chambers it for the .45 Colt.
A new improved flat top Single Action was the dream of Harold Croft and myself 30 years ago. We insistently urged Colt to bring it out but with no success. We did all the necessary design work and had several fine models made up. Bill Ruger has a far better single action than has ever came out of the Colt factory.”
The Flat-Top
The original Ruger .357 Blackhawk, now known to collectors as the Flat- Top, only lasted eight years. It only lacked one thing to be perfect. The grip frame was identical in size and shape to the Colt Single Action Army, however it was an aluminum alloy instead of steel and this is why so many examples are seen with brightly polished grip frames. The Flat-Top was “improved” in 1963, not by adding a
steel grip frame, but instead changing the size and shape slightly to allow more room between the front of the grip frame and the back of the trigger guard, which, of course, changed the feel found with the traditional grip frame. Protective ears such as those
found on both sides of the rear sight of the Super Blackhawk .44 Magnum arriving in 1959, were now added to the .357 Blackhawk.
Today this second version of the .357 Blackhawk is known to collectors as the Old Model and it was only to last 10 years. In the early 1970s almost everything about the .357 Blackhawk changed with the arrival of the New Model Blackhawk. Up to this point Ruger offered two centerfire frames, the Colt Single Action sized .357, while the .30 Carbine, .41 Magnum, .45 Colt and .44 Magnum were all offered on a
larger frame. With the arrival of the New Model in 1973 the .357 Magnum Blackhawk joined the rest of the centerfire Rugers on the .44 Magnum-sized frame. The balance mentioned by Keith was gone.
It Had To Happen
Until the late 1960s when someone did something stupid it was looked upon as, well, stupid. No more. Stupidity became a cash cow and those who shot themselves or someone else by loading a traditional single action with a live round under the hammer found willing lawyers to take their cases. Ruger had to do something and that something was the transfer bar safety allowing all Ruger New Models to be carried safely with a live round under the hammer. The New Model could not fire unless deliberately cocked and the trigger pulled activating the transfer bar.
3-Screw Hawks
Ruger never did chamber the original Blackhawk in anything other than .357 Magnum. In its relatively short life it was offered in the original 45⁄8″ barrel as well as 61⁄2″ and the very rare 10″ version. When it evolved into the Old Model only the first two barrel lengths were offered. All of these Three Screw .357 Blackhawks had aluminum alloy grip frames marked as XR3 for the Flat-Top and XR3-RED for the Old Model. The original Flat-Top had black rubber grips which evolved into walnut grips, while all Old Models had walnut stocks.
Both the Flat-Top and the Old Model have been converted by pistolsmiths to other calibers such as the .44 Special, .41 Special, .45 Colt, .38-40, .44-40 and even such relatively newly resurrected cartridges as the .44 Russian and .45 Schofield. Skeeter Skelton started all of this with an article written nearly 35 years ago in which he described Bob Sconce’s conversion of an Old Model .357 Blackhawk to .44 Special. Today there are several gunsmiths both willing and totally able to provide these conversions including such top rate ‘smiths as Hamilton Bowen, David Clements, Brian Cosby, Larry Crow, Ben Forkin, John Gallagher, Andy Horvath and Jim Stroh.
Celebrating 50
The original Flat-Top has been gone for more than 40 years. However, Ruger has not forgotten and has offered the 50th Anniversary Model. Unlike current Ruger Blackhawks, the Anniversary Model has a true Flat-Top frame the same size as the original with no protective ears around the rear sight as well as the original grip frame size, shape and black rubber grips complete with the black eagle medallion.
These grips are shaped perfectly for my hand and feel exceptionally good. As on the original, the barrel length is 45⁄8″ and the rear sight is Micro-style. Unlike the original, the grip frame is steel and the action is the standard Ruger New Model-style complete
with transfer bar safety. There’s no reason to even think about asking if Ruger will ever offer the original action again — they will not.
Hope Springs
The Anniversary Model feels very good in the hand, has the balance of the original, and shoots as well — actually in many cases better than the 1950s .357 Flat-Top it was run against. It is a beautiful well-made sixgun and I have talked to several people at Ruger, including the president, asking them to not only keep it in the line as a standard offering, but also to chamber it in the .44 Special as well as .357 Magnum. By the time this is read we may well know if this is going to happen. If you can find one of the 50th Anniversary Blackhawks, it might be money well-spent!
You may be interested in:
357 Magnum Revolvers For Sale
357 Magnum Pistols For Sale
357 Sig Pistols For Sale
Article courtesy of American Handgunner.
 |
| The 50th Anniversary .357 & a .357 Flat-Top Blackhawk with early ads. |
It was the year of years in the middle of the decade we now call the Fabulous Fifties. That wonderful year nestled in the middle of that wonderful decade was 1955. It’s the year Disneyland opened; Dem Bums, the Brooklyn Dodgers beat the New York Yankees in the World Series, and understandable music was provided by Pat Boone, Tennessee Ernie, Nat King Cole, the McGuire Sisters, Mitch Miller and a young fellow by the name of Elvis Presley. For me it was the beginning of my senior year at John R. Buchtel High School and all of us went to see Blackboard Jungle and cheered on Mister Roberts as the captain’s palm tree went over the side.
TV was still in its infancy and all black and white, four gallons of gas cost the same as one gallon of milk, and great changes abounded in the automotive industry. Chevrolet went from a stodgy family sedan with six cylinders to V-8 powered cars specially aimed at youthful drivers. While Ford not only brought out one of the most beautiful cars of all times the Crown Victoria Hardtop, they also introduced the Thunderbird.
 |
| The Ruger comes in a special anniversary box. |
Great Changes
The first magazine dedicated exclusively to firearms, GUNS, arrived in January 1955 and before the end of the decade it would be followed by several imitators. Colt introduced what would become their Cadillac of Sixguns, the .357 Magnum Python; while S&W countered with three great new models, the .45 ACP 1955 Target, the .357 Combat Magnum and just before December disappeared, the first .44 Magnum. Ruger, which had started in 1949 with a 9-shot .22 semiauto, offered a .22 Single-Six in 1953, and then in 1955 upgraded the Single-Six to an adjustable-sighted .357 Magnum called the Blackhawk.
 |
| The .357 Blackhawk 50th Anniversary Flat-Top, center, is flanked by an original Flat-Top and an Old Model Blackhawk. |
Sweet Dreams
The first I knew of the Blackhawk was from a life-sized picture in Outdoor Life of the 45⁄8″ .357 Magnum single-action sixgun. We lived in a very small house at the time and my bedroom on the second floor had walls going up about four feet and then angling towards the center. There, above my bed to be the last thing seen at night and the first thing seen in the morning, was that picture of Ruger’s .357 Magnum Blackhawk.
That was 1955 and it would be 1957 before I ever saw the real thing. By then I already had a charge account at Boyle’s Gun Shop and when that Blackhawk arrived it became my first new centerfire single action sixgun. Boyle’s had an outdoor range where we all gathered on Saturday afternoons to shoot our Ruger .22 Single-Sixes and Marlin .22 leverguns. Along with that .357 Blackhawk came a box of ammunition.Up to this point I had never fired a .357 and had yet to see a .44 Magnum. Many complain about gun deliveries being slow today; in the 1950s it took years, not months, to see many in the new models.
Lessons
The cylinder of that .357 Blackhawk was loaded with factory 158-gr. .357s, I coiled my little finger under the butt, rested my hand on a cement block just as I did with the .22 Single-Six, and squeezed off a round. I don’t know what hurt worse, my finger being smashed between the butt of the cement block as the Blackhawk recoiled, or the sharp pain my unprotected years experienced. By the following Thursday that pain in my finger was gone, however the ears still hurt. That was probably the beginning of the level of deafness I experience today.
The box of .357 Magnum ammunition was cherished, and once I had 50 empty cases I ordered a Lyman #358429 single-cavity bullet mold. My
long suffering mother put up with the lead splashes all over her kitchen stove and the side of the refrigerator and I began to learn about bullet casting. I had a Lyman #310 Tong Tool complete with a bullet sizing die and a powder scoop inscribed “15 gr. #2400” and I was in the business of reloading my own ammunition.
Those 50 cases were loaded using the #2400 powder scoop and the Keith bullet, and I soon learned to never load ammunition without trying it in the chambers first. Most of the cases, which could not be full-length resized with the Lyman #310 tool, would not re-enter the chambers of the .357 Blackhawk. Those that would were too long as the bullet, which Keith had designed in the early 1930s for the .38 Special, protruded through the end of the Blackhawk’s cylinder when loaded in Magnum cases. Obviously, none of this was going to work.
Doing It Right
A Lyman All American single stage reloading press was ordered along with dies for both the .357 Magnum and .45 Colt, both of which included full-length sizing dies. The 173 gr. #358429 Keith bullet would not work with .357 Magnum brass in the Ruger .357 Blackhawk, however it not only worked fine in .38 Special brass, the latter was much easier to acquire and definitely much cheaper. My first .357 Magnum Blackhawk became a Heavy Duty .38 Special using the standard Keith load of 13.5 grains of #2400. This is a very heavy load, one I only used in the .357 Blackhawk and is much too heavy for any currently-produced .38 Specials. In fact it’s actually higher in pressure and muzzle velocity than much of the .357 Magnum factory ammunition offered today. It worked fine in the .357 Blackhawk.
 |
| The Anniversary Model Blackhawk features a Micro-style rear sight. |
Old Timers
The new Ruger .357 Blackhawk arrived just in time to be included in Elmer Keith’s Sixguns. Keith said at the time, “Ruger had his first two pilot models at Washington D.C. at the N.R.A. annual meetings and later shipped them to me here for testing. Both proved very superior guns needing only some changes in height of front sight. Both were very accurate. They shot well with .38 Special handloads, with my bullet, and also with full factory .357 Magnum and Magnum reloads. The gun feels heavy but it’s perfectly balanced and is very well built to handle the heaviest safe sixgun pressures. The flat-top is a beautiful job and a Micro rear target sight is set down flush with the top rear of the flat top frame making a most pleasing outline as well as low sights. The frame of this new Ruger closely follows the design Harold Croft and myself dreamed up 30 years ago, except that the top strap is even thicker and heavier, and does not extend to the rear quite as far. We would have preferred a slightly larger frame and a cylinder a bit larger in diameter, especially for the .45 Colt cartridge, but this .357 Ruger is one honey of a gun and amply heavy for the .357 and .44 Special and will give standard chamber wall thickness if Bill ever chambers it for the .45 Colt.
A new improved flat top Single Action was the dream of Harold Croft and myself 30 years ago. We insistently urged Colt to bring it out but with no success. We did all the necessary design work and had several fine models made up. Bill Ruger has a far better single action than has ever came out of the Colt factory.”
The Flat-Top
The original Ruger .357 Blackhawk, now known to collectors as the Flat- Top, only lasted eight years. It only lacked one thing to be perfect. The grip frame was identical in size and shape to the Colt Single Action Army, however it was an aluminum alloy instead of steel and this is why so many examples are seen with brightly polished grip frames. The Flat-Top was “improved” in 1963, not by adding a
steel grip frame, but instead changing the size and shape slightly to allow more room between the front of the grip frame and the back of the trigger guard, which, of course, changed the feel found with the traditional grip frame. Protective ears such as those
found on both sides of the rear sight of the Super Blackhawk .44 Magnum arriving in 1959, were now added to the .357 Blackhawk.
Today this second version of the .357 Blackhawk is known to collectors as the Old Model and it was only to last 10 years. In the early 1970s almost everything about the .357 Blackhawk changed with the arrival of the New Model Blackhawk. Up to this point Ruger offered two centerfire frames, the Colt Single Action sized .357, while the .30 Carbine, .41 Magnum, .45 Colt and .44 Magnum were all offered on a
larger frame. With the arrival of the New Model in 1973 the .357 Magnum Blackhawk joined the rest of the centerfire Rugers on the .44 Magnum-sized frame. The balance mentioned by Keith was gone.
 |
| Whether with .357 Magnum or .38 Special loads the Anniversary Blackhawk shoots well. |
It Had To Happen
Until the late 1960s when someone did something stupid it was looked upon as, well, stupid. No more. Stupidity became a cash cow and those who shot themselves or someone else by loading a traditional single action with a live round under the hammer found willing lawyers to take their cases. Ruger had to do something and that something was the transfer bar safety allowing all Ruger New Models to be carried safely with a live round under the hammer. The New Model could not fire unless deliberately cocked and the trigger pulled activating the transfer bar.
3-Screw Hawks
Ruger never did chamber the original Blackhawk in anything other than .357 Magnum. In its relatively short life it was offered in the original 45⁄8″ barrel as well as 61⁄2″ and the very rare 10″ version. When it evolved into the Old Model only the first two barrel lengths were offered. All of these Three Screw .357 Blackhawks had aluminum alloy grip frames marked as XR3 for the Flat-Top and XR3-RED for the Old Model. The original Flat-Top had black rubber grips which evolved into walnut grips, while all Old Models had walnut stocks.
Both the Flat-Top and the Old Model have been converted by pistolsmiths to other calibers such as the .44 Special, .41 Special, .45 Colt, .38-40, .44-40 and even such relatively newly resurrected cartridges as the .44 Russian and .45 Schofield. Skeeter Skelton started all of this with an article written nearly 35 years ago in which he described Bob Sconce’s conversion of an Old Model .357 Blackhawk to .44 Special. Today there are several gunsmiths both willing and totally able to provide these conversions including such top rate ‘smiths as Hamilton Bowen, David Clements, Brian Cosby, Larry Crow, Ben Forkin, John Gallagher, Andy Horvath and Jim Stroh.
Celebrating 50
The original Flat-Top has been gone for more than 40 years. However, Ruger has not forgotten and has offered the 50th Anniversary Model. Unlike current Ruger Blackhawks, the Anniversary Model has a true Flat-Top frame the same size as the original with no protective ears around the rear sight as well as the original grip frame size, shape and black rubber grips complete with the black eagle medallion.
These grips are shaped perfectly for my hand and feel exceptionally good. As on the original, the barrel length is 45⁄8″ and the rear sight is Micro-style. Unlike the original, the grip frame is steel and the action is the standard Ruger New Model-style complete
with transfer bar safety. There’s no reason to even think about asking if Ruger will ever offer the original action again — they will not.
Hope Springs
The Anniversary Model feels very good in the hand, has the balance of the original, and shoots as well — actually in many cases better than the 1950s .357 Flat-Top it was run against. It is a beautiful well-made sixgun and I have talked to several people at Ruger, including the president, asking them to not only keep it in the line as a standard offering, but also to chamber it in the .44 Special as well as .357 Magnum. By the time this is read we may well know if this is going to happen. If you can find one of the 50th Anniversary Blackhawks, it might be money well-spent!
You may be interested in:
357 Magnum Revolvers For Sale
357 Magnum Pistols For Sale
357 Sig Pistols For Sale
Article courtesy of American Handgunner.
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