Modified one of My Super Blackhawks

[Jeff Higgins]

Hopefully this makes it a bit more comfortable to shoot...

My 3" Super Blackhawk is one of my favorite "woods bumming" companions and therefor gets loaded with a suitable .44 mag load for that kind of duty. Its "standard load" for which it remains sighted is a 300 grain bullet from an LBT mold over a really stiff charge of W-W 296. Even out of this short little gun, that bullet breaks 1,200 fps. Recoil has always been rather noticeable.

In an effort to mitigate that a bit, I just purchased, fitted, and installed a grip frame from the Ruger Bisley series of single actions. This particular grip design is well know for helping with heavier recoil. I have another example of the Bisley, this one with a 7 1/2" barrel in .45 Colt. In shooting it rather extensively with heavy loads, I've come to agree that the grip shape does help.

So, here is the "before and after" on my little Super Blackhawk.

Before:



After:

[Geronimo '74]

There seems to be an extra metal part here, is that part of the grip scales?

I like the black over the brown colorwise, but the brown does look more comfy.

[Jeff Higgins]

Yup, that extra metal is just the top of the Bisley style grip frame. It's all one piece.

[masraum]

Muy Interesante!

I've always thought revolvers shaped like that looked odd/off to me. Probably because my earliest memories are of the gun posted earlier. Those look to me like they would cause more muzzle lift than the others, but it's probably just an optical illusion.

It's a great looking gun either way (which is weird, since I'm not usually a fan of that shape).

[Jeff Higgins]

Nope, no illusion - the single action grip shape is intended to allow more muzzle lift as the gun rolls back in the hand under recoil. Originally, back when Colt first developed the shape, it was to aid in cocking the gun for the next shot. We have since found that it also helps mitigate recoil a bit, as some of the recoil energy is absorbed in making the gun roll up in the hand.

That works o.k. to a certain point. With some of today's more powerful chamberings, the original shape can allow the gun to roll back more than desired. The Bisley shape helps with that, not allowing it to roll back as much. It is also a bit longer, so there is more room for the pinky finger for guys with large hands, like me. With the original grip shape, I'm forced to put my pinky under the grip, so I'm essentially just holding the gun with two fingers. This works for standard .45 Colt level recoil, but is less than ideal once we have to deal with heavy .44 mag or heavier recoil.