Ruger Single Action Gunsmith help

[bbailey7821]

Would anyone personally recommend a pistol smith for me? I am looking to have some work done to a Ruger single action and want to use someone in Texas preferably. Also would like to use someone with references. The work I am interested in is an action job, forcing cone clean-up, and fitting a new front site. As always, any help would be greatly appreciated.

[straightwall]

Power Custom in Missouri. Not Texas, but is a gun-friendly state.
http://www.powercustom.com/

Found a Texas smith for you when looking for you and searching "Bill Grover" and "Keith DeHart."

Steve Young
205 Antler Lane
Lampasas, TX 76550
(512) 564-1015
steve@stevesgunz.com
http://store.stevesgunz.com/

Sass# 6765
alias Nate Kiowa Jones

Good luck!

[ShooterAZ]

Not in Texas once again, but Gary Reeder of Reeder Custom Guns in Flagstaff AZ can certainly perform the work you need done.

http://www.reedercustomguns.com/

[Der Gebirgsjager]

ryan@hcpgunsmithing.com Fredricksburg, TX Ryan, Hill Country Precision Gunsmithing, is a repair center for Cimarron Arms and does great work on 1873-type revolvers. Contact him and ask about Rugers.

[Lead Fred]

Did mine myself, and dang is it smooth and fast.

[44man]

Why, first, hard to find a Ruger that needs custom work. You can have a problem but most are amazing out of box. What do you need and can say for sure?

[McLintock]

Alan Harton of Houston, Texas does excellent work. His outfit is called Single Action Service, phone #713-772-8314, or Cell 713-907-6031; e-mail is aharton@hotmail.com. He converted two 3 screw Single Six's to 32 H&R for me and also chambered a cylinder in 32-20 for me, so I'm not talking "I heard" stuff. He's often talked about on the Ruger Forum, with his work shown and he does just about anything you want but may take a while.
HH

[bbailey7821]

Well, 44man, first off, I agree with you. I'm just treating myself to a little man-spa treatment... I recently put my hands on a 480 Bisley, which I am really digging! My only gripes with it are:
1. The front sight is tad tall for my loads. I'm really partial to a partridge, so I thought I'd let a professional do this.
2. The trigger has some substantial creep, and I'm a little nervous about doing the work myself. I had a bad experience with another SBH, years ago and don't want to repeat something I didn't enjoy.

Thanks to everyone for your input!

[W.R.Buchanan]

TQUOTE=44man;3557160]Why, first, hard to find a Ruger that needs custom work. You can have a problem but most are amazing out of box. What do you need and can say for sure?[/QUOTE]

I'd listen to this guy before I spent a lot of money on stuff you won't be able to see or feel. I have 2 SA Rugers and both were glass smooth out of the box, and shoot great.

If the gun is not broke in (IE 400-500 rounds thru it) all you are paying for is for someone to do work that would happen simply by shooting it.

I see people all too often that want to do "Something" to enhance their guns, when what they should be doing is shooting them and learning how to get the most out of them rather than buying a bunch of new "Fishing Lures." or different Golf Clubs depending on your particular vice that will make them better shooters.

If you had shot that gun a bunch and then wanted to fix some issue it had, I can see that. But the term "Action Job" is a glorified term for spending some time deburring some internal parts and stoning the sear and hammer surfaces. Things that would happen quickly by simply shooting the gun.

As far as installing a different Front Sight ,,, they are Silver Soldered on and the whole gun has to be stripped and reblued afterwards.

Here's my Ruger SBH Bisley .44 Mag. cut to 5" with a Weigand Front Sight, bead blasted finish, and reblued. Cost me $300. Now I have $900,,, in a $600 gun!

I did not let them do "An Action Job" for another $250 as the gun didn't need it in any way, and I would have had $1200,,, in a $600 gun.

The only way you can get your money's worth out of custom work on a gun is to shoot it! Unless you find a fool to buy it for what you've got in it. Slim to none on that one.

The BH Bisley .44 Special on top is untouched, and worth the same as the SBH.

Randy

[bbailey7821]

See there, Gents. That's why I come to this place! Y'all just talked me into spending the man-spa money on some'thin else. As I previously said, I'm really digging this piece!
161970


Here's some more gun-porn for a decidely discriminating audience! These are the twins(45 ACP and 45 LC)
161971

[W.R.Buchanan]

Glad to be of common sense. Nice looking pistols

Randy

[KA0811]

Just heads up since it's a stainless you can get replacement front sight.... I just got a gold bead partridge from David Clements.. $50 just email him tell him the gun model, sight type and sight height and you'll have it in a week. FYI it was 50 for gold bead probably less for normal patridge. Clementscustomguns.com

[High Desert Hunter]

KAO811,
I was under the impression that the front sight blade had to be drilled to fit? If not, I will be placing an order for a taller front sight for my Bisley 480. I did take mine apart to stone the sear and polish the trigger, no amount of shooting would have ever gotten rid of that creep.

[KA0811]

Depends on the blade... But even if it's not drilled it's easy. Can do it with a hand drill then just re install the pin. The previous blades I've done I had to drill (Bowen and sdm). My new Clements should be here tomorrow or Monday and as far as I know it's pre drilled but if not I'll let you know. I agree about the creep... You Can't fix that by shooting it. Also actions on SS guns don't smooth out and work harden the same as a blue steel gun. So in my experience action jobs are worth it... But I do my own.anyways when it comes to custom no one can tell you if it's worth the $$$ it's up to you. You can put $1000 into a $300 gun and as long as your happy with it who cares... Most people when you build a custom your not thinking about resale value.

[KA0811]

If your still having creep .. You can stone the hammer hook down some but use a feeler gauge to make sure you don't remove to much. I made a jig similar to the power custom. I usually will stone and polish the trigger surfaces then work on the hammer engagement alittle at a time till it's where I want. I see a few people above have said they are great/ glass smooth out of the box. But it's all subjective. Smooth to one person can be gritty to another.

[DougGuy]

The creep is liveable and actually likeable if you swap in a Wolff 30oz. trigger return spring. This way it leaves the hammer/sear engagement totally stock and unmodified, but it lets it be smooth enough that the creep is VERY manageable.

My personal most favorite Ruger trigger is on a box stock large frame birdshead Vaquero. The creep moves, then it stops, and the next miniscule muscle cell in your finger that tightens, fires the gun. It's consistent, I got very used to it, squeeze, creep, stop then fire. IN real world scenarios, like standing two handed shooting OR hunting with it, once it takes up the creep and stops, you can then realign the sights precisely, then fire the gun. It actually shrinks it's own groups because of this! It gives you that last little "second chance" to get the gun exactly where you want the sights, and then without requiring enough muscle movement to disturb the sights, it fires.

It has pretty much turned into a double set trigger. With nothing more than a 30oz. spring, some live fire, some dry fire, a few drops of oil and some time spent camming.

The one thing you can to that will help bring this smoothness to the creep, is simply drop one drop of oil or tap magic down the hammer when it's cocked back, this will go right to the tip of the sear, then you do what's called "camming" the hammer, you push forward rather firmly on the hammer spur, and dry fire the gun. In a half hour, you can put what 500 rounds of live fire would put on the hammer/sear engagement. You do a couple of sessions of this every now and then, and you would NEVER let anybody touch that trigger. Sometimes things just have a way of fixing themselves and this is certainly one of them times.

[KA0811]

Dguys method works aswell. Another good product if you don't want to polish anything is Action Magic or a similar lube coating. It's good stuff and smoooooth when you put it on internals.but again to each his own. I can't stand creep in a single action. Yet in rifles I dont mind. I prefer a 2 stage trigger on most rifles.

[dgslyr]

Alan Harton is the single action man.He did the trigger work on my Bisley Blackhawk in 44 Special. and fixed some other single actions I have
He is in Houston off of US 59 and Beechnut 713-907-6031.
Single Action Service
8822 Jackwood st.
Houston,TX 77036

[jmort]

Every single action Ruger I have owned has been "tuned." To each his own. Mine go right out the door from the FFL to the gunsmith for an action job. I have a Blackhawk at Long Hunter's right now in Amarillo Texas. http://www.longhunt.com/web/index.php?page=models-ruger-vaquero-blackhawk-bisley

VAQUERO, BLACKHAWK, & BISLEY }



{ TYPE OF WORK }

{ PRICE }



Premium Action Job: Includes Parts & Labor



Hone all internal parts and replace springs
Rework sear and hammer for crisp 2 1/2lb. trigger pull
Open forcing cone and polish
Square barrel face
Check cylinder gap and head space
Relieve hammer .007" on each side to eliminate drag marks. Then the hammer is machine jeweled or plain polished per customer request. Available on standard hammers only.


$160.00 USD

[jmort]

BTW, I agree with the notion that merely shooting the gun will help "smooth" it out. But shooting it will not reduce the trigger pull to 2 1/2 lbs, upgrade the springs, open and polish the forcing cone or square the barrel face. For sure, the guns I have tuned are better than guns that are simply shot, or even owner "honed."

[dubber123]

Putting sights on you like makes sense. I can't stand Rugers aluminum rear. It's cheaply made, and it shows. If all you require is a basic notch to get you pointed vaguely in the right direction, sure, it's "good enough"

The triggers are rarely good. I also prefer to not suffer through 5-600 rounds with a **** trigger hoping it will "smooth up". Of course it will be smoother, but will also likely still be long and creepy, and 5 pounds or more. A good 2-2.5 pound trigger with no creep isn't hard to do, and I can enjoy it right from round #1.

To each his own, and I will never begrudge anyone liking or settling for a stock Ruger. Just the same as I don't think it is fair to belittle anyone making improvements to their gun that will make them happy.

[KA0811]

Hey just an update for those who were looking for replacement front sight. I got my gold bead sight from Clements and it installed easy. I had to drill the hole for roll pin but was easy with a 1.5mm drill and hand drill. Also fit was alittle snug so I had to dress the edge with stone to remove maybe .001. Other than that was pretty smooth. Just gotta take your time.162986