a little project for a buddy

R

richard j

Joined
Apr 1, 2007
Messages
10,080
a friend who i used to do a lot of shooting with was saying how he would like to have ivory grips on his 44 long colt. i'm fixing him up with some corion. what do you think? i had the handles cut for a few weeks but he just brought me the gun today. its going to be a fun project in more ways than one. he did offer to do all the hand sanding :D
attachment.php
 
Cool, cant wait to see it done. I need to get another Ruger Vaquero..stainless in 44mag, and add some Birdseye grips..go Doc Holliday..that would be nice.
 
might have to mill the corners for a good fit if i cant get it by hand. i'm going to cut down the thickness first so there is not much surface area to sand before fitting the corner. undercutting half the thickness back about 1/8" will make for even less area to sand to get a good fit. i'm going to see how corion looks after getting bead blasted and maybe put a texture in the center of the grips. i'll post pictures of the progress.
 
i have the corners milled square, any holes drilled and the inside curve milled to within 1/16" from where it needs to be. next i will lay out the section i need to mill out in order to profile the grips easier. i'll take pictures tomorrow.
 
my buddy came down this afternoon and we sanded the grips down to fit. they are close to how he wants them but he is going to do some hand sanding to blend in the lines. i'm going to make a nut that will allow for 2 stainless steel torx screws to hold the grips in place from each side instead of just the 1 from the factory.
attachment.php
attachment.php
 
me too :D i cant wait to shoot it. he has some nice guns besides this one. i loaned him my ruger 22 which he loves to shoot. he said its a "one in a million shooter" that you dont see too often. he was amazed at how well it shot for a gun made back in the early 70's. he has a brand new mk II that he said doesnt come close to shooting as good as mine. thats my next project i'm doing for him when i get time, fine tuning his mk II.
 
Awesome work. Man..I miss living in Texas right about now...I had a Stainless 357 RUGER vaquero with the Doc Holiday birdshead grips....that was one sweet little blaster!!!!
 
gene I bet it was! Sounds awesome!

Richard those old .22s are great guns that get better with age!!
 
i finally finished drilling the flat bottom holes for the 2 stainless torx head screws. i made a hex nut from brass to go between them instead of just one screw like factory. i shot it yesterday and its a sweet shooter. i think i might make him some tiger maple grips so he can have something different if he wants.
attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • davesfinished.jpg
    davesfinished.jpg
    28.7 KB · Views: 75
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top