I opened my eyes just a crack and looked at the alarm clock. It was 4:15 a.m., so I still had an hour before the alarm would go off, but I got up anyway. I was too excited to go back to sleep. I threw on my clothes, fed the dog and put him outside, and started my drive south. I’d be celebrating this Thanksgiving a little differently than most people. This year I’d be celebrating with my custom Tyler Gun Works Ruger Blackhawk.
Giving Thanks While Driving to Pick Up my Custom Ruger Blackhawk
The hour-long drive through curving mountain passes gave me time to reflect on my year and give thanks for all I had. I was sick in March and spent a week in bed. The dreaded COVID tested me but did not prevail, and for that, I am thankful.
I’m also thankful for the big sister who brought me gallons of Gatorade and oatmeal to subsist on while sick. This same sister has also worked diligently to protect our 95-year-old mother from the virus.
Last year also brought me back into contact with my estranged stepson. After not seeing him for 18 years, we had a lot to catch up on. And weekly lunches and/or dinners have been a true blessing.
He has turned into the adult I had always hoped and prayed he’d be. When his gym closed due to the virus, he came and used my home gym. And what a delight these daily visits were!
I’m also grateful for the wet nose that wakes me up for a morning run in the desert every day. A decade ago, I had both ankles and a hip replaced. Needless to say, running was not something I ever thought I’d do again. At least not on a daily basis.
But this 3-year-old chocolate Labrador has other ideas. And a 2- or 3-mile run through the thick sands of a desert wash is the best way we have found to start our day. Seeing Gunner’s enjoyment is enough to forget about the associated aches and pains.
The Blessing of a Great Job
I’m also thankful for having a job that revolves around a true passion of mine. It’s a job that allows me to shoot frequently and work from home. The COVID lockdowns changed my life not in the least. The only real disruption was missing the two or thrice weekly lunches at my favorite Mexican place.
As I drove through the black mountain passes, I also gave thanks for the box sitting on the passenger seat. Earlier in the week, I received it from Tyler Gun Works. It contained an old 3-Screw Ruger Blackhawk that had been rechambered from .357 Magnum to .44 Special.
Thanks Skeeter, Elmer
Growing up, I read all of Skeeter Skelton’s articles about converting Ruger Blackhawks and S&W M28 Highway Patrolman from .357 Mag. to .44 Special. You’re probably asking why Skeeter didn’t just buy an S&W M29 or Ruger Super Blackhawk already chambered for .44 Magnum? Especially since it could also fire the lesser-powered .44 Special. Weight and balance are the issues.
The Super Blackhawk features a beefed-up frame and cylinder to handle the .44 Magnum cartridge safely. The Highway Patrolman, with its thinner profile barrel and standard .357 Mag. cylinder, makes a dandy carry revolver when properly converted to .44 Special. It’s a fast-handling gun that, when properly loaded, provides its user with more power in a lighter platform.
Sending the Blackhawk for Treatment
Not long ago, a friend traded me the Ruger 3-Screw that had already been flat-topped and converted to .44 Special. Mechanically the gun was sound and had not been retrofitted with Ruger’s transfer bar safety.
It had the brass, square-backed triggerguard, which always seems to rap the middle knuckle of my third finger. But the finish had some deficits with bluing wear on the cylinder and barrel and color casing that was spotty, to say the least. My friend said, “Why not send it to Bobby Tyler and have him do a Number Five conversion on it?”
I started subscribing to gun magazines when I was a pre-teen in the 1970s. Elmer Keith had just as much influence on my taste in guns as Skeeter Skelton. The Number Five was a Keith project that originated in the 1920s with a Colt Peacemaker. It had its topstrap welded and machined flat to accept a rear sight adjustable for windage.
Keith used a Bisley-style grip frame to manage recoil and a wider, lower Bisley-style hammer and wide trigger. The gun was also fit with an hourglass-shaped base pin designed to make removing the cylinder easier for cleaning. Sending the gun to Tyler Gun Works seemed like the best solution to updating my Blackhawk and improving its value.
Tyler Gun Works
In the world of gun refinishing, Bobby Tyler is a rock star with few equals. Last year, I did an interview with Tyler that appeared in Ballistic magazine. TGW offers a full line of gunsmithing services. In fact, I asked Bobby if someone sent him a .357 Magnum Blackhawk if he’d convert it to .44 Special. His answer was, “Absolutely!”
After boxing up the gun and sending it off with a letter briefly describing the work I wanted done, I finished the letter with the phrase, “Build it like you were building it for yourself.”
Then the wait begins. If you’ve never had a custom gun built, please let patience be your best virtue. Before sending your gun, your smith should give you an idea of his backlog and wait time.
If this person is building your gun of a lifetime, the last thing you want to do is bother him with phone messages and emails. This is one time when you don’t want to be a squeaky wheel.
My advice is to ship the gun and forget about it. And so, it went for me. I did receive an email from Bobby saying the gun was almost finished. But just didn’t look right for his taste with a brightly polished stainless-steel hammer and trigger.
“If it were mine, I’d color case those parts,” he said.
That’s exactly what I had him do!
Seeing the Custom Blackhawk for the First Time
When the gun arrived, I was in awe. The color-cased frame and new deep bluing on the cylinder and barrel were perfection! The grips, which were something I never spec’d out, were just as gorgeous as the rest of the gun and surpassed anything I had hoped for!
Then I picked the gun up, thumbed the hammer back to full-cock; clack-click-click-clack. It was music to my ears and smooth as butter. With the hammer at full-cock, the cylinder locks up tightly.
Pointing the gun at an imaginary target on the floor I added pressure to the trigger until the hammer fell. It didn’t take much. In fact, I was much more deliberate the second time I tried it. Then I went and got my trigger pull gauge. Tyler tuned the pull to an amazingly crisp 1.5 pounds!
Bobby Tyler Discusses His New Shop
When I first interviewed Tyler 18 months ago, he had just finished putting up a new building on his property. The first few years, he had worked out of a building someone had given him after it was hit by a tornado. He claims he caught it on fire at least 13 times before moving into the new building.
It didn’t take long for Tyler to outgrow that building. And when I got hold of him to talk about the Blackhawk, he had just moved into his recent facility.
“We bought a municipal nine-hole golf course and it’s split by a highway and a bridge,” he said. “We put in a covered 150-yard rifle range and a covered and insulated pistol range. On the other side of the road, we went right into the middle of the fairway and built our family home there.
“We fenced it and threw our kids’ livestock on it, and we took the existing pro shop and stripped it down to red iron and concrete and started over. We did that to the cart barn, and then we built what we needed to.
“Now we have a state-of-the-art facility that we always dreamed of. We have an office building, shipping, and warehouse space, as well as production, color-case, and custom shop. Our property is 54 acres, and it will take us a while to outgrow it.
“We’ve increased production significantly, and we’re ramping up our custom revolver build shop. Matt Grabbe is our lead smith there, and he is absolutely passionate about revolvers.”
Blackhawk Flattop Details
According to Tyler: “We used a Power Custom grip frame. There are some other alternatives, but we weren’t willing to sacrifice on quality, and I didn’t want to build your gun on an aluminum or brass frame.
“It’s not a frame a hobbyist should try to fit and is made from steel. It gives the gun a really handsome profile, and it also makes the gun more comfortable to shoot with hot loads. The Bisley hammer is a Ruger part, and we used a Belt Mountain base pin.
“Fermin Garza (fermincgarza.com) heard I was building a gun for you and insisted on contributing one of his excellent front sights. The Patridge-style front sight has a gold bead for quick acquisition, and Garza places a brightly polished stainless-steel mirror in the sight base to reflect on the front sight like an old King’s sight.
“The grips are stabilized walnut that we imported from Turkey. Matt Grabbe actually made that set of grips specifically for your gun—that’s why they look like they grew there!
“Your gun was hand-prepped, and we made sure all of the edges were perfect. When it came to us, your Blackhawk still said .357 Magnum on the left side of the frame. We re-marked it .44 Special on the frame as well as the barrel.
“Then we put it in the furnace and quenched it as traditional as possible. We wanted the gun to have a nostalgic look rather than a modern shine, and I think we accomplished that goal.”
Testing The .44 Special Blackhawk
It was still dark when I arrived at my shooting spot in Sonoita. I sat in my car and checked texts and emails until I had enough light to set up my DOA Tactical shooting bench and my PACT chronograph. After about an hour I had enough light to fire my first shot!
One of the first loads I tested was Hornady’s 165-grain FTX and it provided great accuracy with very little recoil. But my groups were about six inches low at 25 yards. Moving to heavier loads like the DoubleTap 240-grain LSWC put the gun right on target. As a result, it produced a five-shot group just over 1.5 inches!
On this first outing, my single best group was produced with Black Hills 125-grain HoneyBadger loads. Specifically, because they are intended for self-defense. These rounds produce very little recoil and are a pleasure to shoot. However, they produced the most energy of all the loads except for DoubleTap’s 185-grain JHP.
My Ruger Blackhawk is an exceptionally accurate gun with every load I tried. The largest group was under 1.75 inches. And the average for all eight loads was well under 1.5 inches! I have a bunch of 240-grain cast LSWCs coming, and I think that bullet weight just seems to be the most appropriate for this .44 Special.
I’ll probably load them a little lighter than Skeeter and keep velocities between 750 and 800 fps. Because I’m not hunting with the gun. The lighter loads should also give the Ruger a life that will far surpass mine.
Leaving A Legacy
That brings us back to Tyler Gun Works. Whatever your dream gun is, Bobby Tyler can build it for you! Now that I have the Ruger Blackhawk back and enjoy shooting it so much, there’s only one thing missing.
I may send the gun back to TGW for engraving that will commemorate my life and be a lasting legacy that, hopefully, will be passed on and cherished by future generations.
For more information, please visit TylerGunWorks.com and Ruger.com.
TGW Enhanced Ruger Blackhawk Performance
| PERFORMANCE: Magnum Research 10mm 1911 | |||
| LOAD | VELOCITY | ENERGY | ACCURACY |
| Black Hills 125 HoneyBadger | 1,277 | 452 | 1.10 |
| Black Hills 210 FP Cowboy Load | 790 | 291 | 1.19 |
| CCI Blazer 200 Gold Dot | 863 | 330 | 1.21 |
| DoubleTap 185 JHP | 1,076 | 462 | 1.44 |
| DoubleTap 240 LSWC | 902 | 433 | 1.58 |
| Hornady 165 FTX | 1,041 | 397 | 1.37 |
| Magtech 240 FP Low Recoil | 780 | 324 | 1.74 |
| Winchester 200 Silvertip HP | 773 | 265 | 1.69 |
Bullet weight measured in grains, velocity in feet per second (fps) by chronograph, energy in foot-pounds and accuracy in inches for best five-shot group at 25 yards.
This article was originally published in the Combat Handguns November/December 2021 issue. Subscription is available in print and digital editions at OutdoorGroupStore.com. Or call 1-800-284-5668, or email subscriptions@athlonmediagroup.com.
