It began life as a 6 1/2" barreled .357 Magnum, brought out of the Ruger plant in the last century. Somewhere along the way it had suffered abuse. Not by neglect, but by someone trying to "customize" it apparently. When I picked it up the hammer had been butchered, it had a home-made trigger and cylinder hand (pawl) and it did not work very well. The timing was messed up pretty badly. Whoever had "worked" on it had filed the "ears" off the rear of the frame giving it the looks of the Flat Top.

I had been looking for a gun to build another "Project Gun" on and this was perfect for the task! I love the old small framed Ruger 357's. They are just the right size for a packin' gun ... being eclipsed only by the Freedom Arms Model 97 in my opinion. The Old Model 3-screw Rugers are the same size as the best packin' gun ever built .. the Colt SAA. Made with better springs than the Colt, the Rugers are a perfect platform for transforming into other calibers and various custom options. Many have built .44 Specials on this frame which works very well. (see Jeff Quinn's article on GunBlast.Com and John Taffin's articles on Sixguns.Com)

Among my junk lay a barrel I had pulled out of one of my .45 Colt Blackhawks when I had Linebaugh rebuild it. This had been set aside for a rainy day and now it was clouding up! Ruger had conveniently made both the large and small frames with the same barrel threads so the .45 barrel will screw right into the .357 frame, which eliminated lots of work and fit right into my plans.

Next I set out to find a cylinder hand (pawl). John Taffin located one for me in Boise. In a few days he had it sent to me... Thank you John! Carl Laco came up with a trigger and we arranged a trade I trust he was happy with. Thank you Carl. The hammer proved harder to find and it took me several months to locate one. It has some light rust pitting but perfect notches and I was happy to get it.

The gun and parts were shipped off to Jim Stroh of Alpha Precision in Georgia. Jim had done other work for me in the past with which I was pleased ... and I had made a deal with him where I did some website work for him in trade for him doing some gunsmithing for me. I told him I wanted the cylinder rechambered to .45 ACP, the .45 Colt barrel installed and shortened to 3 1/2" to 4"...however short he could get it and still have an ejector that worked. I needed the new parts installed and the gun timed and the trigger pull worked on. I did not want any finish put on the gun as I have other plans that I still have not finalized in my mind. Jim was agreeable to the deal and the gun was shipped to him.

I choose the ACP cartridge for several reasons:
(1) In the small gun with a short barrel it will develop 90% or more of full power.
(2) It has plenty of power for self-defense work, being proven for nearly 100 years now.
(3) I am set up to reload .45 ACP's and have lots of brass, bullets, molds etc.
(4) This type gun has been customized in .44 Specials and .45 Colts by others.
(5) You can use 1911 magazines as speedloaders for an ACP sixgun ... nice, flat, easy to carry.
(6) I wanted to.

When I got the gun back from Alpha Precision I was extremely pleased. Mr. Stroh had done everything I asked. The barrel was cut to 3 5/8" .. as short as you can get it and still have the cylinder pin work. On this frame size, with a shorter barrel that has an ejector rod, the cylinder pin will not slide far enough forward to allow you to get the cylinder out. Mr. Stroh had shortened the head of the cylinder pin and flattened it to get it as short as possible. There is a "fingernail notch" on the underside of the pin to allow you someplace to get ahold of it and slide it forward when you want to remove the cylinder.

The barrel had been turned so there was no writing on it. This also brought the O.D. down to about the diameter of the original .357 barrel. He had left the front sight purposely high so I would have plenty of material to work with when I sighted it in. I had asked him not to make the gun too tight. This is to be a "using" gun and I want it to function if it is dirty from lots of shooting, or if it gets dropped in mud or whatever. I also asked him to not turn the back off the cylinder. I do not plan on using Auto Rim cases (or moon clips) in this particular firearm.

I began shooting it using Cor-Bon's +P ammo as well as Speer's Gold Dot ammo. Bullet weights of 185 gr., 200 gr., and 230 gr. were used. It soon became apparent that the Cor-Bon ammo worked the best in this gun as far as accuracy was concerned. After shooting quite a bit I decided to cut the front sight for the Cor-Bon ammo. These will be my "social loads". Accordingly I filed the front sight so the gun hits near POA with 185 gr. JHP and the 200 gr. JHP +P loads at 25 yards.

Shooting rapid-fire 2-handed at 15 yards both the Speer ammo and the Cor-Bon's worked just fine. I shot some of the Speer "Lawman" 230 gr. hardball ammo and they hit POA at 15 yards. This is fine ammo. I have never had a problem with using hardball, even for self defense work. If I remember correctly that is why it was invented in the first place wasn't it? An interesting side-note: The Speer Lawman ammo averaged the same exact velocity that I got when I chronographed it out of an Officer's ACP.

While the Gold Dot ammo shot well enough for self-defense use it did not give the tack-driving accuracy I had experienced with it when using it in a 1911-type firearm. I could not understand why at first. Then, thinking about it, I realized that by using the .45 Colt barrel I had gone to a larger bore diameter than is normally used with the ACP. Apparently the higher pressure of the Cor-Bon +P loads upset the .451" diameter bullets enough to work just fine. The more standard pressures of the Gold Dot loads did not allow that. At normal "interpersonal conflict" ranges both types of ammo work just fine though.

I fired a number of targets with different kinds of ammo at 15 yards. These were fired with a 2-hand hold, bringing the gun up quickly, catching the front sight and firing fairly rapidly. It was pretty easy to put 5 shots into 2" or less. As the intended purpose for this gun is social, not hunting, it fills the requirements pretty well.

MODIFICATIONS

The gripframe on the gun is an XR3 grip I got in trade. I installed a set of Grip Maker's stocks on it and put the factory ones away.

I rounded the front edges of the cylinder to make it easier to slip into the waistband, and because I like the looks. And I straightened the trigger a bit. Just a personal thing I like on my sixguns.

Next I removed the rear sight and took it apart. Using a fine-bladed hacksaw I cut down through the sight body in the sight blade slot. Then using a Dremel Tool (and sandpaper and elbow grease) I reshaped the sight and the top strap into a fixed sight. (this was done before final sighting in).

I have run some handloads through the gun with bullet weights from 230 gr. to 270 grains. The SSK 270-451 at over 900 fps is a thumper! The gun weighs 31 oz. in it's present configuration. The 200 gr. Cor-Bon +P loads let you know when they go off. While recoil is not heavy, it is fast.

I rediscovered that the crimp is important to pay attention to on the ACP case. It's been awhile since I messed with them. If the crimp was too heavy the cartridge dropped too far into the chamber for the firing pin to reach the primer. Hmmmm.. oh yeah...TAPER CRIMP!! Where did I put that die?

LATER

After I used the gun awhile I sent it to Brian Cosby of Cosby Custom Guns. He cut and reshaped the top strap to resemble the Colt SAA, polished the gun and then nickle plated it. It sure did turn our nice!

Before we moved to Mozambique I sold the little ACP sixgun. I disremember who got it, but I am sure they are enjoying it to this day.