Ruger's hawks: black, red and gold: celebrating 50 years along with GUNS Magazine

Guns Magazine, March, 2005 by John Taffin

The year was 1955. Chevy introduced their first V8, both Chevy and Ford modernized the look of their cars, the architect of D-Day was in the White House, the Korean War was over, I was a junior in high school, and the Cleveland Indians were still trying to figure out how they lost four straight games in the '54 World Series. TV was still black and white, movies weren't rated, music was still music, and Elvis was shakin' everything up. In the firearms industry, the first issue of GUNS debuted, S&W introduced the .357 Combat Magnum, the 1955 Target .45, and the sixgun which was destined to write a new book on sixgunnin', the .44 Magnum. Colt's big news was the .357 Python, and the relatively new firm of Sturm, Ruger was ready to do some shakin' of the handgunning world with their first centerfire sixgun, a modernized single action.

The Blackhawk Emerges

The young Bill Ruger of 1955 would eventually be proven to be the 20th-century John Browning. When he decided to produce his first revolver he did several things right. Ruger's first single action was chambered in the inexpensive to shoot .22 LR, and in accordance with it's chambering, had a frame and cylinder slightly smaller than the Colt Single Action. Wisely, he did not change the grip, but rather designed it to be the same size and shape as the Colt Single Action, which had been proven since 1851 to be just about the best shaped single action grip ever devised for the human hand.

Finally, he greatly improved the action by replacing the flat springs of the Colt Single Action with coil springs rendering the new Ruger virtually indestructible. The Single-Six of 1953 was an immediate success with thousands of teenagers, including myself. Saturday afternoons were enjoyably and economically spent killing rocks and tin cans with the Ruger .22.

Ruger's success soon spurred him on to bigger sixguns. Instead of just increasing the size of the Single-Six to a full-sized single action for the .44 Special and the .45 Colt, Ruger again showed how well he could read the shooting public's taste by offering what has been a most popular centerfire sixgun chambering for many decades now, the .357 Magnum. In 1955, the Single-Six was scaled up to full Colt SAA size, and given excellent adjustable sights consisting of a ramp style front sight and a fully adjustable Micro rear fitted neatly into a Flat Top frame.

The .357 Blackhawk was my first new centerfire sixgun and sold for $87.50. When it was introduced in 1955, Outdoor Life carried a full-sized picture and that picture was tacked above my bed for me to look and dream about every day. I did not see my first one until late 1956 and immediately purchased it. I made my own belt and holster, found .38 Special brass was a whole lot cheaper than .357 Magnum brass, bought a single cavity Lyman 170-grain 358429 Keith mold and shot thousands of rounds loaded over Elmer Keith's heavy loading of the .38 Special with 13.5 grains of 2400. This was, still is, an excellent bullet, however I discovered Ray Thompson's Lyman 358156, at approximately 160 grains with gas check affixed, and the same powder charge, shot better with a whole lot less leading. In addition to the .357 Magnum chambering, Ruger had planned to offer the Blackhawk in both .44 Special and .45 Colt, however those plans were about to be drastically altered.

The First .44

In 1954, Smith & Wesson and Remington began experimenting with a new sixgun cartridge, the .44 Magnum. After using the 1950 Target .44 Special as the basic platform, Smith & Wesson added a longer cylinder and a heavier bull barrel, and announced the new sixgun, known simply as the .44 Magnum, in December 1955. The new .44 Magnum cartridge utilized a 240-grain bullet loaded to 1,500+ fps. The first truly big-bore Magnum had arrived.

The original .44 Magnum cartridge was more than Keith had asked for. His heavy-loaded .44 Special consisted of a 250-grain bullet at 1,200 fps, and definitely more cartridge than Bill Ruger and is engineers really comprehended. Three .357 Blackhawks were re-chambered to the new .44 Magnum and fitted with 4 5/8", 5 1/2", and 7 1/2" barrels and displayed at the NRA Show. Keith told Bill Ruger the cylinders and frames, the same size as the Colt Single Action, were too small for the .44 Magnum and further testing proved him right. When one of the converted .357s came apart, Ruger enlarged the frame size and cylinder length resulting in the .44 Magnum Blackhawk.

My first .44 Magnum was a Blackhawk bought in 1956 for $96. I still have the Blackhawk, which has gone from its original 6 1/2" barrel to a cut down 4 5/8" length in 1958, and then when I needed that barrel for a custom .44 Special, the Blackhawk received a 7 1/2" barrel. I settled on the Keith load of the Lyman mold 429421 250-grain bullet over 22 grains of 2400 for around 1,400 fps. Recoil was very heavy and it took me a while to learn to shoot it without the hammer drawing blood from the back of my hand. These days I mostly shoot the same bullet over 10 grains of Unique for a much easier shooting, but still potent, 1,150 fps.