Among the finest single-action revolvers ever produced by Bowen Classic Arms, this best-quality Ruger Old Model chambered for the .32-20 features a tremendous amount of detail metalwork.
The top strap is welded up and remachined in the Smith & Wesson M&P style, particularly handsome on a single-action revolver. To reduce weight and add distinction, the recoil shield and loading gate are scalloped. Two-piece grip frame parts were modified and installed. The barrel is heavily tapered to further reduce weight and is fitted with a dovetail front sight set in an integral base. A contoured, regulated screw retains the ejector housing. Mechanical details include tuning and a line-bored custom cylinder with flutes and black powder chamfering.
The exterior metal is completely detailed and blueprinted and is left in-the-white. All screws are regulated and nitre blued. Paul Persinger produced the one piece ivory grips.
The Flat Top Target revolver is one of the most handsome single-action revolvers that Colt ever produced. Fewer than a thousand were made and most of these were delivered before WWI. The survivors are rare and valuable, seldom seen and shot even less.
This particular Flat Top is a modern recreation made from a Colt New Frontier model. The receiver was welded up and remachined to match the original contours. New sights were fabricated and genuine Colt hard rubber grips were fitted. The custom cylinder and barrel are for the wonderful .32-20 cartridge, a favorite at Bowen Classic Arms. Prior to final finishing, the exterior was hand filed and detailed, then polished and burnished. Like the standard catalog Target models, this recreation is all carbona blue except for the trigger, screws and pins which are nitred.
Our premiere big-bore double-action revolver, this Ruger Redhawk is chambered for the .500 Linebaugh cartridge. It is also available in .44 Magnum, .45 Colt, .454 Casull, and .50 Action Express.
The 6 inch barrel is based upon the lovely Smith & Wesson L-frame style barrel and is machined from a 2 inch diameter stainless steel Kreiger blank. The muzzle brake, underlug, grooved rib and front sight base are all integral. Only the pinned-in front sight blade is separate. The rear sight is by Bowen Classic Arms.
Pawnee Bill didn’t break all of those little glass balls with bullets. Instead, exhibition shooters riding in wild west shows fired small shot cartridges in Colt revolvers fitted with choked, smooth-bore barrels. Such guns would be classified as sawed-off shotguns today and taxed accordingly.
This SAA model utilizes the English “ball and shot” rifling system devised by Colonel Vincent Fosbery and popularized by Holland &Holland under their ‘Paradox’ trade name. The barrel has a rifled choke that shoots bullets exceedingly well but still produces useful shot patterns perfect for aerial trick shooting. It is also BATF legal. Like any proper gun, this US Patent Firearms revolver features a browned Damascus barrel. The receiver is color case hardened and the balance of the metal carbona blued.
Fishermen, hunters and outdoorsmen wandering in the backcountry in many parts of the world require a serious sidearm. The Bowen Classic Arms ‘Alpine’ Redhawk fills the bill perfectly. Compact and robust, the 5-shot versions are chambered for some of the most potent revolver cartridges available, including the .45 Colt, .454 Casull and the .50 Action Express.
The ‘Alpine’ features a 4 inch barrel, a round-butt gripframe, fluted and chamfered cylinder and a complete action tune with an over-travel stop. This particular gun , chambered for the .50 AE, is fitted with Ashley Emmerson quick-acquisition express sights with a tritium insert in the front bead.
R. F. Sedgley was one of the most prolific American gunmakers and exerted a great deal of influence in the trade, particularly between the two World Wars. Best known for his Springfield and Mauser sporting rifles, he also dabbled in handguns. Many of the famous revolvers conceived and owned by Elmer Keith, including the No. 5 gun, reflect his handiwork.
Among his least known designs are the lift-out cylinder single-actions. Known examples are based upon Colt SAA guns suitably modified to contain what is essentially a double-action cylinder with an extractor and extractor rod for simultaneous ejection. The rod is pulled forward freeing the bolts so that the cylinder can be removed through the loading gate.
Bowen Classic Arms has recreated a modern version of the Sedgley design based upon the Ruger Vaquero. This particular specimen is done up in the classic light-weight style complete with a 4 inch barrel, Colt-pattern dovetail front sight, scalloped receiver and a Bisley hammer. The two-piece grip frame assembly is fitted with a spectacular set of one piece French walnut grips from Roy Fishpaw. Chambered for the .45 Schofield, the gun has an extra fitted cylinder and a lanyard ring.
Patterned after the U. S. martial revolvers of World War I , this Redhawk sports a S&W M&P style fixed-sight top strap and a round, unribbed barrel with a dovetail windage-adjustable front sight. A lanyard ring is fitted in keeping with the service nature of the gun. The fluted 5-shot cylinder is chambered for the .50 Action Express cartridge, a rimless round retained, appropriately enough, in classic moon clips as were the .45 ACP cartridges used in the S&W and Colt revolvers. Hand finishing and Roy Fishpaw checkered French walnut grips add a touch of commercial refinement.
Based upon a United States Patent Firearms SAA, this handsome little gun is patterned upon the traditional light-weight custom Colts of the 1930’s. Scalloping the recoil shield, gate and receiver rails reduces weight and adds distinction. The 4 inch barrel is fitted with a Colt-style dovetail front sight. A classic Bisley hammer spur adds to the fast handling. As a final touch to the metalwork, all exterior surfaces were detailed and polished by hand preparatory to burnishing and bluing. The one piece French walnut grips are by Roy Fishpaw. Dan Love executed the simple, elegant engraving. Color casehardening and carbona bluing are by Turnbull Restorations.
Not all single action revolvers are low-tech nineteenth century relics. This one-of-a-kind Ruger is entirely at ease in the 21st Century. Starting with a New Model Blackhawk, the top strap was welded up and recontoured to the Single Six style. The receiver recoil shield and loading gate are also scalloped to reduce weight even further. Serious weight reduction, however, resulted from the use of light-weight materials. While low stress parts, such as the grip frame and ejector housing, are factory aluminum components, the barrel, cylinder, base pin, screws and pins are all machined from tough 6AL4V titanium alloy. The front sight base and the hidden ejector housing recoil lug are machined integral to the barrel for maximum strength. Roy Fishpaw made the dall sheep rams horn grips, a material both light and tough as befits the application. The compact .50 AE revolver weighs but 26 oz., about one third the weight of a .50 caliber Desert Eagle autoloader. Recoil is not for the squeamish.
In the opinion of many, the big Smith & Wesson Hand Ejectors are the finest revolvers ever produced in the United States. The magnificent First Model gun, the Triple Lock, was introduced in 1907 and produced until 1915 when it was discontinued due mostly to the cost and difficulty of fitting the third lock. Smith & Wesson produced tens of thousands of otherwise similar subsequent models until 1966, most all distinguished by their fixed sights and graceful, round barrels, complete with ejector shrouds. Unfortunately, only a very few were over produced in .45 Colt.
One of the Hand Ejectors, commonly known as the .38/44 Heavy Duty, was produced in considerable numbers and used widely in law enforcement, particularly prior to WWII. Chambered in .38 Special, many survive in well-used condition at reasonable prices, the ideal candidates from which to build a classic .45 Colt DA revolver.
Built in the Bowen Classic Arms shop, this particular gun had the barrel rebored to .45 caliber and the cylinder chambered for the venerable .45 Colt. A taller front sight was pinned into the base, regulated and then shaped and serrated. In addition to tuning, the hammer and trigger were recolor case-hardened. Appropriate barrel markings, hand finishing and Roy Fishpaw ivory grips completed the job. The handsome ivory-handled folding knife is from Pat and Wes Crawford of West Memphis, AR. Please see the American Handgunner magazine article by Roy Huntington reprinted in the press section.
Elmer Keith almost single-handedly pioneered modern sport handgunning. His notions of gun and cartridge design, felt even to this day, were first manifest in his No. 5 revolver, perhaps the most widely recognized custom revolver ever made. The original gun, largely the work of R. F. Sedgley, was built in 1928 and debuted in the April 1929 American Rifleman magazine. Over seventy years later, Bowen Classic Arms has recreated this timeless classic. This reproduction is the most faithful and authentic known, thanks to considerable research and study of archival material. It is rendered in the best quality to very high standards of fit and finish.
Based on a United States Patent Firearms Flat-top Target model, the top strap was welded up and remachined in the No. 5 style. Suitable Bisley parts were modified to fabricate the distinctive Keith grip frame. Front and rear sights, the base pin and unique lever base pin latch were all painstakingly fashioned from bar stock just for the occassion. The custom barrel is of Douglas material. The USPFA .44 Special cylinder has been refluted and received the traditional black powder chamfer.
Dan Love executed the Gough-style engraving in excellent form. Paul Persinger fitted and carved the glorious ivory grips with their Mexican Eagle motife. The entire gun was hand-finished and burnished, then carbona blued by Doug Turnbull.
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