My father gave me a 41 Magnum Ruger Blackhawk for Christmas.

My plans are to have it either rebarreled with a 4 and 5/8ths octagonal barrel or cut the barrel to that length.

I am also going to order the "Bisley kit" from Brownells and turn it into a Bisley. I might just buy a Bisley and swap the parts around.

I am really excited about it, Dad wanted to get it cut down for me but our local "smith" and I use the term lightly.

That sounds like a worthwild project...

One problem with cutting a 6.5" barrel back to 4 5/8" is the placement of the rollmarks. Not exactly sure where they are located on the longer barrel but they meybe cut into... The octagon would look great...

I was visiting with the owner of Cast Performance Bullet Company in 2003 and he showed me a 5.5" octagon .41 Magnum that Gary Reeder had done for him in bright blue...I believe it had the Bisley gripframe...beautiful gun.

Bob

sounds like a great project if you like the octagon barrel have one made for it.You might as well build it the way you want right from the start ccongrats

The only issue with blued octagon barrels is that the sharp edges wear blue off pretty quickly and then it does not look too nice. The sharp edges are also prone to nicking them. I do like the stainless over the blue however, since no blueing issues to worry about.

Have you thought of just getting the barrel lopped to 5.5" instead? Even though I grew up with 4.75" barrel lengths in the Colts and 4 5/8" in the Rugers, I've found that over the years that the 5.5" is handy to carry and has enough sight radius to almost equal a 6.5" or 7.5" in the accuracy department.

Blue? Why would I blue when things like Titanium nitrate exhist?

4&5/8ths is my number.

D99,

Look into Bowen's Perfected Bisley package that he offers. I've had him do this to one of my Bisley's and it doesn't get any better for the dollars spent IMO.