Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Thinking about a 5-1/2 Bisley

I won't bore y'all with my circuitous history with Ruger Super Blackhawk and Bisley revolvers. Point is I should have bought one of the stainless, Bisley, 5-1/2, .44 Magnums. But I didn't, and now they seem rare and expensive.

However, similar revolvers (i.e. stainless, Bisley, 5-1/2) are still available and reasonably priced in .41 Mag., .45 LC and .45 LC/.45 ACP conversion. There is also the smaller framed flat top .44 Special.

I am not interested in hunting with a handgun "on purpose", but could see using one on game as "targets of opportunity." The largest game would be whitetails or feral hogs. I’d be happy with a 250 gr. .44 at 1000 fps or a bit more. I’d be happy with similar sectional density and velocity in .41 or .45.

My vision is now such that I cannot aim like I used to. I may be forced into optics someday, but I won’t go larger than a Burris FastFire or similar.

The gun that interests me the most is the flat top .44 Special. Nice and light at 41 oz. But it doesn’t seem easy to mount a RMR without drilling & tapping.

The .41 Mag. is of interest because I already load for that round in a S&W M58. If the specs are correct, it is heavy at 50.4 oz. Must be the smaller hole?

Questions:
- Are the smaller framed flat tops noticeably smaller and easier to handle than the larger framed guns?

- Does anyone know of a small RMR mount, similar to the Evolution Gun Works for the flat tops?
http://www.egwguns.com/pistol-and-red-dot-mounts/trijicon-rmr-sight-mount-for-ruger-revolver/

Thanks in advance for any responses or comments.

Gun Doc

I am not as familiar with various Ruger models as some others on this forum. And hopefully someone will correct me if I am wrong.

I do not think the bisley grip frame was ever produced in a lightweight alloy. Thus any bisley model will be considerably heavier than a counterpart with alloy grip frame.

For example my 5.5 inch 22lr bisley single six weighs 42 oz.

ETA, Buds currently shows model number 0471 as available. 5.5 inch satin stainless bisley blackhawk in 41 mag. 50.4 oz

I have these two 5.5" Bisley's, the 45 and 41 are real thumpers and extremely accurate loaded with my heavy cast bullets. Been around Rugers a long time however never heard of a stock Bisley with aluminum frame.

My one and only dislike is the Bisley grip contour that isn't kind if you have Sasquatch hands and fingers negating a change of hold vs the more comfortable conventional plow handle contour..

The weight of each 50.4 and 46.8 ounces is a necessity IMO especially since I primarily load the heavy end of the spectrum.

.

This hold is a knuckle buster so I slide the pinky finger down a notch.

Thanks for the replies so far. I have never heard of an alloy Bisley grip frame. The flat top .44 Special I mentioned is a bit lighter due to the ".357" sized frame.

I have one in .45 Colt. Shoot hardcast Keith 285 grain SWCs at about 1100 fps. It's a handful but a blast to shoot.

Ron

The smaller framed 44 Flattop Bisley is going to be a lot smaller than the New Model Std. Blackhawk, but is easily capable of Elmer loads, should the need arise (and those "needs" are few and far between).

You are correct, there are no aluminum grip framed Bisleys.

The 41 Mag Bisley is based on the larger 44/45 frame and will be larger than the Flattop 44 Special, just so you know.
I really admire the 41 Mag, but handguns rely on frontal area over velocity, noise racket and recoil, so I would rate the 44 Flattop Bisley "mouse gun" a bit higher than the larger 41 gun.

Ruger has the throats on the 44 Bisley in the .430-.431 area. I'm certain the 41 would be its usual tight dimensions for that cartridge.

Can't help you with scoping, but the 44 Flattop Bisley I know is conducive to bad eyes with its short barrel and standard irons.

I have all these except the .44 Mag. I don't notice much difference in weight. I'm kind of excited to spend more time with the .41. The .44 Special is nice, too.

Thanks all for the replies so far.

After thinking about it some more, I'm down to the flat top .44 Special or the .45 LC/.45 ACP conversion.
A nice trim RMR mount for the flat top would tip my decision that way. But so far I haven't found one.

Another thing I cannot find are good pictures of the 44/45 frame and smaller flat top frame Bisley revolvers arranged to clearly show the size difference between the two. A great picture would be from directly above with the revolvers butt to butt and the bores aligned by placing the barrel center lines over the edge of a single yard stick. One would see the left side of one revolver and the right side of the other, but that is no matter. It would really show the difference in size. If anyone could take such a picture I'm sure many people would greatly appreciate it. I know I would!

I’ve been thinking about using the raptor engineering mount to try a fast fire or similar on my 5.5 .45 colt Bisley.
https://www.raptor-eng.com/

On a sort of related note, I’ve been having tons of fun with a recently acquired 6.5” Bisley single six. Perfect understudy to the big gun and quite accurate.

^^^^^^^
Thanks for the reply. So it looks like there is a trim RMR mount for the flat top from Raptor. It would be nice if they would anodize it, but that is a small complaint.

If someone would oblige, I would still love pictures comparing the size of the two center fire Bisley frames. I cannot believe I haven't found any yet.

You may want to consider buying a BB gun to practice with because of the horrendous recoil of the howitzer you are considering. Dropping down to a BB pistol will help you handle the recoil.

I have several Bisleys. In 22LR to 500 LB. My favorite is the Flattop 44 Special. At 45 ounces (according to Lipsey's specs), it's not a lot smaller than the larger framed model but it is some smaller. Not enough that it makes any difference in a holster. I use my Barranti holsters interchangeably between the 44 special and my 45 and 500, both of which have the 5.5 inch barrels.

I doubt you'll notice a big difference between the 44 Special at 45 ounces and the 41 Mag at 50 or the 45 Colt at 46 ounces, even though the 41 and 45 are on larger frames. All will meet your needs based on what you described.

I'm at work on the north slope for a couple more weeks or I would shoot some pics of the guns side by side. I do have this picture but it doesn't illustrate the frame size difference. This was taken before I had rounded out the accumulation. Missing are the 22, 32 H&R, Lipsey CCH 5.5" 45 Colt and 500 LB that all joined the group since this picture. Time for a new family photo. They are from left to right, 357 Magnum, 357 Maximum, 41 Magnum, 44 Special, 44 Magnum, 45 Colt and 480 Ruger. The favorites are the 44 Special and the 480.

2'nd from the left, 357 maximum. Absolutely beautiful grips.

Amen brother I'd take it also.

I handle recoil fine. It's sarcasm I have trouble with. But thanks so much for the well meant suggestion.

Thanks for the detailed reply. I have seen the .44 flat top listed at 41 oz., but I'd trust Lipsey's specs. Opinions seem to vary about the difference in frame size. Some say it is significant, and some, like you, don't think it is much at all.

Thank you sir. I picked it up from a member on the Single Action forum. It's a good shooter. Here's a couple of pictures of the grips.

Beautiful Grips!
A 5.5” Ruger Bisley in 45 Colt is one of my favorite Single Action revolvers.

I'm not a big fan of the Bisley grip. Each person is different so I can only speak for how it works out for me, but for ME ... there's no point in the Bisley grip until you've exceeded .44 magnum recoil by quite a bit .. in other words, the only place it is of any value to me is for shooting .454 and probably .480. I say probably because I have a Ruger Bisley .454 but not a .480. The negatives, for me, at .44 / .45 colt level outweigh the positives by a good margin. The Bisley grip doesn't work well for me drawing from a holster. It is ok once the sights are lined up, but 'til that has happened, all factors favor the old XR3 and XR3-RED designs. (I'm not a huge fan of the square-back dragoon grip on some Super Blackhawks either.)

I wouldn't mind having a Ruger .44 special but it would be the std flat-top, not the Bisley. I'll just stick with my 4-5/8" barreled Super Blackhawk since the weights are less than an ounce apart.

But like I said, we're all different and YMMV.

Tom

I have a Bisley 5.5" in 44 Special, 45 Colt and 500LB. To me it's the best combination of barrel length, packability and shootability of all the single actions. That's just my opinion. I wish Ruger had offered the 5.5 inch Bisleys when I was collecting all mine. I've thought many times of sending the 357, 41, 44 and 480 off to be trimmed but haven't done it yet. I haven't used my Lipsey's CCH 45 Colt 5.5" much yet but the little I have, it has shown great promise. I did have the throats opened up to .4525. Seems every Ruger 45 Colt I've encountered has undersized throats.