I just read an article about a Freedom Arms Model 97 in one of the gun rags. The author made the gun sound like the best thing since sliced bread, as if he were simply a shill for the company.

Is the Freedom Arms revolver worth the nearly $3K they are charging for it? I'm a casual shooter, and do not compete, but i do appreciate excellence. I've read a number of comments from folks who love their FA revolvers, but does anyone have anything less than stellar to report about them? Any downsides, other than their hefty price tags?

Vacillating over whether I should put them on my "gotta have one" list. I have a tuned Ruger Blackhawk that shoots lights-out, and i wonder if the FA is seriously worth four times the Blackhawk.

I have owned a few of them and they are, in my opinion, the finest single action revolver ever made. Check out used ones on some of the gun sites to save some $$$.

No downsides except tight tolerances may mean more cleaning.

I had a model 97 in .45. Colt. As a Wyoming resident I had to have at least one. Its cylinder locked up with a Swiss safe. It was a pleasure to own something made with that kind of pride.

I didn’t enjoy shooting heavy loads with it. The grips were kind of small for my hand and the trigger guard would give me a pretty good rap. A few years ago I decided to purge my safe queens in favor of guns I actually shoot, so I sold it.

The vast majority of my shooting is .22lr so naturally that’s what I went with.

It certainly won’t test the strength that FA is known for but it sure allows me to fully appreciate the quality they also hang their hat on

I've had 5 or 6 FA revolvers over the years. I used to be able to find like new Premier Grade guns for under $2K on the used gun market, but they're 25-40% more these days. A BFR or Super Blackhawk fills that need for me now.

Been pondering a 97 .45 Colt lately.

It seems like an insane price, but thinking about the $500ish I paid for a Bisley 20 years ago plus the $500ish I paid Hamilton Bowen to go through it, $2800 doesn’t sound quite as bad….

I have owned two. They were both excellent high quality, if not semi-custom, in their build and function. The only negative as you point out is the cost. Have you looked at the cost of Ed Brown or Nighthawk 1911? They may not be that far out line if you want top end firearms.

I have several FA-83s most chambered in 454 and 1 chambered in 475 Linbaugh and 1 in 500 JRH.

Only you can decide if their are worth the price or not.

Owned numerous freedoms over the years. They are nice, but are not the nicest single actions made. They arent a custom. Ive had one that was so tight in tolerance, that the cylinder would bind after shooting 2 cylinders. These days i cant find a reason not to own a bfr or if thats not enough, go full custom

I've owned several 83 Premier 454's over the years. First one purchased new in the late '80s cost me $1k. My current one I bought used with a 2x Leupold for $1200 in 2009. I only bought it because the price seemed too good to be true. They were selling used for $17-1800 (unscoped) at the time.

The only negative for me was best accuracy was always at maximum loads which I got tired of shooting all the time. I never was able to get as good of accuracy with lighter loads. These days, I load mid-level loads and accuracy is similar to my Ruger SA's, which is as good as I can shoot anymore. At 62, I'm not steady enough and eyes aren't good enough to realize the full accuracy potential...

I’m not a fan of the 97, rapped and bloodied my knuckle too many times. I bought an 83. Then another. And another. And another. They are tight. They must be kept clean. They shoot best at full throttle. Lead most likely won’t go through the throats without sizing. Accuracy? Buy one, find out for yourself.

Owned maybe 6-7 over the years. As far as fit and finish they have no equal. Comparing them to a Ruger is like comparing a Yugo to a Lexus. A full out custom costing many thousand of dollars may feel better in the hand but it would be close.
Accuracy wise? Yes, they are very accurate. But over the last 10 years I have learned a BFR is just as accurate at about 40% of the cost.
I currently own 4 BFR's and no Freedom Arms.

Might be both, but I'd lean to the FA.. IMHO, it is..

I have one. Put that in one hand, the Ruger in the other, and you'll quickly discern a serious difference... No disrespect to the Ruger; I have a few of 'em and I have no regrets on the ownership.. But the one FA I have is simply akin to comparing a Rolex to a Timex...

I'd sell my Rugers before I'd sell the FA; which might be the very last handgun I'd ever let go..

For a top class revolver shooters in silhouette competition, the 353 and 252 FA silhouette guns allows a top class shooter to compete in four gun aggregate competition with a single gun, without giving up anything to a production or an unlimited gun. It is probably the only revolver in the world that can do that.

It really boils down to personal preference. The power to weight ratio is pretty amazing especially with the m97 - yeah I know some folks just don't like the grip and that's just fine, everyone is different.

A 4 1/4" M97 45 Colt that weighs 35 oz delivers a 320gr SWC or FNGC at 1,140 fps is a pretty impressive piece of hardware and yet rides comfortably however you want to carry it - the perfect packin' pistol?

Same can be said of 5" - 6" M83s at +- 50 oz.

Folks will tout the BFR - never owned one, but handled one - at 64 plus oz it was way bigger/heavier than I want a handgun to be - personal pref again.

Spent a lot of time behind a M83 475 Linebaugh and M97 45 Colt and would highly recommend either one (M97 M83) - the three most accurate revolvers I've ever owned were a 6" M83 .454C, 5" M83 500JRH and a 5 1/2" .44 spcl M97.. Again it's all about personal preference.



Only you can decide if they are worth the price.

Paul

Those are nice, Paul.

I like the octagonal barrels, which is an extra cost.

I have a FA 97 in .357. I shoot 170 gr. and 180 gr. bullets, had to get a higher front sight to maintain POI. FA knew exactly what I needed and swapping was easy with an Allen wrench.

I have a three screw SBH Ruger, that Jim Stroh line bored from .44 mag to .45 Colt, fit a 6" Shilen barrel, a long steel ejector. I did a trigger job using a piece of a nail inside the trigger return spring as a trigger stop. Fit the stag grips, installed the Ruger Medallions. It's very accurate; it's just not a FA.

To handle a FA, you see how it's built like a tank, locks up like a bank vault. FA is one of a kind, in a class by itself.

Is it worth the cost? To me, yes. But as posted, it's something the buyer has to determine for himself.

DF

I view it this way…..kinda like the difference between a Rolex and a Timex! Both will give you the time of day….but the Rolex is simply a much more refined machine of superior workmanship! memtb

I owned a 4" 97 chambered in .44 Special. Round butt and ebony micarta.

When I found it and bought it I thought I had found nirvana in the single action world, but after shooting it and carrying it a good bit, it started to leave me cold.

The tolerances were (for me) too tight. You cannot thumb them as casually as you can a Colt or Ruger. They are tank like and by all accounts will remain that way for a long, long time. The chambers are cut so tight that I would often have to push on the cartridge HARD to get it fully seated to the point that the cylinders would rotate. This annoyed me greatly.

The tight tolerances are like any aspect of engineering. While annoying, they also yield extreme accuracy that you'd not expect from a 4" single action. However, I cannot take advantage of that type of accuracy because I can't hold 1" groups in the offhand with a handgun. And I'm an exceptional shot with a handgun.

Another aspect that I found irritating was that I needed a different front sight to get it zeroed. And Freedom Arms don't drop that schit in the mail for free. I promise... LOL

Yes they are worth what they cost. Anything built to those standards is worth the price of admission. But it was not worth it for me because I'd much rather drop my rounds into my well worn Flattop and shoot the hell out of it in a way that I think a single action should be shot.

in summary: Worth it? Yes. For me? No.

This is as honest of an answer I can give you.

Exactly.

Meant to copy the comparison between a Rolex and Timex. Perfect analogy.

Every time I handle or shoot my 83 it astonishes me.

After a couple years, you'd think I would be used to it. But after nearly 50 years of using "normal" handguns, the FA still stuns me with its precision.

I think every serious handgunner ought to have at least one in his life.

If you decide it is just too much of a good thing, sell it. They don't depreciate like a Wal-Mart gun.

Yeah, they are pretty tight.

I saw one guy using a pair for cowboy action shooting. They’re sorta tight for really fast shooting, though he did pretty well.

To me a looser gun is what you need for CAS. You don’t need FA precision to succeed in that sport. It’s more about speed and there are smiths who specialize in making Colts, clones and Rugers run really fast. That’s not where the FA shines.

FA is a super precise and accurate revolver. For what it’s designed to do, it’s in a class by itself. Maybe not for everyone and I do think it’s worth the cost. I like mine; it’s a keeper.

DF

I feel the same way, always “re-amazed”.

Had the itch for years for a light(er) weight .45 Colt. Have a 5.5” Ruger Bisley that Hamilton Bowen tuned up years ago that I love, just want something a bit more “packable”.

I can’t seem to get a S&W Mtn. bought (and they’ve doubled in price in the last decade), a Bowen lightweight would likely cost more than the FA 97.

A little 4” round butt flinging 260-280’s at 950ish would pretty well do all I’d need it to and still be fun to shoot. It’d just get toted around the lease and under a coat in the winter on occasion just because. The fact that by all accounts they shoot like lasers doesn’t hurt.

DeFlave made some great points to be aware of, but sometimes you just want to try something because you can.

Outside of the round butt, check out the Ruger Blackhawk in 45 Colt with the 4.6 inch barrel.

One thing that bothers me about the model 83 is that it doesn’t have a safety transfer bar. Can you carry it with a live cartridge under the hammer? I think I’ve read that you can if you half cock the hammer - is this true? I wonder why they haven’t fixed this. The model 97 has a transfer bar and can be carried with a full cylinder.

Good post, and spot on...

I have owned several FA m83's over the past 38 or so years- I still have this one, a .454 Casull, with a 10" MagNaPort octagon barrel and factory trigger job. It has taken a fair amount of game, mostly hogs and whitetails. When I originally ordered it from FA as a custom order, if I recall correctly, it cost around $1100. To order the similar build today would cost well north of $3K, and a wait time of over a year to get it.

I also own a BFR in .475 Linebaugh, which I really like. Both are wearing Ultradot Gen 2 red dots.

The FA is a well-made piece of work, to be sure, and the most accurate revolver I own. But, the BFR in my opinion equals it in quality, plus it has features like the reverse pawl allowing the cylinder to move freely in either direction, and a transfer bar safety.

The FA nowadays gets shot with lighter-weight bullets at moderate velocity, while the Linebaugh gets the heavy, Cast Performance bullets at a bit less than max velocity, for bigger stuff. Is the FA worth more than a Ruger Super Blackhawk, in a similar caliber? If I were pondering the choice today, I would simply split the difference, and get a BFR- I think it's the best value for the money.

Had one years ago. Plowhandle. Great pistol. Just want a little more…..

Having traveled a lot of single-action roads that meet your criteria...

Birds head Vaquero. 3.75". .45 ACP. TALO Exclusive.

Worth a strong look.

The Ruger Bisley 44 Special on the 357 frame an the 44 GPs are also good carry options.

A 24-3 4" too..

All used of course now.

They are functional works of art in my opinion and very accurate. The down side (if you can call it that) are their extreme tolerances dictate extreme attention to detail when reloading. If you're so much as an "RCH" off, they won't chamber. Mine is in 454 Casull.

My Model 97, in .22 LR with Mag cylinder, would cost $4 K if purchased now. Worth every penny.

These are not for the Walmart crowd.

Paul, that's my favorite...a Premier with the black Micarta grips.

I like the BFR's except for that grip, just can't get past it but they shoot just fine. Here is my octagon FA 41 magnum with factory ivory micarta's.

Dick

I bought a 454 Casull in the early 90's and fired A LOT of FULL POWER loads through it.
The thing broke three times and had to go back to FA for repair. After the 3rd trip, I sold it.

I currently have a model 83 475 Linebaugh and a 97 in 41 magnum. I have not broken either one of those, but I don't shoot them much either.

Tony

What "broke"?