my "new to me" Bounty Hunter

by D. Sikes , Saturday, July 07, 2018, 13:50 (2332 days ago)

ok... so I got my Bounty Hunter in yesterday that I won at GunBroker.com.... brought it home and started the initial inspection... well... it is rather on the large side for a SAA and .357 ... the frame and cylinder seem to be on par with the "old" Ruger Vaquero in size ... in otherwords, beefy... I know why it went for such a low price... the finish is well worn and lots of surface "pits" and handling marks... well.. it is 30 years old (I checked with EAA on the serial number)... and seems to have been a working gun or maybe a "truck gun" and not a safe queen... and I intend to use it as a daily around the farm toter anyway so perfect appearance is not a "heavy" issue... it will however be a working gun and not a "safe queen" ... to it's credit... functionally... the cylinder lockup is TIGHT ... no endshake at all... the bore is clean and shiny... no pits or residue.. and there is no turn drag marks on the cylinder.. the cylinder stop comes up just before the notch ... just like it's supposed to.. so far the only functional question is that the loading gate spring seems a bit weak, the loading gate opens and closes to easily in my opinion (might flop open under heavy load recoil)... otherwise, functionality seams top notch... next step is to take it apart and start all the internal inspections and cleanup ... will take it out for a test run on the farm gun range soon... photos will follow later... as for appearances... I plan on removing the tattered finish on the grip frame and extractor rod housing (similar to Jim Taylor's Ruger Blackhawk Packing gun), since they are of alloy construction and not steel... should look "ok" with the color case frame and blued cylinder and barrel... my "old .44" back in the 70's had a brass grip frame... so a multicolored gun is not a issue but will make the Bounty Hunter a bit more unique and give it "character"... will look into getting a set of cartridge strips from Rob Leahy, and possibly a couple of his cartridge pouches... specially the ones with the snaps as they can easily be slipped onto the belt with the belt on the pants... gotta start savin my pennies...