Anyone else ever see a plum Ruger SA?

Bill Costik

I have a SBH .44 here that the reciever has turned plum. I know why its plum colored, but I was wondering if Ruger is in the practice of ddoing this or did it likely slip by?

41 nut

Due to the alloy of the steel most of the old steel ejector rod housings, loading gates, and grip frames turned plum - some a deep cherry. I've seen frames that run from a plum in spots to plum or cherry all over. Not just the SBH, but also the Blackhawks, and single sixes. The barrels and cylinders never turned plum. I've seen a lot of reblued old models that have turned color as a result of rebluing also.

Bill Costik

Yeah I don't doubt the reblued ones turn plum, just struck me as odd that a factory one would be plum.

2xbyu

This is Rugers answer from the early sixties.

Bill Costik

I wish they would have said whan that aircraft steel stuff started via serial number. I was going to put a mirror blue on this revolver. Now it looks like I may be out of luck.

dfletcher

I have a Dan Wesson from the 70's & Ruger #1 from 70's also. Neither has been reblued. On th DW the receiver has turned plum as had the lever on the Ruger. I was told by fellow who did bluing for DW that the cause was the effect over time of bluing on investment casting parts. I don't know if that's in line with your info, but I do see that on the DW & #1 plum is present only on parts that were made by casting.

roysha

Pretty much what dfletcher said about cast parts is correct. As I understand it, the carbon content is the actual culprit and apparently casting metal requires a higher carbon content. I have seen M-12 Winchesters, M-77 rugers, 1917 Enfields (I have a plum colored Eddystone receiver) and several other guns with the plum color, including my wife's 1964 SBH, especially if it is a reblue. I understand Brownell's sells an additive that can be put in the bluing solution (hot caustic black actually) to minimize or eliminate this problem.I don't know if this problem exists with acid blue, hot or cold, since there are few people that use that system.

41 nut

About everything on a Ruger, except the barrel, is made by investment casting. What I understand is that in the early years Ruger had the turn plum problem (problem heck us collectors love to find a plum colored old model frame) due to the alloy of the metal being cast. Changing the alloy pretty much fixed the problem except for an occasional lot even today.