Mizar
Member
Hello,
A recent thread here sparked my interest (purely historical) about the origins of the birdshead grips, but only on Colt 1873 type revolvers. From my limited search on the subject I gathered the following (quite brief) information:
- Colt introduced the birdshead SAA model as a standard offering in 1991.
- I have read about some (four pieces) 1st generation guns custom made by the Colt factory at the end of the 19 century with Lightning/Thunder grip shape, but no hard evidence about it - only forum talks.
- USFA offered custom birdshead guns from 1997 and later, in 2002, they introduced the Double Eagle revolver.
- Uberti - I don't know when they started making them, maybe sometimes in the late 90s? They were providing the parts for the older USFA builds, so it sounds plausible, but needs a proof.
- Ruger introduced the birdshead Vaquero in 2001.
- According to Turnbull, one Jerry Klufas (gunsmith) was well known for such conversions - he shortened the barrels and made birdshead grip frames on Colt SAAs, but I cannot find more specific information about him.
So, if you have any information about this topic, I will be happy if you share it here.
A recent thread here sparked my interest (purely historical) about the origins of the birdshead grips, but only on Colt 1873 type revolvers. From my limited search on the subject I gathered the following (quite brief) information:
- Colt introduced the birdshead SAA model as a standard offering in 1991.
- I have read about some (four pieces) 1st generation guns custom made by the Colt factory at the end of the 19 century with Lightning/Thunder grip shape, but no hard evidence about it - only forum talks.
- USFA offered custom birdshead guns from 1997 and later, in 2002, they introduced the Double Eagle revolver.
- Uberti - I don't know when they started making them, maybe sometimes in the late 90s? They were providing the parts for the older USFA builds, so it sounds plausible, but needs a proof.
- Ruger introduced the birdshead Vaquero in 2001.
- According to Turnbull, one Jerry Klufas (gunsmith) was well known for such conversions - he shortened the barrels and made birdshead grip frames on Colt SAAs, but I cannot find more specific information about him.
So, if you have any information about this topic, I will be happy if you share it here.
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