Gun writer John Taffin has featured custom "three-screw" Ruger revolvers with Colt barrels in his articles, and multiple photos of these guns have been published. He has owned several custom sixguns built by gunsmiths like Ben Forkin and Alan Harton that combine features from different manufacturers.

The Concept

• The "three-screw" refers to the older, "pre-transfer bar" models of Ruger single-action revolvers made before 1973.
• The project involves pairing the rugged, reliable Ruger frame with a Colt barrel, which many single-action aficionados prefer for their profile and style.
• This type of customization is a testament to the high level of craftsmanship in the sixgun community and the personal preferences of experts like Taffin.

Examples with Colt barrels

According to a March 2024 article by Taffin in American Handgunner, gunsmith Ben Forkin built two custom Ruger "Perfect Packin' Pistols" using three-screw .357 Blackhawk models.

• One of these was a .44 Special that featured a Colt New Frontier .44 Special barrel.
• These custom builds often included a shorter barrel length of 5.5 inches for easier packing.

 

That looks very much like the SAA in the thread I started about Picasso 45. Thick top strap and tall front sight.

 

Ill find out Big Jim T Was a fellow Shootist and close friend of John's .Ill send him a message and see if he remembers the sixgun.

 

No luck Jim said he did not know. He said as most know he owned many.

 

I see exactly what's going on , look how much metal is gone off front face of frame. It's been cut back see how far base pin sticks out.

 

I see that now. Why in the world?

The gripframe is all wrong also. And the hammer.

I am thinking a parts gun that he assembled, and for some reason installed Sambar Stag.

 

I bet it was a blown top strap rewelded / modified. Look at gap between cylinder and frame.

 

I can see that. And how the gap is larger in the back. The cylinder looks crooked.

Another option is that was just some sort of non-firing prop gun that he used.

 

Not a Ruger and not a Colt. Appears to be a non-gun.

 

I wondered about this gun myself when I saw it in the July/August 1992 American Handgunner.. It looks like s Great Western by the distinct hammer. Not a Hawes. In another Taffin article or book I swear it then had a Colt hammer which I heard was an option, like on John Wayne’s “The Shootist” guns. my two GWs have no frame patent dates, just like this one. And this one has a Colt barrel,too as your photo shows.

 

I wondered about this gun myself when I saw it in the July/August 1992 American Handgunner. Amazingly I found this magazine in two minutes after seeing this post. It looks like s Great Western by the distinct hammer. Not a Hawes. In another article or book I swear it then had a Colt hammer which I heard was an option, like on John Wayne’s “The Shootist” guns. my two GEs have no frame patent dates, just like this one. And this one has a Colt barrel,too as your photo shows.

Not the same gun.

 

Ah, yeah.

I have had the Taffin book since before I was a Great Western guy with a lot of accumulated knowledge there. I haven't taken a good look at this picture in 15 years.

I don't have much doubts its a first year Great Western. Thing sticking out is the crude, funky quality of the backstrap ears. That's a first year GW thing all the way.

 

In Taffin’s book Big Bore Sixguns (page 197) this nickel .45 is pictured in a reproduction of “Bat Masterson’s” TV show holster. He writes that Gene Barry’s gun was a Great Western implying, it seems, that this gun is also a GW. I thought Barry’s gun was an over polished cut down Colt but maybe not.

 

This gun has always perplexed me. It has a Colt barrel but almost nothing else looks right. Some type of copy with a Colt barrel installed? He offered no explanation in the text and as you can see is listing it as a 3rd Gen.


Among several things, notice how the barrel is sitting down so low in the frame.

I think the cylinder frame was faced down to rebarrel it, to get the thread / sight clocking right, rather than the right way, adjusting the barrel shank with a lathe. So some of the transition slope to the barrel on the cylinder frame is gone.

 

I like Taffin, but, to me, that gun is an atrocity and an affront to civilized mankind.

 

Compare to this:

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/1123901006