Let's Hear About your favorite Wheel guns.
- Thread starter Mustangs Rule
- Start date
Bhoesl
Well-known member
My uncle was more like a father to me and when he passed away this spring I inherited his Ruger Blackhawk in 44 mag. He spent his entire life guiding in the Bob Marshall and carried this gun every day. It’s certainly not in mint condition but still shoots great and has some great memories. I’m sure if this gun could talk it would have some great stories to tell. I know for sure it’s killed a grizzly and atleast 1 bull elk.
Bhoesl
Well-known member
I have the contender to push @Lostinthewoods out of first place for greatest trapline pistol. His S&W is beautiful and all, but it doesnt hold a candle to this gem. I’ve threatend to push him off this podium for awhile so it’s time today. Sorry for pushing you to second place my friend.
I fell in love with the looks of this pistol almost ten years ago and finally bought one earlier last year. Except, like many other ventures in my life, I went cheap. Here we have the ultimate Hi-Standard Sentinel that some poor soul put their creative touches to. I found it online from a pawn shop in the south east on Gunbroker for almost half what other models were going for so I took the chance.
I believe this was originally a 6” barrel model that has been cut down to about 5”. Not sure what the previous owner tried to accomplish on the muzzle end but it looks like it was roughly threaded using a pipe thread die and then used some solder to fill in the threads.
The front sight is probably not original but has been modified well enough that’s it actually is quite good. Too bad the rear sight has been mangled and glued/epoxied in place so I have to hold two inches low and left to hit anything at trapline dispatch ranges.
The barrel retention pin has been beaten on enough that it has chipped out an area around it on the alloy frame. That may or may not get worse with time, not really sure. The grips are good and remind me of a Security Six or a scaled down Redhawk ( More on this in a bit )
Both single and double action work well and are surprisingly good. I grew up with a Ruger SP101 where I learned to shoot mostly double action so most revolvers are better than that little cannon was.
It misses a round or two for every spin around the 9 shot cylinder, but I’m pretty sure that has to do with the massive carbon rings in the chambers. I think the cartridges don’t always seat all the way so instead of the firing oin striking the held-in-place cartridge, it just seats them deeper in the chambers, properly, instead of firing appropriately.
By design of this earlier model, the ejector rod isn’t spring loaded so it doesn’t fall back into place. If you don’t remember this when you close the cylinder, you get a few scratches on the frame or even your thumb if you’re lucky. I believe this was changed to a spring-loaded design in the later models.
I’ve put a few hundred rounds through it and besides its quirks listed here, is actually quite a graceful little gun. I’m hoping to find a better representative of this model soon to have a better plinker.
I think I fell in love with it as it reminded me of a Ruger Redhawk, which was a gun I wanted for years when I was growing up. Come to find out, I believe it was designed by the same guy. Another neat tidbit for this is recently a few of Jack O’Connor’s guns came up on auction on Gunbroker and his tackle box .22 was listed: a Hi-Standard Sentinel with either a 2” or 3” barrel. His didn’t have near the customizations that mine has but it was kind of neat to find out that even he had one of these.
Enough of my rough attempt at humor. But seriously, this is a pretty cool little plinker! I just need to find a decent holster for it as the threaded muzzle really is hard on my leg when tucked into my waistband of my jeans.
I fell in love with the looks of this pistol almost ten years ago and finally bought one earlier last year. Except, like many other ventures in my life, I went cheap. Here we have the ultimate Hi-Standard Sentinel that some poor soul put their creative touches to. I found it online from a pawn shop in the south east on Gunbroker for almost half what other models were going for so I took the chance.
I believe this was originally a 6” barrel model that has been cut down to about 5”. Not sure what the previous owner tried to accomplish on the muzzle end but it looks like it was roughly threaded using a pipe thread die and then used some solder to fill in the threads.
The front sight is probably not original but has been modified well enough that’s it actually is quite good. Too bad the rear sight has been mangled and glued/epoxied in place so I have to hold two inches low and left to hit anything at trapline dispatch ranges.
The barrel retention pin has been beaten on enough that it has chipped out an area around it on the alloy frame. That may or may not get worse with time, not really sure. The grips are good and remind me of a Security Six or a scaled down Redhawk ( More on this in a bit )
Both single and double action work well and are surprisingly good. I grew up with a Ruger SP101 where I learned to shoot mostly double action so most revolvers are better than that little cannon was.
It misses a round or two for every spin around the 9 shot cylinder, but I’m pretty sure that has to do with the massive carbon rings in the chambers. I think the cartridges don’t always seat all the way so instead of the firing oin striking the held-in-place cartridge, it just seats them deeper in the chambers, properly, instead of firing appropriately.
By design of this earlier model, the ejector rod isn’t spring loaded so it doesn’t fall back into place. If you don’t remember this when you close the cylinder, you get a few scratches on the frame or even your thumb if you’re lucky. I believe this was changed to a spring-loaded design in the later models.
I’ve put a few hundred rounds through it and besides its quirks listed here, is actually quite a graceful little gun. I’m hoping to find a better representative of this model soon to have a better plinker.
I think I fell in love with it as it reminded me of a Ruger Redhawk, which was a gun I wanted for years when I was growing up. Come to find out, I believe it was designed by the same guy. Another neat tidbit for this is recently a few of Jack O’Connor’s guns came up on auction on Gunbroker and his tackle box .22 was listed: a Hi-Standard Sentinel with either a 2” or 3” barrel. His didn’t have near the customizations that mine has but it was kind of neat to find out that even he had one of these.
Enough of my rough attempt at humor. But seriously, this is a pretty cool little plinker! I just need to find a decent holster for it as the threaded muzzle really is hard on my leg when tucked into my waistband of my jeans.
Last edited:
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- Aug 4, 2016
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- 1,880
That is a beautiful plinker!
shootbrownelk
Well-known member
My favorites are my Stainless Steel S&W Mountain Gun in .41 magnum, 6" Colt Diamondback .22LR., S&W K-22 in .22LR, Ruger Super Redhawk in .454 Casull. I've got more, but these are my favorites.
Wouldn’t surprise me if this thing was in an evidence locker with an oil filter screwed/soldered on the muzzle at one point. Haha! It’s a homely thing.
noharleyyet
Well-known member
Tracking shows arriving tomorrow...1963 Python
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2016
- Messages
- 1,880
@Jbotto the pistol isn’t really mine anymore. She started running the pistol on the line and won’t let me play anymore. 
Girls who grow up shooting wheel guns don’t date losers. Well done sir!
