Posted: 3/16/2026 4:56:40 PM EDT
| Hey all. Have a shooter grade Super Blackhawk 44 Mag. Like most it has the 7.5 barrel. After seeing the new 5.5 inch models im thinking of having it trimmed down. I have 2 major questions. 1 is did it change your accuracy and 2 what front sight did you use. I’m thinking about 5 or 5 1/8th inches so that it would still be legal for deer. I just can’t seem to find a suitable screw on replacement sight. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks |
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That’s a question for your gunsmith. I suspect it will be prohibitively expensive to move the existing front sight back. The other option is he may be able to obtain a barrel in a more desirable length and swap them. Third option is the most realistic: buy the gun with the barrel length you want and leave this in it’s original configuration, or sell it. In any case this project won’t be as cheap as taking an angle grinder and hacking off the end of the barrel….. Suggest you use it as is . |
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Fermin Garza is who you want to send it to, to have it done right. He does all kinds of specialty work on Blackhawks. Fermin Garza |
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Originally Posted By magpouch: A skilled gunsmith in a well equipped shop could do this easily in less than a couple hours. Figure $200 or so, depends on how much a front sight costs. Call around, you might be surprised... Thank you all for your replies. Local guy quoted about $150 to cut, crown and D&T 1 hole. I would have to do the cold blue for the crown. I have to source the front sight. At the moment that’s what is holding me back. Not needing to ship is what helps this make sense but Mr Garza does do impressive work. Unfortunately the only 5.5 44s I can find are new production Ruger’s and im very skeptical about the quality from several reports. |
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I also am thinking the fastest , smoothest and cheapest is to just buy the new/used gun you desire (if that barrel is available). Keep the gun you now own or sell it off to reclaim funds. Turning a factory gun into a custom gun almost never is totally satisfying and many times doing custom work ruins the resale value. Your gun , your choice |
| Fermin Garza for front sights. He has a website. Fermincgarza.com He will talk you through it also. I have cut down 4 or 5 Blackhawks. No change in accuracy. Apparently reading is a skill i need to work on.....although, Fermin only sells sights he doesn't install them. |
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I had two 7.5" Super Redhawks (44Mag & 464 Casull) cut down to 5" & re-crowned. Cost about $150 each, about 20 years ago. Gunsmith re-used the factory front sites. He removed the factory hunter gray coating from the barrel of the 454; I initially Duracoated it then had whole gun redone in KG Gunkote a couple years ago. Attached File Attached File |
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Originally Posted By Buckeye33: Hey all. Have a shooter grade Super Blackhawk 44 Mag. Like most it has the 7.5 barrel. After seeing the new 5.5 inch models im thinking of having it trimmed down. I have 2 major questions. 1 is did it change your accuracy and 2 what front sight did you use. I’m thinking about 5 or 5 1/8th inches so that it would still be legal for deer. I just can’t seem to find a suitable screw on replacement sight. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Dis guy; Fermin Garza Makes some pretty good sights. As for cutting down a barrel, accuracy is not the length. Sight radius however...makes a diff. Longer barrels/sight radius ARE more accurate. Having said that, no reason you can't shoot a 5.5 as well as a 7.5. |
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I bought a 6 1/2" Old Model Blackhawk in .44 magnum recently that had three problems: While very accurate, it shoots about 6" high at 50 yds., someone had drilled and tapped the barrel presumably for a scope mount, and the barrel was too long for my tastes. My solution was to 1) fill the screw holes, 2)order a taller front sight from Fermin Garza (Fermin does NOT do gunsmith work), 3)strip/prep the entire revolver for bluing, and send it to Powers Metal Works where the barrel is being cut to 5", the new front sight mounted and the entire revolver being reblued. And FWIW, Mr. Powers is very responsive to emails. As received-  And after I filled the screw holes-  I should have the revolver back in a couple of weeks. Call Fermin and talk to him about a front sight. He is extremely friendly and helpful. Mr. Powers is charging me about $400 for the work, including return shipping, so I'd guess cutting the barrel and mounting the sight is in the $200 range, maybe a bit less. |
"People tend to have a proclivity towards an object rather than their own skill."
| I think I may have found a candidate for the front sight. Skinner Bear Buster front. I happened to look over at my Marlin trapper, the gun this revolver will be paired up with, and it sort of jumped out at me. I will have to take some measurements tonight but this looks like a possibility. |
| That's a good looking sight, but just be aware that if you carry your revolver in a leather holster, the paint and finish with eventually wear off that sight. That's one of the reasons that custom front sights have vertical rear surfaces. |
"People tend to have a proclivity towards an object rather than their own skill."
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Originally Posted By flcracker: Is there something fundamentally wrong with the way that my gunsmith did it - simply removing the original front sight and resoldering it in place on the shortened barrel? Nothing at all wrong with that if you prefer the original front sight. My thought is, if a sight is going to be soldered on anyway, why not upgrade? Garza's sights less than $100. |
"People tend to have a proclivity towards an object rather than their own skill."
| Ok I have some numbers and now need some advice. The factory sight is .525 height from base to tip. I confirmed that it is the same on a 4 5/8 357 model as well. The Skinner Bear Buster comes in 2 heights, .500 and .560. Anyone have a recommendation as which one would be better. I haven’t had a Ruger for years and don’t know how much adjustment is built into the rear sight. Any advice would help immensely. |
| I'm planning to shorten an older, large frame .45 Colt Vaquero and have been looking into front sights, too. I've replaced a front sight and shortened a BP revolver barrel already. I wanted to do a conversion that could have possibly been done by a frontier gunsmith. I replaced a 5.5" 1858 Remington .44 and shortened a .44 1851 to 4.75" and used front sights from a Winchester 1873 rifle for both of them. Not only is it held in with the correct fitting dovetail, but there's also the screw to lock it in place. |
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Originally Posted By Buckeye33: Ok I have some numbers and now need some advice. The factory sight is .525 height from base to tip. I confirmed that it is the same on a 4 5/8 357 model as well. The Skinner Bear Buster comes in 2 heights, .500 and .560. Anyone have a recommendation as which one would be better. I haven’t had a Ruger for years and don’t know how much adjustment is built into the rear sight. Any advice would help immensely. Call Ruger and ask what the correct sight height is for that length. They’re very helpful. |
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Originally Posted By nhsport: I also am thinking the fastest , smoothest and cheapest is to just buy the new/used gun you desire (if that barrel is available). Keep the gun you now own or sell it off to reclaim funds. Turning a factory gun into a custom gun almost never is totally satisfying and many times doing custom work ruins the resale value. Your gun , your choice |
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Originally Posted By ggibbs: Nothing at all wrong with that if you prefer the original front sight. My thought is, if a sight is going to be soldered on anyway, why not upgrade? Garza's sights less than $100. The only problem with that is that Mr. Garza is extremely slow at getting sights to you. I'm going on 10 weeks since I ordered. 
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Eitek1: ANTIFA just destroys, hurts, silences and harms. The people they hate are better than they will ever be.
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