It looks easy enough. I'd like to do this to my 44mag SBH at some point.
Here's a video of ron Power fitting a grip frame.
Mine was much rougher than the picture showed... It required hours of grinding, filing, sanding, etc. so unless you have a lot of time you're better off searching for a factory Bisley...
Apples and oranges. In this case, you are buying a raw part that has never been fitted or finished. The rough machine work has been done but that's it. They're rougher now than they were 20yrs ago.Everything Ruger builds is "rough" on the inside. I don't think they even have a de burr operation in their factory. Every single one I have worked on needed serious de burring ad cleanup work. Don't get me wrong here - Ruger builds very fine firearms at very reasonable prices. I own quite a few and like them very much. They just leave them full of burrs because "most" customers cannot tell the difference and they are attempting to keep the price down.
Don't want to start a fight but I wouldn't let Reeder fix my lawnmower. Not only is he legendary for losing his cool, pitching a hissy fit on his forum and scaring off potential customers but his work is subpar as well. I've seen him go off on people asking if they can keep their own leftover parts. He over-polishes everything, his guns looking like there's a 700lb angry gorilla at the buffing wheel. His "engraving" is atrocious, not only distasteful but poorly executed. His five-shot conversions don't receive half the attention of other gunsmiths. No oversized cylinders, no opening of the frame window, no blocking of the action and no lineboring of the chambers. I figured out all of this before visiting his shop back in 2012. Where I looked at an old Colt Officer's Model Match that had been heavily polished over severe pitting and then he tried to cover up much of it with his hideous "engraving". It was shameful.Gary reeder in Arizona. If it can be done to a pistol, he can do it. Quick turnarounds too, I gave him a mangled colt python to restore and expected him to call me in 6 months. 3 weeks later I got something back that looked better than factory.
That is just patently false. There's a handful of gunsmiths I could say that about, Reeder isn't one of them.If it can be done to a pistol, he can do it.