Ruger SRH Alaskan .454 Casull Bowen conversion

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Update 1: It's been just about three months since I sent the SRH Alaskan to Mr. Bowen. True to my word I haven't contacted him and he hasn't provided any updates. In order to keep this thread alive I'll provide another update in three months, unless I have something to report sooner than that. A woman was attacked by a bear last week not too far from me and sustained some fractures to her skull among other injuries. She used bear spray but still took a beating. The closest thing we had to any kind of animal related incidents were two coyotes trying to attack one of our dogs (Doberman) on our property around 11:00pm one night last week and a mountain lion on a neighbor's property last month.
 
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Dammit man - I saw this thread back at the top and was excited at the prospect of being greeted with the completed pictures!!

Sucks to hear about the gal getting mauled - it's a very real danger out there, no matter how rare, the severity of consequence is through the roof!
 
The woman who was attacked was a grizzly bear technician working for the Forest Service. Apparently she was unable to discharge her bear spray until the bear was on top of her. Which of course means she got herself too. She then proceeded to walk approximately 2 miles to where she could get cell service to call for help.

Don't know that a 454 would have helped her, but given the topic of this thread, I'm going to say it might have.

Looking forward to the finished product.
 
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Varminterror said:
Dammit man - I saw this thread back at the top and was excited at the prospect of being greeted with the completed pictures!!
Click to expand...

:D .... I wish .... but I know that it'll be worth the wait.

460Shooter said:
Don't know that a 454 would have helped her, but given the topic of this thread, I'm going to say it might have.
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Yes, she did incredibly well to hike two miles with multiple skull fractures and other injuries. I have no wish to shoot a bear, particularly one with cubs, so I'll always try to avoid any confrontation. If I find myself in a bad situation and have time to deploy bear spray that's what I'll do. A firearm is definitely a last resort for any confrontation whether it's with an animal or a person and many forget that a firearm can be used as a signaling device, ammunition can be used to start a fire. All I can say with 100% certainty is that if I'm not carrying a firearm and ammunition I don't have the option to use them.
 
Update 2:

I sent Mr. Bowen an email in mid August to see if any progress had been made on my Alaskan conversion. He responded a few days later saying ...

"Had hoped to have the gun done by now but we still have not gotten back the re-bores we need. Chap who does them can only get into the shop occasionally and has been quite ill. Hope we'll see something before the summer is out or maybe this fall".

I was settling in for the long haul and not even remotely concerned but checked my PO Box this afternoon while dropping off a package at the local post office and noticed a letter from Mr. Bowen. Turns out that it contained an invoice along with a letter explaining that he ended up using an existing factory barrel because his friend who does the rebores had recently passed away. Mr. Bowen's use of a typewriter to add notes to the letter is a nice touch, and it reminds me of times long gong. I would happily pay the additional $150 for the rebore if it meant that his friend was still with us. Looks like I should have my Alaskan back in a few weeks but it saddens me to think that Bowen has lost a good friend, and we've lost a skilled craftsman.

bca_invoice.jpg
 
MCMXI said:
I'm surprised to discover that the Redhawk barrel isn't even 4" so not sure why Ruger makes a point of it being 4.2".
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Ruger and S&W are both producing guns with barrels just over 4" to comply with a fairly new Canadian gun law. They want to sell guns in Canada so I can't blame them. Canada does not allow handguns with a barrel shorter than 105mm which is 4.1" , there is your 4.2" barrel on the Ruger revolvers.

I can't wait to see your new gun soon...
 
I hate to hear that a skilled craftsmen left this world. To me It just speaks of class that Mr.bowen took the time to write you a letter in this day and age he could have just emailed you but he didn’t. Can’t wait to see the Gun when it’s done!
 
ArchAngelCD said:
Ruger and S&W are both producing guns with barrels just over 4" to comply with a fairly new Canadian gun law. They want to sell guns in Canada so I can't blame them. Canada does not allow handguns with a barrel shorter than 105mm which is 4.1" , there is your 4.2" barrel on the Ruger revolvers.

I can't wait to see your new gun soon...
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I read that, too. Much like the GCA of ‘68 made manufacturers alter existing designs to meet the US import requirements after that was passed (PPK/s I think was Walthers answer to the “sporting use” formula for length and height etc. ).

Bowen does great work, I, too am looking forward to pics and some range takes of your soon to be completed Ruger. :thumbup:

Stay safe!
 
I had a call this morning to inform me that they found the pre-paid UPS return label that I sent with the revolver and that it should ship soon. It needs to go through final inspection although Mr. Bowen mentioned in the letter that he wants to shoot it one more time. It's probably such a nice revolver that he figures he'd better use up the handloads that I sent him. :D I'll be on vacation in less than two weeks and will be heading to the Grand Canyon among other places. Hopefully I'll have the Alaskan sometime next week and will post photos before I head off on a road trip.

Once I get to shooting the Alaskan I might revisit some of that awful Winchester 260gr PARTITION GOLD (SPG454) stuff that exhibited excellent accuracy/precision, 1,500 fps from the 2-1/2 barrel and sufficiently bad recoil that I swore I'd never shoot that stuff out of a revolver again. The 4" barrel might tame the recoil a bit. I'm looking forward to shooting a bunch of 360gr handloads to see how much velocity I'll pick up over the Redhawk in .45 Colt shooting the same bullet.
 
The Bowen Classic Arms "Alaskan" is back!! I'll have some photos up in a few hours. It looks great, feels great and is now a better version of my Redhawk in .45 Colt. I'm impressed with Mr. Bowen's attention to detail that extends to how he shipped the revolver back. Care was taken to make sure that this was a good experience from start to finish. That Rough Country rear sight is really nice too. The balance of the Alaskan is completely different now and I can't wait to send some 360gr lead downrange to see how it shoots. My Redhawk might be heading down the road.

Here's a reminder of the work performed:

RD04GP - $995
Receiver modifications
Remove barrel
Shorten nose
Re-contour top strap
De-letter
Install new barrel
Trigger/action tune
Polish trigger shoe
Extra length firing pin
Add Rough Country rear site and XS tritium dot front sight

MISC - $150
Provide new barrel

R300 - $350
Shorten factory barrel
Provide/install DX base

R250 - $95
Shoot for regulation
 
Thanks @farm23 , @bannockburn and @CraigC for the interest. I honestly couldn't be happier with the looks, feel, and functionality of this revolver. I'm leaving this weekend on a hiking trip but will post some preliminary shooting results before that. I have a steel target just outside the door at 16 yards so at the very least will ding that a few times using the brutal Winchester ammunition.

CraigC said:
That's awesome! Well worth the wait for the perfect Ruger DA.
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I have to agree on both accounts. It's understated and functional, everything I could want in a hiking/hunting/camping revolver. I've been carrying the Redhawk on hikes but will switch to the Alaskan once I have some handloads put together for it. I sent Mr. Bowen 12 rounds of the 360gr Oregon Trail Trueshot load that uses 24.0gr of H110 and CCI 450 primers. I'll start with those since they shot well before and should shoot better now with the longer barrel and sight radius.

I'm not sure why the third photo down is upside down ... I tried to fix it but no luck.
 
It's been a little over 5 months since I got the Alaskan back. I've carried the SRH many times on the trails behind the house but now that we've got 24" or more of snow up there I haven't been out on the trails in a month or two. Anyway, I had an epiphany of sorts earlier in the week after I sold a pair of Bisley Redhawks and listed a 3" GP100 on GB. I realized that since I have two KLCRs, an SP101 3", GP100s both 3" and 4", a Redhawk and Super Redhawk, I have at least one example of every DA revolver model made by Ruger. I've decided that I want to keep the Redhawk and send it off to Mr. Bowen to "upgrade" it. What I'd really like is a Redhawk .45 Colt version of the SRH, so that means the RD01(2) package, maybe a non-fluted cylinder if possible and Mr. Bowen's very nice engraving on the barrel. At the very least I'm going to get the following done to it which is less dramatic and considerably less expensive but still worth the effort.

RD01(2)
Trigger/action tune
Provide/install heavy-duty, extra-pressure mainspring; if necessary
Extra-length firing pin installation (blue guns reblued)
Provide/install Rough Country adjustable rear sight
Provide/install Weigand Combat DX base and XS tritium dot front sight
Plug front sight pin hole

R250
Shoot for regulation
 
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