Some of yall might remember my very first gun post was about one of my favorite rifles, my Marlin 1894c chambered for .357 magnum.
To quote my final paragraph of that post:
"One more good reason to own a lever gun (as if we need MORE reasons) is the fact that they're beautiful rifles and an important part of American gun history. From the Spencer rifles of the 1860s to my Marlin produced in the 21st century, lever guns have been owned and used for personal protection, war, and pure enjoyment for 150 years here in Texas. That's a good enough reason for me."
Well, owning a lever gun is nice and all, but there just seems to be something missing if you don't own a single action revolver to pair with it. I finally remedied that problem this past week, when I picked up a like new in box Ruger Blackhawk convertible.
For those who aren't aware, single action revolvers are an old design. When you see cowboys in Westerns, they're usually carrying some variant of the Single Action Army revolver. Thus, they're perfect to pair with a cowboy assault rifle, aka lever action rifle.
What is a single action? They vary from modern revolvers in 2 large ways. 1) The hammer must be manually cocked before each shot. You can pull on the trigger all day long, but without the hammer being cocked back, the gun won't do a thing. 2) The cylinder is fixed in the frame. Almost all modern revolver cylinders swing out of the frame, so you can unload/reload the entire cylinder at once. A single action must be loaded and unloaded one round at a time, through the loading gate. Here's a picture of what I'm talking about:
My blackhawk is a 6 1/2" model, chambered in .357/38. The neat thing about this particular gun is it came with an extra cylinder chambered for 9mm ammunition. So with a quick cylinder change that can be done with no tools in about 20 seconds, I have a gun that can shoot 3 different types of ammunition. Pretty neat!
Couple more pics of the blackhawk to finish this post out, and I'll leave you with this final thought: A lever action rifle and revolver chambered for the same ammunition is a pretty nice pair of guns to own. I love both of these, and now I just need to get a western style holster and a cowboy hat and I'll be ready to ride the range. Thanks for reading.
