By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
What began as a beg for a photo of my brother’s Ruger GP100 revolver turned into a repair job with me doing a sight blade replacement on his sixgun, and the basis for this week’s Wheelgun Wednesday installment.
Frank still lives in the house in which we grew up, in Tacoma, Washington. It’s a modest domicile on a quiet dead-end street which he inherited when our mom passed some 15 years ago. He’s a retired “retired gentleman” who is handy with electrical wiring, carpentry and a host of other talents, but when it comes to guns, he allows his ne’er-do-well older brother to get his fingers dirty. But, Frank has good taste in wheelguns!
So, moving right along, when I asked for a photo to go along with a story I was doing on .357 Magnum revolvers, he discovered the rear sight blade had somehow been broken off, leaving half of the rear square notch still in the sight channel and the other half gone somewhere to the land of broken stuff.
A quick exchange of emails with Ruger had a replacement blade on the way, reminding me about how well this famous firearms company does customer service. A few years back, when Ruger did a recall on some of its MKIV .22-caliber semiauto pistols to fix an apparent problem which had showed up with the safety on some guns, I sent the lower half of my MKIV back for the upgrade, even though I had never experienced anything alarming about the safety of my pistol. The pistol frame was back in exactly 7 days, along with a new spare magazine, and I’ve been shooting tin cans and small game with it happily ever since.
The GP100 is a dandy revolver. Frank had purchased it several years ago from a longtime buddy who was in private security. The deep blue finish showed no signs of excessive wear, and the trademark Santoprene grips with the hardwood inserts didn’t show any marks or nicks.
The gun has a 4-inch barrel with full underlug and it’s got the weight to help control recoil. Frank knows how to take care of a wheelgun! Alas, it’s his older brother who tinkers with firearms, so he made the drive to my place for the sight repair.
Ruger introduced the rugged GP100 back in 1985. It was, according to a little history at Wikipedia, a replacement of sorts for Ruger’s Security-Six, which was, and remains, a pretty good revolver in its own right. Specimens I’ve encountered over the years have all been top notch.
The GP100 is built tough enough to handle a steady diet of full-house .357s, and admittedly, Frank’s broken rear sight aperture was the first problem with one of these handguns I’d ever heard of. It’s essentially the same adjustable sight design used on every other Ruger revolver I’ve ever handled, including the Blackhawk, Redhawk, Single-Six, Security Six and a couple of .480 Ruger Alaskans. For my money, it’s a reliable rear sight, adjustable for windage and elevation, and it has been instrumental in putting down two deer for me, mounted on my .41 Magnum Blackhawk.
To replace this sight blade, first remove the adjustment screw from the right side of the sight, being careful to not allow the coiled spring to fall (or jump!) out of the channel. I used a pair of tweezers to pull the broken blade, and be sure to do this gently as there is a tiny bump on the front base of the blade which corresponds to a very small indentation on the sight base.
You may or may not want to add a drop of light gun oil at this point and then using a small hex wrench or round punch, depress the spring and insert the new sight blade. It may take a bit of patience, making sure to line up the bump on the blade with the indent on the sight base. In my case, it took about 2 minutes and I suspect others might be quicker accomplishing this task.
Once the blade is in place, with the white outline being to the rear, re-insert the adjustment screw and center the notch.
My recommendation is to then grab a box of cartridges and head for the range to re-zero the handgun, having been careful to not adjust the elevation screw. From there, it should just be a matter of getting the windage back.
Ruger revolvers have slightly off-set notches for the cylinder bolt stop, thus retaining a thicker cylinder wall. Speedloaders for the GP100 are available from several sources, and one can also use cartridge belts or belt slide cartridge holders for spare ammunition.
My personal experience with Ruger revolvers has been entirely positive, whether shooting a Blackhawk, New Vaquero, Single-Six, Super Redhawk or Alaskan.
Many thanks to Ruger for its quick response. I’ll try to make sure Frank doesn’t do this again!
I have relied on two different loads in .357 for more than 50 years. One launches a 125-grain JHP and the other features a 158-grain JHP. I have also had decent results with lead semi-wadcutters. My guess is that Frank’s GP100 will be digesting a lot of those same loads in the weeks and months ahead.
