Blued Revolvers & The Bloody Rings!

Okay, why do you guys buy blued handguns?

They used to be shiny and come with beautiful wood grips. Now most of 'em come dull and it isn't long before they get rings around the collar! The beauty seems to be a thing of the past unless you're willing to shell out mucho $$$!



This Security-Six is a fantabulous revolver, but its bluing is nothing to write home about. Not bad, but not great.

So why do you shell out your hard-earned cash for a gun that's gonna look like its been through WW1??



Don't get me wrong. I've got a 1968 S&W 36 (above) that's beautiful. BUT I treat it gingerly and I love the blued finish! And the beautiful wood grips mark it as a classic! I also have a 1968 Browning Hi-Power that's a beauty. Polished blue steel that rivals the Colt Python and it's so gorgeous I can't bring myself to fire it!





But that's YESTERDAY. It's TOMORROW now. So why would anyone buy blue TODAY? And re-bluing can make any look better:



One of the best decisions I ever made regarding my handgun collection was sending my Beretta 70S to Mahovsky's and having it hard chromed.





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Some guns are collector items. Some guns are tools.
A beautiful finish matters for the first.

I'll second that. Honest wear on a gun doesn't bother me in the least. I like a gun with a little history to it.

It's simply part of the design for most revolvers. The bolt makes contact with the cylinder during its rotation. The older Colt V-spring action is designed not to do so but will if not handled properly or has wear. All revolvers will do this regardless of finish but it just shows more on blue.

Doctor_M said:

I'll second that. Honest wear on a gun doesn't bother me in the least. I like a gun with a little history to it.

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I'll "third" that, even. Honest, light (or even heavy) holster wear, a little trace of bare steel at the edges of muzzle or cylinder, a fading on the back and front straps, those are signs of a gun well used but cared for. Personally, I don't care for buggered screws, bent sight blades, idiot marks on 1911s, or careless dings from haphazard handling, those are signs of a gun that's belonged to bubba, or if not bubba, at least a guy that didn't care...

Idiot marks on a 1911? Not bubba, not not caring. Forgetfulof the method, maybe.

A stainless gun can look new for years. I wish they could come up with colored steels, but beautiful blued steels are easily blemished. Once the bluing wears off, the value of the gun goes down (especially if the scarring is around the cylinder). You can get some fine guns that way, though. Trying to sell guns with rings is easy if you get the prices low enough. But selling used stainless guns is much easier. Selling blued autos also is easier because the wear doesn't show as much (unless you carry it a lot in an unlined leather holster). That blued Hi-Power is gorgeous, and I could sell it in a snap, but I hate it when companies discontinue guns like that because I can't afford to shoot them. The blued 6-inch Ruger Security-Six is a good shooter, though that one isn't mine. All mine are stainless steel.



How much have they been shot? That's just it. You can't tell. No rings.

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Uberti and Pietta both have high polish blued guns in their lines. The ring doesn't bother me, shows the gun has been used for its intended purpose.

I have sold a few collectibles, fired and unfired, because of the wear policy. Can’t stand being hesitant about shooting my guns be ause of that. I am a shooter and don’t need to pamper guns. I see honest wear as a story and a ponderence of the guns history. And memories from wear I have incurred upon them. I am sure a couple of my guns would put the condition enthusiasts into convulsions...I am living large with my guns. But I don’t abuse them.

I don't buy new blued revolvers as the bluing is generally not very good. The only exceptions are single action revolvers, as their frames are usually case hardened. I have to agree with Bolts Rock, the Italian clones have really nice bluing.

I shot someone's Taurus several years ago and, though the bluing didn't seem all that blue (it seemed more black), it was beautiful. I love great bluing, especially Colt's old bluing, and my Hi-Power is beautiful. I just wondered why people would buy blued guns instead of stainless. Was it because they started out to buy a blued model, or that a stainless model wasn't available, or was it the price difference, perhaps, or that they determined to shoot it and never sell it, so they bought a blued model? So they decided to go blue?

That's why I posed the question. ✋

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Aesthetically I think a finely polished and blued revolver is a thing of beauty. At first stainless guns were more expensive...plus there were metallurgical issues with stainless that took some time to iron out. Some buyers were very traditional and chose blue over "unproven" stainless steel.

Today the costs of labor is high enough it's pretty much reversed...stainless revolvers are often cheaper to produce as there's less fine handwork in the polishing and bluing. Combine that with stainless steel being the choice of most that many blued guns have been dropped due to lack of sales compared to stainless.

Cold Steel said:

I shot someone's Taurus several years ago and, though the bluing didn't seem all that blue (it seemed more black), it was beautiful. I love great bluing, especially Colt's old bluing, and my Hi-Power is beautiful. I just wondered why people would buy blued guns instead of stainless. Was it because they started out to buy a blued model, or that a stainless model wasn't available, or was it the price difference, perhaps, or that they determined to shoot it and never sell it, so they bought a blued model? So they decided to go blue?

That's why I posed the question. ✋��

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I just like blued better than stainless for revolvers. I even have a pair of charcoal blued Schofields that are my SASS main match pistols and those puppies are BLUE! As in bright blue.

Yes , most modern " blued " is black .

Some people don't care for silver colored handguns for " tactical " or esthetic preferences .

Not to say old per se , but people who entered the firearms world before the current era generally weren't obsessed about having their guns looking as if they were untouched in the box . If you actually shot them / hunted/ carried / whatever , honest finish wear was normal and expected . And added character .

The guns I buy are usually stainless, but in cases where they are only blued, it gives me no choice. I have a stainless Taurus PT-92 that's every bit as good (if not better) than a Beretta M92. Sure it looks more flashy than a Beretta, but the Taurus has improved accuracy than the ones in the 80s.



When Colt made the Python, its bluing was unsurpassed. The bluing
on this Python is incredible, but it may not Colt's. Sure is purty ain't
it, though?

The Taurus 92s in the 80s were every bit as as reliable as the Berettas, but not quite as accurate. The bluing also wasn't as good, though the bluing on the Beretta was nothing to write home about (better than the Taurus, but not nearly as great as the Hi-Power). It's just that for the mid-six hundred buck price at the time, I expected, well, more. I paid much less, but when it was selected by the military, I suddenly found I couldn't afford to keep it. At first, I sold it and bought two Taurus PT-92s, but then sold them for what I paid (I was an FFL holder at the time). Then I bought a S&W 659 (2nd gen.) and later a S&W 5906 (3rd gen.) Still have them and love 'em! I would have loved a S&W 59 (blued 1st gen.), but read some bad press on 'em.

Since I only shot the 659, and it less than a box, and never fired the 5906, but I really liked the feel of it, I felt I got the best deal of it.

The Taurus PT-92 stainless is a great gun, too, though, as I said, a bit flashy. And because of that, and the safeties, I think they're better than the Berettas. I loved all of them, and would have readily bought blued versions of one or more of them had the bluing been beautiful. But the price of the Beretta shot up so radically, and there were zero improvements, that I just wanted no part of the company.


The Ruger .22LR auto was late in coming to the stainless market
until it was politely shoved in that direction by the AMT company, which
manufactured its own version of the Ruger pistol, but in stainless.

Even the Beretta 70S (see my first post) had a slightly brown spot on one side. I tried everything...CLP and soft leather...nothing worked! I even talked to a friend who had the same model gun and he had the same problem on the same part of his gun. He just gave up on it and kept it oiled. Since it was one of my favorite .22LR pistols, I had mine hard chromed by Mahovsky's. Best decision I ever made! Beretta has always charged too much for its pistols.

Instead of overpricing its pistols, if it had used its USA factory to knock out some of its more promising models (either in stainless or nickel, seeing that quality bluing was deemed ecologically harmful), at more reasonable prices, it would have served itself, and us, its customers, far better than it did. (The two top pistols used by Israeli intelligence, U.S. secret ops and the good old fashioned mob, was the Ruger .22LR series pistol and the Beretta 70S .22LR pistol.) Many people who bought the Beretta .22LR 70S also bought the same gun in the .380 so they could practice in the cheaper caliber.

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The dreaded drag lines! Not many people left who know how to time the bolt so that it doesn't drag around the cylinder anymore. Factories are more interested in moving product out the door so, as long as it works, out it goes. Gone are the days when they used highly skilled craftsmen to fit and finish them. It is very time consuming to get it right.

57 year old S&W K-38 Masterpiece (Model 14 ). Still beautiful after all these years and yes I still shoot it. B-I-G difference between S&W now....and then !!!

ezracer said:

57 year old S&W K-38 Masterpiece (Model 14 ). Still beautiful after all these years and yes I still shoot it. B-I-G difference between S&W now....and then !!!

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Very nice looking gun.

Cold Steel said:

One of the best decisions I ever made regarding my handgun collection was sending my Beretta 70S to Mahovsky's and having it hard chromed.





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Do you know if they apply the hard chrome to all the little internal parts as well? Hammer, trigger & sear, for instance?

DutchV said:

Do you know if they apply the hard chrome to all the little internal parts as well? Hammer, trigger & sear, for instance?

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YES, they plate everything but the springs. Even the bore gets chromed. Back in the 80s I had a S&W 29 hard chromed. That was when 629s were rare. People at ranges thought it was stainless and offered to buy it. It's a great finish. I'm thinking of having one of my stainless Ruger Security-Sixes nickel plated. Not for protection, but for looks.

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