UPDATE!

Lipsey's now has the 4 5/8 inch barreled 45 Colt/45 ACP Flattop Ruger revolvers in stock, in both blued and stainless, in addition to the 5 1/2 inch barreled sixgun shown here.

Lipsey’s is a large firearms distributor in Baton Rouge, Louisiana that wholesales many different brands of firearms. They sell a high volume of firearms, and doing so gives them a lot of buying power. This buying power enables Lipsey’s to order firearms in large enough quantities to get special firearms built by the major manufacturers that are exclusively available through Lipsey’s associated retailers. Lipsey’s does not retail any firearms, but most quality gun dealers buy from Lipsey’s, as they are a good company with which to do business, and it allows the retailer to get weapons to stock their shelves which they could otherwise not have available for their customers. You and I can tell a firearms manufacturer what we would like to see them build, and most of them listen to their customers. However, nothing gets a gun maker’s attention like a sales order, and Lipsey’s gets manufacturers to build the guns we want by placing an order for the weapons. This works well for all of us. As a customer, I get to buy guns that might otherwise have never been built, the gunmaker has a buyer ready to take delivery of a known quantity of units, and the wholesaler gets exclusive rights to sell that particular firearm. It is good for everyone, and this is the system that has brought to life the original-sized Ruger Blackhawk; smaller in frame and grip size than the New Model Blackhawk that has been manufactured since 1973, with the look, balance, and feel of the original Ruger Blackhawk that has endeared itself to single action sixgun fans since the 1950s, but with the New Model transfer bar lockwork, chambered for the 44 Special cartridge.

The original Blackhawk has come to be known as the Flattop by those of us who love those old guns, and with the re-introduction of the Flattop frame a few years ago, sized and balanced like the originals and chambered for the 357 magnum cartridge, it did not take long for shooters to start begging for a 44 Special on that smaller frame. In January of 2009, Ruger delivered, and the 44 Special Flattop has been a success. While shooters hollered for decades wanting a 44 on the original-size Blackhawk, it finally happened as a result of Ruger listening to what the customer wanted, and by Lipsey’s placing an order for a few thousand revolvers.

Now, Lipsey’s has ordered a quantity of Flattop Blackhawks chambered for the 45 Colt cartridge, with an extra cylinder to allow the sixgun to shoot the relatively inexpensive and readily-available 45 ACP as well. Like the 44 Special revolvers, the 45 Colt Flattop is built on the smaller 357-sized frame, which has the balance and feel of the Colt Single Action Army revolver. The Blackhawk wears a blued steel Micro adjustable rear sight, and has a serrated ramp front sight. The Flattop Blackhawk has the indexed cylinder that first appeared on the Ruger New Vaquero several years ago, which lines the chambers up properly with the ejector rod for easier loading and unloading than on other New Model single action revolvers, such as the original Vaqueros and New Model Blackhawks. The trigger is smooth and about one-quarter inch wide, and the trigger pull on the test revolver measured a crisp three pounds, one ounce, with just a hint of travel before the release. After a quick "poor boy’s trigger job", the pull weight dropped to two pounds, one ounce, and made the sixgun a delight to shoot.

The 45 Flattop is made primarily of blued steel, but there is a limited run of stainless 45 Flattops planned as well. For now, the plan is to build 500 each of the blued and stainless versions with a five and one-half inch barrel, for a total of one thousand revolvers, and all will have the extra 45 ACP cylinder.

The sample Flattop 45 was very well-fitted and finished. It wears a nice, even blued finish; not a high polish, but not a matte finish either. Somewhere in between, perhaps best called a satin blued finish. The grip frame to cylinder frame fit was very well done, and the white simulated ivory Eagle Gunfighter grips fit the grip frame very well. The barrel/cylinder gaps measured four one-thousandths (.004) and five one-thousandths (.005) with the 45 ACP cylinder and the 45 Colt cylinder, respectively. The Eagle Gunfighter grips are slim, and make the Flattop a natural pointer. The Flattop weighs in at 41.2 ounces with the five and one-half inch barrel.

I fired the Ruger 45 Flattop using a variety of 45 Colt and 45 ACP ammunition. Velocity testing was done with the chronograph set twelve feet from the muzzle, with an air temperature of 91 degrees Fahrenheit, at an elevation of 541 feet above sea level, with humidity in the eight percent range. The chronograph results are listed in the chart below, with velocities recorded in feet-per-second (fps). Accuracy results are listed for the loads that were tested for accuracy, and are listed in inches. Accuracy testing was done at a distance of twenty-five yards, with the revolver held in a Ransom Master Series machine rest. FMJ is a full metal jacket bullet. JHP is a jacketed hollowpoint. Glaser is a specialty pre-fragmented bullet inside a copper alloy jacket. PB is Pow’RBall. LWSC is a cast lead semi-wadcutter bullet. WC is a hard-cast wadcutter, with a full-caliber meplat.