More to add... A Ruger drill grip frame shell cannot be modified and turned into the 1949 design Ruger Pistol grip frame... the drill grip frame is too short. So perhaps WBR thought the dies that he paid for to press the shell halves for the grip frame could be modified into a press that could then turn out pistol grip frame shells.chet15 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 25, 2022 12:17 pm Just revisited this post after a thought.
The 15,000 sets of left hand and right hand housings look like they were the probably the first order for Ruger's grip drill models. They would have all looked the same.
But later on while developing his .22 pistol, the round indents came into being on each side of that grip frame... which would seem to mean that there must have been an additional order for the later style grip frame shells, which also happen to be the most common (at least 2 times more common than the square arbor type grip drill).
Or, might the Ruger Corp have found a way to press the round indents into the shells for later production?
Chet15
Or... ARE YOU READY??? Maybe the grip frame shells for the drill were originally the size of Ruger's pistol grip frame and the shells were modified for the time being (by cutting off the lower portion) and turned into Ruger Corp drill shell halves.
To the point.... why have a pressed steel manufacturer press grip frame shells with the round indent in them if those indents had no use for the drill whatsoever? Those indents were to guide the .22 pistol magazine.
I am now betting that original drill shell halves were indeed meant for Ruger's .22 pistol, and were only modified to the Ruger Corp drill by a simple slicing off of the lower portion.
Wow!!!!!
Chet15