Inspired by the famous Keith #5, the Bisley Flattop 44 Special was the next evolution in the line of Ruger 44 Special Revolvers.
The Flattop 44 Special we brought to market in 2009 was a huge success. In the fall of that year while at a dealer promotion I was talking to one of Ruger's product managers. He asked me if I had gotten my 44 Specials yet, and I told him that our backorders were still too deep and I didn't want to get mine until we had cleaned up the list. In addition, I told him I had my heart set on converting them to a bisley since that is my preferred setup.
After talking about the attributes of the bisley gripframe, my friend at Ruger suggested that he build two for me and then we could see about doing a run of them. After showing them around the office, it was no doubt that our sales staff was on board to sell them. To make a long story short, we decided to run these in 2010 and needless to say they have been very well received.
The 5-1/2" barrel really makes for a fine hunting revolver and all-around packing gun. I think my friend Ross Seyfried said it best, "This is the closest gun we have in factory form to the Keith #5."