.45 Blackhawk

A

azmark

New member
Some time back there were common inconsistencies in chamber diameters of Blackhawks in .45 caliber. Is that still a problem? Anybody have a newer .45 BH?
 
Blackhawk Down

It was the chamber throats. They were smaller than bore diameter. Being efficient sizing dies, they swaged the bullets down and produced heavy leading and spotty accuracy. It wasn't confined to Blackhawks, either. There were some Colts that had the original .454 bore diameter and .451-.452 chamber throats.

I hear that Ruger has corrected the problem, but unsure of exactly when or what serial range the bad ones were. Cheap and easy to rectify with a chamber throat reamer...but it is a nuisance.
 
robhof

My son's is 3 years old and the throats were from .445 to .449, sent it off to cylindersmith as well as the 45acp cylinder that was also undersized, both are perfect now and accuracy drastically improved. The acp cylinder was actually splitting the cases from the tight throats.
 
My Vaquero was undersized. I bought the tooling and bumped it up to .4525.

I want to fire hot XTP's out of it and I don't want any extra pressure due to small throats.
 
My newest flattop .45 convertibles (medium frame) were a 'lot' better than my original Vaquero and BH, but still were not quite 'right'. Reamed 3 of the 4 cylinders. Can't say about the 'newest' BH/Bisley large frame revolvers.... My BH is pre-lock.

At least, when they are wrong now, they are 'under size' which can be corrected to .4525. I understand the first .45 Colt Ruger revolvers in the 70s were 'over size' and worked better with larger .454 bullets...
 
Last edited:
What Ruger HAS fixed is variances between chambers, starting in 2007 with the large-frames (marked by an "underbarrel-mounted lawyer warning billboard) and from the beginning (2004) with the re-introduced mid-frames (New Vaquero, 357Mag and 44Spl Flattop Blackhawks, Montado, etc.).

The chambers produced by the single-reamer-for-all-chambers system are better but fairly often still not big enough :(. A trip to Cylindersmith or the like often helps.

That said, the revised cylinder process is still a nice thing - uniform chambers and throats are a good starting point even if the throats are tight. Once repaired by cylindersmith or the like, the new cylinders are still better than ones he's repaired that started out made the old way (all six chambers done at once with six bits/reamers all together).

Jim
 
I got a Lipsey's Flattop Blackhawk 45 Convertible last fall. The chamber throats were all consistently 0.451, which resulted in some nasty leading with cast bullets. Cylindersmith opened them to 0.4525 and all is well now.

I wouldn't let the cylinder throat issue hold you back. They're great guns, and Cylindersmith is inexpensive. I'd do it all over again.
 
One of my buds and I both have 4" Redhawks in .45 Colt and found they were on the tight side. When we reamed them out, we had to use the .4480" pilot in his. Mine was a little better because the .4510 pilot fit it. We opened them up to .452.

Before opening the throats they both scattered cast bullets all over the place. Afterwards my 25yrd groups shrunk to about 2.5" @ 25yrds with with three shots touching, shot in bad light with a drifting floater in my dominant eye.

The load was Corbon Hunter loaded with a 335gr cast @ 1050fps.
 
I have a 4 5/8" Blackhawk in 45colt that I ordered new last year (has the warning under the barrel) and it shoots great! I have never meashured the chambers, but they all feel the same when I push a jacketed bullet through them. The best I have done is with a 203g cast handload is a 1.18" group at 25 yards. that is a low powered plinking load, but it also groups my 260g hp "Ruger only" loads into just over an 1.30" I am very happy with the gun.
 
I just measured the chamber throats on my 4/12 purchaced .45 colt blackhawk. All 6 are 0.449. Why would Ruger undersize the throats ?? Gota be a good reason.
 
A .451 bullet (jacketed) will chamber real slick on my new BH convertable 45 ACP cylinder, but only about 50% of my usual lead .452 boolits will chamber and must be hand picked to chamber. That's tighter than my Dillon case guage! I can't wait to get it reamed out by Cylindersmith.

The 45 Colt cylinder that was supplied with my BH Convertable accepts my 452 boolits with no issue. Maybe they undersize them because the figure most folks don't reload and are going to be shooting jacketed, so now they save a tooling change.
 
It used to be that both chambers AND chamber throats were over-sized on Blackhawks. In the last decade or so, the chambers are better, but the cylinder throats are undersized. None of this makes much sense.:mad: The oversizing may have to do with the fact that 45 Colts were oversized on purpose back in the blackpowder days to prevent powder build up from interferring with function. But Ruger 45 Colts didn't come around for over a half century after the invention of smokeless powder. As I said, it makes no sense.
 
As I said, it makes no sense.
Click to expand...
I agree. If Ruger can get .357, .44special and .44mag right.... Why not .45 Colt/.45 ACP :o ? At least now-a-days it can be corrected ... but still...
 
Kinda crap shoot. I bought a .45 Colt Blackhawk 7.5" in 1980 that actually split the cases in on mild factory loads in three of the six chambers! I sent it back and 18 months and two registered letters latter I had it back. Shoots perfect now with jacketed or cast bullets with minimum leading. So I know Ruger can do it, they just don't do it right the first time all the time........crazy.

I held my breath and bought a Ruger Blackhawk 4 5/8" convertible in .45 Colt/.45 ACP in 2000. To my great surprise this pistol shoots both jacketed, soft and hard cast lead bullets into tight little groups. Somebody at Ruger got it right.

stagbh3.jpg
 
Kinda crap shoot. I bought a .45 Colt Blackhawk 7.5" in 1980 that actually split the cases in on mild factory loads in three of the six chambers! I sent it back and 18 months and two registered letters latter I had it back. Shoots perfect now with jacketed or cast bullets with minimum leading. So I know Ruger can do it, they just don't do it right the first time all the time........crazy.

I held my breath and bought a Ruger Blackhawk 4 5/8" convertible in .45 Colt/.45 ACP in 2000. To my great surprise this pistol shoots both jacketed, soft and hard cast lead bullets into tight little groups. Somebody at Ruger got it right.
Click to expand...

Please would you state the serial number of your gun -with the last two digits turned into "XX"? Just to find out the year of production.
 
Mid-frame Ruger SAs (New Vaquero and the flat-top Blackhawks in 357Mag, 44Spl and 45LC/ACP) have had a new cylinder boring system done at Ruger since their re-introduction in 2004. In the new system all the chambers are drilled and cut with the same bits/reamers in sequence, so the uniformity of the chambers has gone way up as has average accuracy. The old system had all six chambers reamed at once with six bit/reamer sets all going at once, and they weren't always uniform.

This process was applied to the large-frame series in 2007 and can be identified (with one exception) by the "lawyer's warning billboard" on the barrel: if it is under the barrel it had the new cylinder making process, side-barrel means the old process. The exception is the 2006 Blackhawk Flattop 50th Anniversary 44Magnum, the one NOT marked "Super". This had a side-barrel warning label at least in the initial run, but all of them have the new-type improved cylinder.

At some point the principle got applied to the small-frame Single Six. I don't know when, but it explains how they were able to do 9-shot .22Magnum and 10-shot 22LR varieties.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top