9mm Blackhawk

Some time back I was looking for a Ruger .357/9mm to compliment my .45 Colt/.45acp, but I found a pristine .357 Blackhawk for about half new retail, and it went home with me, I never got the convertible since it wasn't the priority, just something I was looking to get if I could.

Had I gotten the convertible, I'm sure it would have wound up being the same as my others, the main cylinder getting all the use and the spare just a few rounds, rarely, if ever.
 
Had I gotten the convertible, I'm sure it would have wound up being the same as my others, the main cylinder getting all the use and the spare just a few rounds, rarely, if ever.
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You could have 'got one' when Lipsey's medium frame .357/9mm flattop was introduced. I jumped on that with both feet ... not because of the 9mm cylinder, but because it was on the proper medium frame, steel ejector housing and grip frame ... and the bonus of having a 5 1/2" barrel (my favorite barrel length). Not regretted that purchase. Like you alluded to, the 9mm cylinder stays in the gun rug. Shot a factory box of 9mm just to see if cylinder functioned and not used after that.

If you want to run cheap factory ammo, 9mm is the solution. I bought mine because it was cheaper with 2 cylinders than one. It is at Ruger now, hopefully being fixed.
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I agree ... if shooting factory ammo, 9mm is going to be cheaper. Reloading though is a wash. What is wrong with your revolver???

Here is my .357/9mm tuned flattop:
 

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You could have 'got one' when Lipsey's medium frame .357/9mm flattop was introduced.
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I could have, but I didn't want one. I wanted a new model Blackhawk, not the flattop version, and found one with the 6.5" barrel I prefer over the shorter ones.

I originally wanted the Blackhawk with the 9mm cylinder so in addition to .357/38s so I would have something other than a semi auto that shot 9mm. And then, as luck would have it, I ran across what I consider the ultimate plinker/survival gun in 9mm, a 6" Contender barrel in 9mm Luger. It's also the most accurate 9mm pistol I've ever owned.

SO, my desire for the 9mm Blackhawk faded, as I had it covered all the way around.
 
Sounds like you have :) . So have I :) . That's all that matters. That's why there are so many 'varieties' of revolvers out there. ;)
 
The slightly smaller 9mm bullet may be due to the 9mm Luger being a tapered case.
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The slightly smaller bullet and the tapered case are due to the designer, Georg Luger.

Luger redesigned the Borchardt pistol, and created a new round for it, the .30 Luger. The German military wanted a bigger caliber bullet and in 1902 Luger "opened up" the .30 case to take a .35 caliber bullet, creating the 9mm Luger cartridge. Most of the histories mention how Luger chose it because it was the biggest thing he could get in the case and still work in his pistol.

But of course 120 years later, who can really say?

There was no attempt at any kind of commonality with the US or any other nation's pistol bore and bullet sizes.
 
rclark said:
You could have 'got one' when Lipsey's medium frame .357/9mm flattop was introduced. I jumped on that with both feet ... not because of the 9mm cylinder, but because it was on the proper medium frame, steel ejector housing and grip frame ... and the bonus of having a 5 1/2" barrel (my favorite barrel length). Not regretted that purchase. Like you alluded to, the 9mm cylinder stays in the gun rug. Shot a factory box of 9mm just to see if cylinder functioned and not used after that.

I agree ... if shooting factory ammo, 9mm is going to be cheaper. Reloading though is a wash. What is wrong with your revolver???

Here is my .357/9mm tuned flattop:
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The 9mm cylinder has One hole that regularly misfires and one that misfires about 25% of the time. Of course that is using anything except federal or Magytech primers. It light strikes those two but never misfires them. Headspace issue. Two chambers cut too deep.
 
Huh?

.355 verses .357.
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ah,,,no, not exactly...

Those are the commonly used sizes, but if you look at the current SAAMI spec for bore size AND include the +/- tolerances they are both the same.
 
If the bores are the exact same specs then why do bullet manufacturers size 9mm jacketed to .355 and hardcast to .356? And then size .357 magnum jacketed bullets to .357 and hardcast to .358? Seems to me to get the best accuracy out of the two different rounds they would make the bullets the same diameter. Someone please explain. Thanks
 
Here is why: people do not slug their barrels or hone their throats.

They shoot 9mm in a revolver because they used to be able to buy cheap crummy factory ammo, a few thousandths too small, and it rattles down the bore and generally puts holes in paper the size of a refrigerator at 5 yards.

A fella could take 9mm brass and neck size it up to take proper diameter bullets, but they would wonder why they are struggling with a tapered case that has no rim when .357 brass is common as dirt.

It’s a not very good solution for a problem that doesn’t exist.
 
warnerwh said:
If the bores are the exact same specs then why do bullet manufacturers size 9mm jacketed to .355 and hardcast to .356? And then size .357 magnum jacketed bullets to .357 and hardcast to .358? Seems to me to get the best accuracy out of the two different rounds they would make the bullets the same diameter. Someone please explain. Thanks
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Bullet makers use SAAMI specs for bullet dimensions. See post #14.

Accuracy with .355/.356 bullets is fine, even when fired from a revolver. See post #17.

This nonsense about 9mm bullets in revolvers producing huge groups is pure nonsense. See post #17.

Also, people use .357 and .358 bullets in their 9mm semi-auto pistols. The only concern here is whether the oversize bullet still allow the rounds to fit in the 9mm chamber.
 
What no one seems to remember these days is that originally, the 9mm cylinder was considered an accessory feature, a nice to have thing so those with 9mm ammo had another gun that would shoot it, but the gun was made to be a .357 Magnum.

I have heard many different versions over the years, some that the 9mm cylinder wasn't accurate, and some that it was ok, and either nearly as good as the .357 or even as good, for accuracy.

I suspect that the majority of the tales of inaccuracy are probably the result of the ammunition, more than the gun itself.

MOST people who shot 9mm through the Blackhawk convertibles did so because 9mm ammo was cheap (and, they had it). Shooting "cheap" ammo, and particularly surplus military ball is hardly the best way to obtain maximum accuracy results, in anything....
 
surplus military ball is hardly the best way to obtain maximum accuracy results, in anything....
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Accuracy. One man's 'accurate' shooting is another's worst groups ever. So all depends on how one defines accurate shooting :) . I take 'accuracy' claims with a grain of salt unless I see the target (or a 5 shot group size) and have 'distance' to target ... and then I can judge for myself :) . 5-10 yard target results don't cut it.
 
Ruger fixed the pistol. They replaced the 9mm cylinder.
I guess the main reason I use 9mm cylinder is my son wants to be Marshal Dillon. I dedicate progressive presses to a single cartridge. I have one for 9. Don't have one for 38 or 357. The Marshal Dillon phase will wear off long before I justify buying a new progressive. (Probably)
 
When my kids began getting close to the age of learning the handgun, I got a Ruger Super Single Six for training. Something that was a repeater, but where they had to do more "work" for each shot, over a semi auto.

Turned out to be a lot more useful than just something to teach the kids with, and of course, I still have and use it.

As they grew and moved on to centerfires, my son had a preference for the .45 auto, and my daughter, while not all that enthusiastic proved capable of doing some astounding good work with a .357 Highway Patrolman. (and much better than her "boyfriend" at the time, :D)

just out of curiosity, why the 9mm over shooting .38 specials in your Matt Dillon Jr gun??

I handload, and bulk .38 SPL is one of the things I did, regular 158s at approx 850fps.
 
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