Ruger New Model Blackhawk Convertabile

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Smiley

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I have just gotten a look a t a Ruger New Model Blackhawk Convertable. It says that the cylinder can be swpped out to take either .357 magnum loads or 9mm parabllum. Is this true? Are these guns as sturdy and relible as other Rugers. Does this niffty trick take away from accuracy or quality or reliability?

I think this is a great idea since I have 9mm lying around in spades. Also the .357 magnum is waht I am looking for in a revolver round. This seems to me to be a great SHTF gun for variety of ammo.

Now if only they made it in DA/SA and maybe the same trick in the GP100 and SP101 series.

Anybody have any experience with this convertable gun. and what are your opinions. Is this a good sturdy gun to last or is it a novelty that will wear off?
 
This is actually a model which Ruger made before. It lets you shoot any .357 Magnum, .38 Special or 9mm Luger cartridges in the saame pistol.
 
First, yes ruger revolvers are built well and will last longer than you or I will. They have manufactured them at various times over the years and I do have one. Accuracy does not suffer and it preforms well with bolth rounds.
 
Ruger has made 'convertibles' in several caliber-pairs. The .357/9mm is not one of the better ones.
The cylinder of a BH is too long and the throats too wide for the 9x19 cartridge...the bullet has lots of room to skate around and get cross-ways before it enters the barrel.
The barrel dimensions of the BH are ideal for a .357-.358" diameter bullet, not a jacketed .355 slug, which is what you'll find in most 9mm ammo.
Yes, you can SHOOT 9mm in the .357/9 convertible. But it probably won't be very accurate. Other posters here disagree, but perhaps they have different ideas about accuracy, based on experience with 9mm Crackerjack defense automatics. You should expect 2" or better (sometimes MUCH better) from a decently tuned Ruger SA. Not many crunchentickers can do as well.
You'd be better served by a straight .357 BH in STAINLESS, especially if you get the 6-1/2" barrel. This revolver is all steel and as overbuilt as a bank vault, and shoots both .38 specials and the hottest medium and heavy-bullet .357's with great comfort and accuracy. I own six other Ruger SA's in various configurations. Some are just as accurate. Some are more powerful. But the silver gun is 'just right', and is the one I'd keep if all the others had to go. I too have a bunch of 9mm around the place. But even if I had a cylinder for it, I'd never shoot it in the Ruger.
 
Slabsides: Hi! I'm not doubing you on a theoretical basis - everything you say sounds reasonable. All I can tell you is that there's at least 3 of us at my local range that pour hundreds of rounds through the .357 and 9mm cylinders on a weekly basis and in actually practice the 9mm is as accurate as any of us could wish for. I fired 150 round through mine yesterday and 150 rounds through my favorite 9mm SIG today, and accuracy in either one is not a question. Maybe we just got lucky guns, or maybe these guns are just better and more tolerant of some variability than just thinking about them would lead a person to believe. DennisE
 
DennisE: Three of a kind always beats a pair! :D
My reservations about the .357/9mm are based on experience with shooting only one gun, and the original gunrag reviews, which seemed theoretically sound, and congurent to my experience in quite a lot of reloading of both rounds.
If you have three of these guns in your immediate experience that confound theory and reason by shooting better than they should, than I must agree that I am all wet. And you are three fortunate fellows. Question: Reloads or factory rounds?
I still prefer my .357-only Stainless BH. And the 9mm? That's a round for pocket guns! As for your SIG, it's one of the best crunchentickers, but better in .45 than the puny Parabellum, IMHO.
Thanks for the heads-up! I like being right, but I like being corrected when I am wrong, even more.
 
Slabside: I agree the .357 round is a lot more useful and a lot more fun! Jerry, my shooting partner on Saturday mornings, whose got one also agrees. My gunsmith/range owner says he believes that the "lands" (sp?) in the Ruger barrel are sufficiently raised to stabilize the 9mm inside the .357 barrel. Don't know if that's the answer, but it does seem to work well. I finished the 1000 rounds of 9mm theis morning that I had decided to burn up before I moved, so now like you and most sensible folks I'll be using the .357 Magnum cylinder 99%+ of the time. Thanks again, Dennis
 
There IS one thing to be said for 9mmm in an SA...

You can take one of those cheap piece-o-crap 30rd mags for something like a HiPower or Glock and use 'em as speedloaders, thumbing rounds conveniently right into the loading gate. You get five complete reloads from one stick :).

I doubt they'd be impressed if you did that at a SASS match though :D.

Jim
 
I also have the Ruger 38/357, 9mm And shoot it every weekend.
I found that Shooting 9mm is just as accurate AS the 38/357. Both the 9mm or the 38/357 Group To 1" or less at 50'.
The only Downside is readjusting the sights every time you change Cylinders.
I have over 6000 rounds of ammo through mine and the weapon still looks NIB.
I Haven't had a problem with It, And would Highly Recommend one.
 
tonyz: Hi! Like you I shoot quite a bit. I don't reload but I do save brass from my .357 Magnum, .44 Magnum and .45 ACP and recycle it to reloaders. Using Georgia Arms 124 grain FMJ 9mm rounds and National Bullets 125 grain JHP ammo I've found I get so close the the same point of impact that I don't need to readjust the sights when I change cylinders. I'm sure any reasonable experinced reloader could work up similar, or even better results on his/her own. DennisE
 
Fellas (and ladies),

I own two Blackhawks in .38-40/10mm convertible. Really nice guns...the two calibers are sufficiently different to make it interesting. But, not without problems. The .38-40 is a necked cartridge and sometimes my reloads don't size properly - they're also "interesting" to load; you have to be fairly careful or you'll end up with mashed brass. The 10mm are OK for a while but then you get a little bit of brass clipping off the end of the case and it becomes a problem to load the cylinder until you clean it.

Like I said, two different rounds. The .38-40 is very nice to shoot...plenty of power and not much recoil. The 10mm has much sharper recoil; it's a noticable difference.

When the guns are clean and the rounds load properly, these are muy fun to shoot! Why do I have two....'cause I can!
 
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