I made a trip to the indoor range last night, and shot the Bisley Blackhawk in .45 LC. Although used, it is in excellent shape, and has not been apart, as best I can tell. I thought of it more as a basis for a custom gun, but it seems a good shooter, now.
Trigger pull is not too stiff, though a little creepy. The cylinder has a fair amount of wobble in it - time for one of those Belt Mountain base pins, I guess. The grips don't fit the frame especially well, though they feel pretty good in the had. The bore I noticed is unusually bright and shiny for a Ruger barrel.
I shot it with two extremes of loads - Cowboy loads with 250 lead bullets, which I expect loaf along at Blackpowder velocities, and then Corbon 265 gr +P hunting loads, which allegedly hit 1350 fps. Not possible to chrono indoors, so I'll have to take their word for it.
The sights were set for the Cowboy loads, while the Corbons shot about 4-5" lower at 20 yards. I fired the group shown resting the butt on the bench, no support under frame or barrel. The first shot was the flyer, and the next four went into virtually one hole. People came walking over to see what the hell I was shooting, hearing the muzzle blast.
Interestingly, I switched to the Cowboy loads and got a group centered in the bullseye, which looked very similar - four in one hole with a flyer to the right. Looking at other groups, I think it's just an accident of my marksmanship, and not a sign of a bad chamber.
The barrel is a little too long for a "packing pistol", but that's not hard to fix.
This Ruger is my first SA revolver in about 20 years, and I'm pleased with it
Trigger pull is not too stiff, though a little creepy. The cylinder has a fair amount of wobble in it - time for one of those Belt Mountain base pins, I guess. The grips don't fit the frame especially well, though they feel pretty good in the had. The bore I noticed is unusually bright and shiny for a Ruger barrel.
I shot it with two extremes of loads - Cowboy loads with 250 lead bullets, which I expect loaf along at Blackpowder velocities, and then Corbon 265 gr +P hunting loads, which allegedly hit 1350 fps. Not possible to chrono indoors, so I'll have to take their word for it.
The sights were set for the Cowboy loads, while the Corbons shot about 4-5" lower at 20 yards. I fired the group shown resting the butt on the bench, no support under frame or barrel. The first shot was the flyer, and the next four went into virtually one hole. People came walking over to see what the hell I was shooting, hearing the muzzle blast.
Interestingly, I switched to the Cowboy loads and got a group centered in the bullseye, which looked very similar - four in one hole with a flyer to the right. Looking at other groups, I think it's just an accident of my marksmanship, and not a sign of a bad chamber.
The barrel is a little too long for a "packing pistol", but that's not hard to fix.
This Ruger is my first SA revolver in about 20 years, and I'm pleased with it
I like big bore revolvers. Sounds like you got a good one.