Ordered a Blackhawk, questions

[Harry Stone]

I ordered a .45 Colt/.45 ACP Blackhawk yesterday. Waiting for it to come in is killing me, but if I survive I have a question. What brands of .45 ACP and .45 Colt would give me the closest point of impact on target so I could avoid adjusting the sight? Is that even possible, or will I just have to adjust the sight when I switch back and forth between the two?

Thanks for any help you all can offer.

[Majic]

In theory the 230 grainer of the ACP should be fairly close to the 250/255 grainer of the Colt, but in reality you will have to shoot various loads as all guns shoot loads differently. Not all loads of a given bullet weight by all the makers will shoot to the same POI in a particular gun.

[biere]

A lot of folks who have seen chrono results for some of the cowboy colt loads have said those look like 45 acp numbers. I forget bullet weights but I suspect different brands have different speeds as well.

With all the 45acp varieties available I figure it should be pretty easy to find something that shoots with some of the light 45colt loads.

I always wondered how well some of the 185 grain 45 acp +p stuff would do on some of the little varmints around my place.

[Wedge]

GREAT GUN! That was my first handgun, and I love it.

I always used WWB .45 ACP ammo. For .45 Colt Winchester 255 gr RNFP worked well. Winchester Silver Tips worked pretty well too. Those are 225gr and should be very similar to the 230 gr. .45 ACP ball ammo.

As soon as you get the gun, slug your cylinder throats. They are probably going to be both tight and non-uniform. Then get the throats cut. When I did that my group size dropped dramatically. Plus I couldn't fit 300gr. bullets in some of the cylinders before I got them reamed.

Because of that gun, and the lack of any really good commercial .45 Colt loads that didn't cost a fortune, I started reloading. The Blackhawk is super versatile since you can load from cowboy loads to hunting loads. Since I started reloading I haven't shot the .45 ACP cylinder. But before I got into reloading the .45 ACP was the only reason I could even afford to shoot (since it is over 2x cheaper than .45 Colt).

Best of luck! The gun is really excellent, and I will never sell mine.

[mec]

mine puts 230 ball in the same area as 870 fps /250 gr .45 colt loads-and about the same place as cowboy loads for that matter. Ive seen the same thing in a friend's 7.5" Uberti SAA. My acp cylinder was more accurate than my colt cylinder before I had that one reamed to the correct dimensions - and it may still be.

[bakert]

I've never tried using my .45ACP cylinder at anything but short distances. Most of my shooting nowdays is at an indoor range and at 7 to 10 yds they hit faitly close to POA. I shoot mostly cast bullet reloads with both cylinders. I would expect the ACP rd to hit a bit lower with full power loads in both at 25 yds or more because of the lighter bullet but have never tried it out.

[Harry Stone]

GREAT GUN! That was my first handgun, and I love it.

I always used WWB .45 ACP ammo. For .45 Colt Winchester 255 gr RNFP worked well. Winchester Silver Tips worked pretty well too. Those are 225gr and should be very similar to the 230 gr. .45 ACP ball ammo.

As soon as you get the gun, slug your cylinder throats. They are probably going to be both tight and non-uniform. Then get the throats cut. When I did that my group size dropped dramatically. Plus I couldn't fit 300gr. bullets in some of the cylinders before I got them reamed.

Because of that gun, and the lack of any really good commercial .45 Colt loads that didn't cost a fortune, I started reloading. The Blackhawk is super versatile since you can load from cowboy loads to hunting loads. Since I started reloading I haven't shot the .45 ACP cylinder. But before I got into reloading the .45 ACP was the only reason I could even afford to shoot (since it is over 2x cheaper than .45 Colt).

Best of luck! The gun is really excellent, and I will never sell mine.

Well that's good to hear because I got the .45 ACP cylinder just to get by on until I bought a reloader.

Thanks all of you for your help.

[mjolnir]

Since factory 230 gr ACP loads move out at about 820 fps, and factory 250 gr LC loads move out at about 730 fps, they tend to impact at about the same point from 15 yds in.

Once you start reloading heavy LC loads, 300 gr +, you'll find yourself running out of rear sight adjustment...assuming you've got the 4 5/8" or 5 1/2" barrel?

[Harry Stone]

I got the 5 1/2" barrel. I don't know if I'll go that heavy or not.

[mjolnir]

New Blackhawk .45s come with a higher front sight blade than years past so you should be fine with standard and somewhat heavier bullets.

Anyone else wonder why the heck Ruger won't make them in stainless steel? I picked up a limited production run stainless convertible in 1994 and have been waiting ever since to get another one! You can buy a regular .45LC blackhawk in stainless, mail it to Ruger, plus money, and they'll make you a convertible cylinder, but who wants to go through all that? Come on Ruger.:cuss:

Have fun with it, and to you fence sitters out there, buy one before they add a stinkin' internal lock!

[Harry Stone]

Actually the internal lock had a lot to do with it. A friend of mine has an old model Blackhawk that his father gave to him years ago. I've had the chance to shoot it a bit over the years when we went to the range and told myself many times that one day I'd buy one. When I noticed lately that manufacturers are putting even more idiot features on guns now I figured I better get with it and buy my own Blackhawk before it got lawyerized too.