Ruger 45 Conversion

[NavahoJoe]

I have on order a Ruger 45lc/45acp with 5 1/2 barrel. Is there anything I need to do to this revolver before shooting it and afterwards, other than cleaning? I will shoot one box of factory ammo in it and then after I slug the bore and throats, will handload all ammo that goes thru it. The reason for the one box of factory ammo is because of slugging, and ordering the proper molds and resizing dies, and I cant wait on the order! Anyone have a pet load in either 45lc or 45acp that they want to share? Thanks for your input!
NavahoJoe

 

[Dienekes]

I have one from about 1999 or so with 4 5/8" barrel. It has turned into an excellent gun and one of my favorites. I had cylinder throats of both cylinders reamed out to .4525, and best results with the Lyman Keith 250 grain #454424 bullet sized to .454. I load this with 8.5 grains Unique and sometimes with 35 grains of FFg.

I get excellent accuracy with .45 ACP as well but an unfortunate degree of leading with my cast 230 grain RNLs.

Did a little tweaking on the trigger return spring and wound up with a very nice trigger pull of about 2.5 pounds.

I particularly like the gun because of its relatively light weight (about 38 ounces) compared to anything else Ruger makes.

Great stopping power on rattlesnakes, too.

 

[bakert]

I had both cylinders reamed on my 4 5/8" BH too. One thing with my gun, the headspace is minimum with .45 ACP cylinder so lead bullet reloads have to be seated with the driving band flush with the case mouth to keep from hanging and tying the gun up. Actually all of my reloads are lead in either caliber. No problems with factory ammo so I suppose there would be none with jacketed bullets. As far as loads, in .45 Colt, 8 to 8.5 grs of Universal Clays with either a 250 gr LRNFP or 255 gr LSWC bullet is safe and accurate in MY gun. For .45 ACP, I like 5.3 grs of Win 231 with a 230 gr LRN bullet. BUT, there are a great many combination of loads that may work as well or better in your gun. Just got to try 'em and see..

 

[shooting on a shoestring]

Mine is a 7.5" Blackhawk

I pulled the grips off, lifted one leg of the trigger return spring off its post (there is one leg on each side of the frame) and let it dangle, the other side is plenty sufficient to push the trigger forward. Its a great way to lighten up that SA trigger.

Loads...I mainly shoot 7.5 grains of Bullseye, CCI 300, Lyman 454424 from plain old wheel weights sized to .452 (my throats run .4512 to .4518 and barrel groove diameter is .451). This load gets across my chronograph at 960 fps with SDEVs near 12. Powder position extremes give only 10 to 20 fps difference.

To go fast I use the same plain base bullet with 20.0 grains of Lil'Gun, CCI 350. Got me 1312 yesterday. Leads slightly after 50 rounds, but thats OK b/c 50 stompers usually satisfies my speed need. Then I fire a cylinder of my lead remover loads.

My lead remover load is 6.5 grains HP38, CCI 350, same bullet, and the remainder of the space in the case gets filled with Cream of Wheat. Smells like burnt breakfast but scours the lead out. Some people claim shooting jacketed does the same thing - they're wrong. Jacketed bullets just smear the lead down the barrel and press it into the pores. Cream of Wheat takes it out like a brush.

 

[NavahoJoe]

ruger 45lc/45acp conversion

Thanks to all for your vital information. Interesting about the cream of wheat for lead removal.I appreciate the load information.
NavahoJoe

 

[Onty]

“I have on order a Ruger 45lc/45acp with 5 1/2 barrel. Is there anything I need to do to this revolver before shooting it and afterwards, other than cleaning? I will shoot one box of factory ammo in it and then after I slug the bore and throats, will handload all ammo that goes thru it. The reason for the one box of factory ammo is because of slugging, and ordering the proper molds and resizing dies, and I cant wait on the order! Anyone have a pet load in either 45lc or 45acp that they want to share? Thanks for your input!
NavahoJoe”

You MUST get a set of proper screwdrivers to tighten the grip frame screws (if you have a Bisley, the stocks must be removed in order to access two of them, next to hammer), ejector rod housing and cylinder pin latch. Better yet, remove the screws, flush the holes with something like brake cleaner, apply blue Loctite or clear nail polish (some folks use just piece of fishing line, inserted in the hole) and apply firm but REASONABLE torque. Do that on one screw at the time so you wouldn’t mix up screws next to a trigger. They are not the same!

As for the screwdrivers, since you don’t need too many, get the best the money could buy, see http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/Home/default.aspx . Contact them and make sure that they are top quality. The most of so called “professional” ones are the joke, the only “professional” thing on them is their price.

If you have accuracy problem, see http://www.beartoothbullets.com/tech_notes/archive_tech_notes.htm/59

If you want to make a nice little upgrade, I would definitely suggest #5 pin; http://www.beltmountain.com/ruger.htm . If revolver is accurate, make sure that the new pin has the same dia as a factory one. Bigger dia pin might increase accuracy, make it the same or even worsen; all depends on relationship between the cylinder and frame.

Good shooting, Onty.

 

[Master Blaster]

had both cylinders reamed on my 4 5/8" BH too. One thing with my gun, the headspace is minimum with .45 ACP cylinder so lead bullet reloads have to be seated with the driving band flush with the case mouth to keep from hanging and tying the gun up. Actually all of my reloads are lead in either caliber. No problems with factory ammo so I suppose there would be none with jacketed bullets.

You know thats a real interesting story I seem to have that same problem with .45 acp revolvers, My 200 Lswc loads which have worked flawlessly in a number of 1911 pistols, are too long for My .45 acp revolvers, a Taurus .45 Tracker and the Blackhawk. The case head will drag on the recoil shield and prevent the cylinder from turning if they are not seated deep enough. My Blackhawk is a .45 acp .45 colt convertable made in 2002, the cylinder throats seem to have been done correctly at the factory and mine is very accurate with the .45acp cylinder, which is usually the more problematic cylinder due to the really long cylinder throats. I find that if my LSWC rounds drop all the way into a .45 acp case gauge I have no problem with them in a revolver, but if they are even a little long they dont work in any .45 acp revolver. My berry's plated bullet reloads and jacketed rounds never have this problem, its only with cast bullets.

The accuracy of my .45 acp cylinder is excellent, I use 5.2 grains of Trailboss with a 200 lswc penn bullet. 4.2 grains of titegroup, or 231 also work well.

 

[Tom C.]

I have several .45 Colt NMBHs with .45 ACP cylinders. The first .45 ACP cylinder had throats of .454", the rest were around .451". I opened several with the .4525 reamer. All shoot well. The .452" throats make it easier to seat the 200 SWC with a little lead showing. The last one is a 7 1/2" barreled gun, that has a .451" cylinder. It shoots so well, I am reluctant to mess with it.

 

[Onty]

You know thats a real interesting story I seem to have that same problem with .45 acp revolvers, My 200 Lswc loads which have worked flawlessly in a number of 1911 pistols, are too long for My .45 acp revolvers, a Taurus .45 Tracker and the Blackhawk. The case head will drag on the recoil shield and prevent the cylinder from turning if they are not seated deep enough. My Blackhawk is a .45 acp .45 colt convertable made in 2002, the cylinder throats seem to have been done correctly at the factory and mine is very accurate with the .45acp cylinder, which is usually the more problematic cylinder due to the really long cylinder throats...

Could be that noted bullet is tad larger than cylinder bore so it cannot enter all the way in. I would suggest checking the cylinder(bullet) bores with plug/pin gages. Do not be surprised if you notice that the gage will enter the cylinder from the front side and gets tight or even stuck where case dia transfers to bullet dia. It’s the burr that could occur during reaming process.