Cracked forcing cone woes

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Trashyshoots

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Another centerfire revolver, another cracked forcing cone. This is why I got into contenders, haha. I had a gp100 that did the same thing, and now a super blackhawk. Both were with factory ammo. Hopefully ruger will fix this one for free, I had to pay for the gp100 to be rebarreled.
 

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Nothing but white box Winchester for the 44 its entire life. The 357 had a lot of different ammos but never anything that wasnt 158gr.

I have a box of the +p+ buffalo bore but never shot even 1.
 
Um, WOW!

Ruger will fix their guns, but I can't imagine how many round it'd take to crack a Ruger SA forcing cone. Either you're astronomically unlucky, or something ain't right.

People occasionally shoot them loose with thousands of max loads, but I've never seen a cracked cone.

@MaxP
 
You realize that you are invoking the scorn of the "Rugers are indestructible" cabal.
They will be along shortly to tell you that this is impossible.
Just to check though, what Winchester white box load were you shooting?

You are sure that you did not shoot out a few stuck bullets?, Or double the factory powder charge?

It looks like the the GP had some erosion of the forcing cone as well.
 
Were you shooting a bunch of that 110 grain stuff? There's a ton of erosion on both. I can see maybe happening once ,but to crack two,in the same manner , especially a Blackhawk it seems ya had to be using some of the light for caliber stuff? What kinda round count were you at?

Hope Ruger will take care of this one for ya.
 
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@edwardware
Im not blaming ruger, if I didnt have bad luck with guns I wouldn't have any luck at all. This super blackhawk probably has 3k rounds through it.
@stonebuster
The gp100 was bought new and had about 10k rounds through it when it did that. I had it fixed and sold it off, letting the new owner know all the details.
@MidRoad
I was kinda shocked at it too, but I also had a vaquero in 44 mag that went back 3 times for the front sight coming off during use (with the same whitebox winchesters) the gp only had half a box of the 125 gr hollowpoints through it, the rest was all 158gr.
@Obturation
Ill post a pic of the topstrap when I get home.
@Master Blaster
Im sure they will be. No stuck bullets, no squibs, no timing issues as far as I can tell. Its always had that ruger cylinder wobble (maybe .001 of movement when locked up) definitely not a colt bank vault, but feels just like every other ruger. The whitebox was the 240gr that wally always carried.
@NIGHTLORD40K
I have too, Ive had so much bad luck with various revolvers and semi autos I went to only contenders or 1911s. I cant torture myself with glock triggers. :rofl:
 
Wow. There's quite a bit of erosion on that forcing cone also. Looks like you've been shooting some hot stuff, and if you haven't been then something is wrong with that gun.
 
Top strap is in good shape. Most of that is carbon build up in the last 50 or so rounds I shot since I last cleaned it.
 

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Decades ago I did the same thing to 2 different ruger super blackhawks chambered in 44mag. Paid to re-barrel the 1st 1, never shot right after the re-barrel. Sold it & bought another nib Blackhawk and the same thing happened in less than 10,000 rounds. Ended up beating the 2nd 1 with a hammer, after 50+ swings & feeling better about it what was left went to the scrap yard.

A lot of erosion on the forcing cone???? No way!!!! What a s&w 586 bbl looked like after 75,000+ rounds.
Sg4LjIe.jpg

What you want to see with any erosion of the forcing cone is it to be in the 12 o-clock position. Having the erosion there is telling you that everything is right and tight. The bbl pictured above has even erosion around the bbl (a good thing) with the top (12 o-clock) showing signs of excessive erosion. That is from the blast of the round + the secondary flame bouncing back off the top strap.

When you see excessive/uneven erosion anywhere other than the 12 o-clock position. That's telling you something isn't right. It's hard to tell from the picture of the Blackhawk the op posted but the gp100 shows uneven wear at the 4 o-clock position with cracks at 3 o-clock & 6 o-clock.

Not bad mouthing ruger, it's just more common then people think. Take a hard look at your forcing cones for erosion and more importantly uneven erosion anywhere other then the 12 o-clock position.
 
A friend wore out a .45 Blackhawk with "Ruger only" loads. When it finally cracked the forcing cone, he sent it in. Ruger completely overhauled it, not just a barrel change. Not free, but not very expensive, either.
 
Is that gawd-awfull tool chatter *normal* for a Ruger forcing cone?
Were I to buy the pistol new, that'd have been a return item all by itself.
So then, makes me wonder - at least about that pistol - as to fit, finish and inspection.
Another interesting aspect for me speaking to fit is that the cone is not merely cracked but in fact, split showing that the cone had that much potential room to move. So. did it crack to that gap or did continued firing cause the unrestrained cone to expand the steed radius in the frame?
In any case, now, without particular fitting, I would suspect the frame tolerances, dimensions and concentricity.

Todd.
 
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As a matter of interest, I've experienced several cracked forcing cones over the years. As I recall, htey were a Super Blackhawk, a S&W Model 29, in fact, two Model 29s. And had one Dan Wesson, not mine, break the barrel stub and blow out the side plate.

Most of these mishaps were the result of metal fatigue after an excess of 10,000 rounds were fired, mostly full power or magnum handloads. Never was sure what happened to the Dan Wesson. The barrel stub was broken into three fragments, the top side plate screw was gone and the side plate displaced at the top. My suspicion was the the gun fired out of time.

Bob Wright
 
Did you experience a noticeable loss of accuracy or velocity as the throat wore down? I probably have some with bad throats but need to look to be sure.
 
Did you experience a noticeable loss of accuracy or velocity as the throat wore down? I probably have some with bad throats but need to look to be sure.

Im honestly not sure, I took about a 2 year hiatus from this gun due to a motorcycle accident that wrecked my right arm. This gun has hurt to shoot for years, and I was going to give it a go this range trip to decide if it was time to sell it. I would much rather this happens to me and not a new owner though. But in all fairness my groups with any handgun with more recoil than a 38+p in a full size revolver has suffered. All my bigger meaner revolvers were sold long ago.
 
You realize that you are invoking the scorn of the "Rugers are indestructible" cabal.
They will be along shortly to tell you that this is impossible.
Just to check though, what Winchester white box load were you shooting?

You are sure that you did not shoot out a few stuck bullets?, Or double the factory powder charge?

It looks like the the GP had some erosion of the forcing cone as well.
I would be one of them wow It's hard for me to believe that WWB would do that hot reloads yes I would call Ruger and send it back to them something is just not right
 
I would be one of them wow It's hard for me to believe that WWB would do that hot reloads yes I would call Ruger and send it back to them something is just not right

Shipping label is coming to me, I dont reload and have never ran hot loads through it. My father in law runs nuclear loads through his (we lovingly call them "denis loads") and has had screws, and sights hit orbit, but never any damage like this.

The super bh and my gp100 were both floor models from big box stores which has led me to be adamant I get NIB firearms from the backstock, but I've only ordered guns straight from the manufacturer in the last 5 years or so due to my esoteric tastes.
 
Its also kind of weird too, I was just contemplating sending it to a higher end gun smith (gary reeder is in the same state) to have it rebarreled and a new cylinder machined for 22 magnum. I thought it would be hilarious to have essentially a 10.5 inch sbh that only shoots 22 mags. Now im just wanting it to get fixed so I can sell it, with the new owner knowing its past.
 
I'm sure Ruger will fix it and that you will have a really good shooter when it comes back
Let us know when you get it back and what they tell you
 
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