Ruger .357mag. Blackhawk question

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Rotational or front to back? And define "a small amout" with an actual measurement at the outer circumference or edge of the cylinder.

The evaluation of how bad it is and what the potential solution would be depends on this added information.
 
With the information you supplied it is hard to say if the play you are experiencing is normal or not. It is perfectly acceptable to have some play on lockup on a Ruger. It can actually mitigate minor timing imperfections.

Does it spit? Is it accurate?
 
A small amount of play is a good thing. Rugers are not built with a high degree of precision. A small amount of rotational slack alleviates the effects of minor alignment issues. A small amount of endshake keeps things running smoothly once it gets dirty. The only guns you want locking up with zero movement are Freedom Arms sixguns or linebored custom Rugers.
 
How does it shoot? My OM Blackhawk has some of both types of movement, and shoots fine.
 
I put Belt Mt basepins in most of my sixguns but be advised that taking the slack out can actually have a detrimental effect.
 
Leave it alone unless you or someone else working on it knows what they are doing. They are not designed to have that "bank vault" lockup like a Freedom Arms or other custom revolver that has a line bored cylinder. There is some amount of play to account for tolerance stack in the manufacturing process.

And, most experienced revolver guys will tell you, that small amount of play doesn't have the effect on accuracy that you might think. It does have some effect, but it's not an issue worth addressing until you address a whole list of other issues.
 
If it isn't shaving lead or spitting out the sides of the barrel/cylinder gap you have nothing to worry about.
There are a whole lot of guns out there that won't initially lock up tight if you slooooowwwly cock them. Most people never notice it because they cock them smartly or shoot double action and the centripetal force (or centrifugal, I don't care) moves the cylinder fast and hard enough to let the bolt lock up in the notch in the cylinder.
The old Colts had two notches on the hand that rotated the cylinder and the second one held the cylinder tight against the bolt when the trigger was pulled. With the gun uncocked, even they had some cylinder play.
 
Colt Single Action Army revolvers, as well as double-action / hand ejector revolvers made between 1908 and about 1969 (with exceptions thereafter) have the double-step hand Red Cent and others have mentioned.

However while holding the trigger fully to the rear is supposed to result in a rock-solid, no wiggle lock-up in the hand ejector revolvers it doesn't do a thing in single actions - Colt's Ruger's or otherwise.

This is because in the double-action's the hand is attached to the trigger, so the further you pull the trigger the more the cylinder is rotated until it is locked by the bolt.

But in a single action the hand is attached to the hammer, so pulling the trigger has no affect on the hand.
 
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