Ruger Blackhawk Convertable questions.

[Mike_In_BC]

Hi, just a couple of questions here. I've been thinking of getting a blackhawk in .45 Colt. But when I was looking on their website I was reminded that they make a convertable blackhawk with a .45 Colt, and a .45 ACP cylinder. Then I remember reading something somewhere about accuracy problems with one of the cylinders. I plan to shoot mainly with .45 Colt, and would just use the .45 acp for plinking. I reload both but have mass amounts of .45 acp because I mostly shoot a 1911.

Anyway, any experience with this model? How does the .45 acp cylinder hold the rimless cartridges? Is there any difference between the convertable model and the straight .45 colt model other than the extra cylinder?

Thanks
Mike

 

[bakert]

Mike, the Blackhawk .45 convertible is on of my favorite guns. The accuracy problems seem to be mostly with the .357/9MM guns and maybe overstated by some people there but I have no experience with them. My gun is very accurate with the .45 Colt rd and although maybe not quite as good, the .45 ACP rd shoots pretty darned well in my gun especially at shorter distances. The ACP rd head spaces on the case mouth just as it does in an auto pistol. All of the factory .45 ACP ammo I've tried shoots just fine but I shoot a lot of same lead reloads in my gun as I use in my autos and I have to seat lead bullets with the driving band flush with the case mouth for them to fully enter the chambers of the BH, usually an overall length of 1.19 to 1.21. YMMV
It's the same as any other Blackhawk with the ACP cylinder as a bonus. A real fun gun.

 

[MMCSRET]

The accurracy problem with the 357/9mm is caused by the smaller dia. 9mm bullets. I load 358 dia. cast in my 9mm and it shoot very well. My 45/45 conv. was a problem with both cylinders. I slugged the bore,.4515, measured the chamber mouths and found the problem, variations from.447 to .451. Brownells has a ream kit to uniform the chambers, my wife bought the kit for me for Xmas. Followed the instructions and now have 12 chambers of uniform .452 diameter. Fantastic improvement!!!!!! Handloader mag. had an article on this problem about 4 yrs ago.

 

[Mike_In_BC]

Thanks, I think I will get one with the .45 acp cylinder even though I plan to shoot mostly .45 colt with it.