How I stopped leading in a Ruger Blackhawk and became a caster

[MSD MIke]

For what its worth, my little journey with a Ruger Blackhawk 45 Colt/ACP convertible.



Stage One (Not a caster at this point) - Bought gun and went shooting. Jacketed are OK (not great). Lead = Leading.
Shot a bunch of 230 grain Jacketed 45 ACP to break in. Cleaned really well and tried lead again. Lot of leading.
Leading was worst right after the forcing cone with some following the rifling down the barrel.
Loads
Bullet- All were the standard bevel base, hard lead, hard lube 250GR SWC style bullets available from several commercial casters. All were .452.

45 Colt Lead Loads
1st 6gr Red Dot
2nd 8gr Unique
3rd 16gr 2400
4th 17gr 2400

230 LRN - Commercial cast, hard lead, hard lube & BB
45ACP
4gr Bullseye
5gr Bullseye

All loads leaded badly in 15-20 rounds

Stage Two - Getting irritated and tired of cleaning lead out. So I start doing some research and find out its common on Blackhawks due to undersized cyl throats. Do a little more research (Mostly on this site) and find out about "Fit is King".

Stage Three - I bought pin gauges and measured the throats and sure enough, both cylinders are ranging from .450 to .451.

Stage Four - Buy .452 reamer and pilots and ream throats in both cylinders. Measure again and I have happy .452 throats all the way around.

Stage Five - I'm all excited thinking I have solved my problem so I go out and shoot some more (Same Loads). To my disappointment the leading is not as bad but it is still beyond acceptable.

Stage Five - Order a lee pot, .452 push through sizer, a lee 452-252 SWC mold and some 50/50 lube.

Stage Six - Learned to cast bullets, a little bit of a learning curve but not to bad. Alloy was air cooled clip on wheel weights. After getting some acceptable looking bullets, pan lubing them and using a push through sizer I was ready to rock and roll again.

Stage Seven - load new ammo and started shooting.
Same Loads but with my wheel weight bullets (Shot over chronograph this time)

45 Colt
My bullets dropped at 260 gr
Results
6 gr Red Dot - Ave 835 Fps Small amount of leading right after the forcing cone. Good accuracy
8gr Unique - Ave 935 fps - Very Tiny bit of leading just after the forcing cone and good accuracy.
16 gr 2400 - Ave 950 fps - Absolutely no leading and great accuracy. Some unburned powder but who cares
17 gr 2400 - Ave 1050fps - absolutely no leading and accuracy is great Also some unburned powder left over.


Conclusion -That Ruger Blackhawk sure taught me a lot and turned me into a caster. Of course now I have lots of molds for different calibers and the equipment keeps stacking up.


Mike

[mdi]

Yahoo! An excellent tale of gettingg leading free cast bullet loads. I followed much the same learning curve a few years ago and do, most sincerely believe, fit is king! Thanks Mike...

[FredBuddy]

Good Show!

[DougGuy]

That's doing it the RIGHT WAY. Although you should lap or polish after the reamer finishes.

Have you recut the forcing cone? You can rent the kit from 4D reamers for about $40 or so. I use the same cutters but instead of using the brass lap afterwards I fold a little piece of scotchbrite over the lap and use it as a backing to hold the scothbrite at the proper angle.

Also, after cutting the forcing cone to 11° you may find that using boolits with a smooth ogive instead of the driving band of the LSWC style give great results! Boolits with the smooth round profile on the sides that work good for me are the 454190 in standard .45 Colt pressures, and the Lee C 452-300-RF for heavy hunting boolits in the Ruger Only 30,000psi presures. I suppose the Lee C 452-255-RF would work good too.

Mixing COWW with an equal amount of pure lead and adding in 2% tin will give you what we call 50/50+2% and you will find this alloy, with soft lube in the groove will be a perfect match for your Ruger's rifling and twist rate. I get zero leading and never even clean my barrels anymore.

[tazman]

I would bet your accuracy with jacketed improved as well after reaming the cylinders.

[DocSavage]

I had to lap/reem my chamber throats and fire lap my 3 Ruger 45 Colt revolvers to get decent accuracy and no leading.

[MSD MIke]

DougGuy, I actually have the 11 degree reamer for the forcing cone but I'm a little uncomfortable about cutting the forcing cone. I have had good results without polishing the throats but definitely think its a good idea. What method do you use to polish?

Thanks,
Mike

[fredj338]

I had the same issue in my 45colt RBH/ss. It shot great but got early leading. All cyl throats were 0.450-.04505". I opened them all to 0.452" & groups got better & leading virtually wen gone with soft 25-1 bullets @ 1000fps.

[Mitch]

good job MSD Mike.That sounds about how things have gone with my revolvers.

Bob

[Green Frog]

Don't you just love a story with a happy ending? :bigsmyl2:

[RogerDat]

Wow! Doing it step by step and pursuing a goal into new areas can actually work to solve a problem or make an improvement. Who knew. :kidding:

Actually that is a pretty inspiring story for those times when one is struggling for good results with firearm or life in general.

[kungfustyle]

Now try to powder coat your leads. Three patch clean ups are a beautiful thing. Good job buy the way. Almost went through the same thing with my S&W 357.