? about Ruger .357 convertible

[jack19512]

I realized if I were going to cast for my two new revolvers I had to purchase me some decent measuring equipment, so I purchased a one inch caliper and some bore gauges.

So, to practice using them I used my Ruger New Model Blackhawk .357 convertible as a starting point. I measured the throats on both the .357 and 9 mm cylinders and if my measurements are correct they both appear to be .359 and with a bore diameter of .356 shouldn't the same bullet shoot equally well in both the .357 cylinder and 9 mm cylinder? Thanks

[Dale53]

It works for me:mrgreen:.

That should work just fine with both cylinders.

Dale53

[Echo]

You might have trouble chambering 9mm rounds loaded w/358 boolits. I did, in my Convertible. It will chamber regular 9mm rounds (w/356 boolits), but when I tried reloading them with some boolits sized .358, no go. Hope you have better luck...

And accuracy has never been even mediocre, with 9mm cylinder & rounds. 355-6 rattle down the 357 bore, from side to side, and exit randomly...

[MtGun44]

I would guess that with .359 throats and 9mm bullets at .356", you will
not see much accy. As said above, you may problems chamber a 9mm
with a .359" boolit. May be OK, too.

With a cast boolit of .359" in the .357 Mag you should get good accy, but less
likely to have issues with chambering a .359 boolit loaded round. This is the
problem with oversized thoats, you need oversized boolits which can be
hard to get, and you might run out of chamber space to put the fat boolit.

Classic .38-55 problem - oversized bore and tight chamber. Can't chamber a
boolit big enough to fill the bbl . . . . . . .in the old days they used very soft
lead and BP and the undersized boolit slugged up just fine.

Have you shot 9mm jacketed factory stuff - and if so how was the accy?
I'd expect mediocre or worse maybe 4-5" at 25 yds. Is the .357 or .38 Spl
better accy? I'd bet that .38 Spl hollow base wad cutter ammo would be
the most accurate ever.

Bill

[jack19512]

Have you shot 9mm jacketed factory stuff - and if so how was the accy?







Yes, the 9mm factory ammo was more accurate than the .357 factory ammo and also more accurate than any of my .357 cast bullet loads.

[Dale53]

If you have trouble chambering the 9mm rounds, it might pay you to get a Lee 9mm Factory Crimp Die. This will insure that the maximum bullet size that will work in the 9mm will still chamber (by sizing the loaded round to proper dimensions).

Let me give an example:
I have several revolvers that chamber the .32 H&R Magnum. .314" bullets will work just fine in all but my Ruger SP101. They are a bit tight in the Ruger (difficulty chambering). After they are run through the Lee Factory Crimp Die, they chamber just fine in ALL of the revolvers. Further more, they ALL shoot just fine (under an inch at 25 yards from a Ransom Rest). The Lee Factory Crimp Die just sized down the bullets by .001" in the loaded round. There are those that say that these can't shoot, but they do. Actual results trumps theory.

I also tried sizing the bullets to .313", and that worked also. Accuracy was just fine but now all cartridges chamber in ALL of the revolvers. Just goes to show, that there is more than one way to "Skin a Cat"...

FWIW

Dale53

[MtGun44]

Interesting that the .356" jacketed 9mm is more accurate in .359 throats than
presumably .357 or .358 jacketed in .359 throats.. . . . . .

Even gun is a thing unto itself. We can learn techniques that usually work for
most guns, but there are tons of stories where the same trick that helped
the last 25 times it was tried was either harmful to accy or made no diff on
a particular gun.

Go figure. Congrats on having an accurate load for your 9mm Blackhawk.

See what works with the cast boolits.

Bill

PS Any chance that your measurement is off? Easiest without special tools is
to drive an egg type soft lead sinker (beware of some of the non-lead hard
ones out there on the market!) or soft cast boolit through the throat and measure.

[jack19512]

I would guess that with .359 throats and 9mm bullets at .356", you will
not see much accy. As said above, you may problems chamber a 9mm
with a .359" boolit.






I got my 9mm dies from Midway yesterday and loaded some 9mm cast bullets. The cast bullets would not chamber without sizing them. I sized them to .356 and accuracy went south. Load was 5 gr. of Unique and no GC. Notice the keyholeing! There are only 5 rounds, I think I must have overlooked repriming one round because it didn't go off. I pulled the bullet and there was powder in the case.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a63/jack19512/DCP01441.jpg

[jack19512]

PS Any chance that your measurement is off?






Maybe, but I measured everything about 4 times each and then took the most prevalent measurement. I would think if any are off it can't be by much. But I would never rule this out.