Ruger Blackhawk.45 Colt

[Wally]

I have a Ruger Blackhawk w/ a 7.5" barrel. The cylinders measure .452"the bore @ .451". I have tried for years to find an accuarte bullet load using lighter bullets and have tried so many, they are too numerous to mention. Not one load was ever accurate of consistent, despite my using a variety of powders, fillers, and a variety of bullets. I have used bullets in the 200 to 230 grain weight....seems my pistol only likes heavier slugs in the 250~275 grain weight. I was wondering if any others have succeeded in this quest?

[beagle]

Mine digests the Lyman 452460 pretty well when sized at either .451 or .452. Also, the old standby 452374 sized to either diameter.

Mine's not picky at all./beagle

[.45Cole]

I only had like 15 of them (bought the boolit) but 8.7 grns unique and WLP primers and 452460 @ .452 was a miracle.:-D I had 15 some of a stepped charge like 8.9? but no better accuracy and more recoil. 15 some of 8.5 unique wasn't for me either. (had 50 boolits total)

[Slogg76]

I posted about this earlier. I've loaded for several Ruger Blackhawks and Bisleys in 45 Colt (some with undersized cylinder mouths and some reamed proper). My current Bisley shoots best with Sierra's 300 grain jacketed over as much H110 as it can stand. After much, much trial and error I found that my Bisley will also shoot Speer's 250 Golt Dot over a max charge of Unique quite well. For the most part all Ruger 45 Colts I loaded for only liked 300+ grain bullets loaded heavy. I have stumbled across an exception, but only one.

[okotoks]

I shoot the same model of black hawk, Larger bullets always shoot better in the Colt 45. The same is true for my clones the big Keith I cast, or a "commercial" 250gr RNFP shoot more accurately than the 200 grain bullets. this was true experimenting with Unique, Trail boss, 231, 5744, bullseye, and clays

I have had best results with .454 "softer" cast bullets H&G mould for a 265gr Keith type. I am not sure why they shoot better than standard 200 gr "commercial" RNFP, but my gunsmith says that the bigger bullets seal better, and have more contact length, and higher inertia probably result in better powder ignition.

I would concur that modest doses of Unique a little less than 9 Gr are a good load in this gun. a max or near max load 2400 is a better choice than 9.0 Unique for accuracy.

Unique Trail Boss and the Holy Black are the best choices for 45 colt unless you want supersonic screamers then H110, or 2400. I have not used titegroup but know several shooters that swear by it.

[Wally]

Thank you---it appears that is just the way that it is and I'll need to use the heavier bullets for best results. I have tried for a long time to use a 200 grain bullet @ 1,000 FPs that would be accurate & consistent...it never happened. In the .44 Special/Magnum I can use 200 grain bullets with excellent results and as the .45 Colt is only 0.022" larger in diameter one would think that it too should do well with lighter bullets, however even with 230 grainers, its performance is not acceptable at all.

[felix]

Wally, it is not the diameter difference, but the square of the radius difference, you need to compare with. ... felix

[yondering]

You might check the cylinder timing on that gun, if it really shoots poorly with light boolits. Just a possibility.

I've found the Lee 255-RF boolit to be very accurate in my gun when cast hard from wheelweights, over 10gr Unique. A little heavier boolit than you are looking for, but in a Blackhawk, which is a bit heavier than a SAA, recoil is very modest.

Another thought, since you are looking for basically a 45 ACP level load, consider having Ruger (or somebody) fit a 45 ACP cylinder to the gun. My Blackhawk was more accurate with lighter boolits in the 45 ACP cylinder, than in the 45 Colt cylinder. It also made a good test gun for higher end 45 ACP loads. My current Bisley doesn't have a 45 ACP cylinder, so I can't comment further on that.

[44man]

No, 250 to 350 gr boolits are what the gun likes best.

[454PB]

My Ruger .45 Colt is a convertible. The cylinder throats are .453" and the bore is .4515". It shoots the 200 gr. 452460 using the .45 ACP cylinder just as well as the heavier boolits in the .45 Colt cylinder out to 50 yards. I load these to 1000 fps.

[shooting on a shoestring]

I thought 250s were the light boolits for .45 Colt.

[Hardcast416taylor]

I must be a poor man, I only have 2 Ruger 45 Blackhawks. The load I came by from a friend that shot his daddy`s 2nd gen. SAA is 6 gr. Red Dot and the Lyman 452424 cast from straight w/w`s. We used javalina lube and Win. primers. This load was the equivalent of the original factory load vel. of about 900 fps. Mike Venturino uses this load abit and has mentioned it in his writings.:castmine:

[.45Cole]

2 pistols, 2 hands. Makes sense to mee. Many people like the red dot loads, and some people around here use lighter bullets with them (200gr RNFP)

[DragoonDrake]

I don't have the BlackHawk, but I do shoot the Vacquero in a 6.5in barrel. I use the Lee 6-cav 200 gr RNFP; I tumble lube with LLA. I use a 30-1 and 40-1 lead-tin cast boolits. My throat is at .452 and my boolits fall around the same.

With that I don't shoot high velocity loads but I enjoy 4.5 gr of clays on that boolit. My accuracy at 25yrds is a 4inch dia circle, I am happy with that. I let a co-worker shoot my gun this past weekend and he kept it in the 10 ring the whole time at the same yardage. It is a nice lite plinking load, but it does shoot a little low.

I hope this helps

Adam

[runfiverun]

i shoot some lighter boolits in my 45 colts but i dont have a blackhawk.
but they do seem to like the faster powders.

[Potsy]

I'd go with something fast and filling (titegroup, trialboss, clays). But I'd also look at .45 Schoffield brass. It would shave a little off the colt's case capacity, and be cheaper than an ACP cylinder.
Be aware that it would also put your bullets farther back from the throat which could hurt accuracy. It would be the same effect as shooting .38's in a .357.
I've played with 200's, Clays, & Schoffield brass; but I was fooling around and other than they would punch holes in paper, I couldn't tell you much.

[44man]

The amount of boolit jump to the forcing cone will not effect accuracy.

[NHlever]

I think that some of what we are seeing here is more a matter of length to diameter ratios than bullet weight. The longer bullets have less chance of tipping in the chamber throats, or forcing cone than the shorter ones. One thing I have done is to be extra careful seating shorter bullets to get them as straight as possible in the case. I've found that seating part way, and then rotating the case 180 helps that, and the groups show a difference. Naturally bullets that bump up easily, or fit the throats well help too.

[MtGun44]

Current production Hornady dies have floating sleeves to align the boolit
straight and hold it there while seating. Can't hurt, might help more with
short boolits that could tip more easily when seated and when launched.

Bill

[44man]

Accuracy is a function of stabilization once all the other stuff like fit and alloy is taken care of, of course. You just have to match velocity to twist rate with whatever boolit you use.
That means the light, short boolits must be shot slower. As the boolit gets longer for a better match to the twist it can be shot faster. As it gets too long and heavy, it can't be driven fast enough to stabilize.
You need to reach a happy medium.
I kind of think barrels were rifled for a reason, don't you? I will never understand why so many ignore twist on revolvers! :coffee:

[Cherokee]

5 gr WST & RCBS 230 CM bullet cast from WW and sized 452 gives 750-800 fps in two of my 7.5" Blackhawks, both 451 barrels and 452 throats. Works for me. YMMV

[Just Duke]

I have 4 Vaquero's in 45 Long Colt and shoot the Lee 255 grain with 6.0 grains of Trail Boss per advisories of Jon K. The grips are smallish and a bit stingy at first but the all go into 1 inch at 7 yards. Not bad for a fella that's on his way to being legally blind.

[EDK]

I have 4 Vaquero's in 45 Long Colt and shoot the Lee 255 grain with 6.0 grains of Trail Boss per advisories of Jon K. The grips are smallish and a bit stingy at first but the all go into 1 inch at 7 yards. Not bad for a fella that's on his way to being legally blind.


You might do better if you try a set of EAGLE GRIPS Gunfighter model on one of your VAQUEROS (Original Size?) The flat bottom add a little bit of length and the subtle contouring helps a lot. I use them on VAQUEROS and BISLEYs alike.

I converted a bunch of Original Size VAQUEROS (357 and 44, 5.5 inch barrels)with either HUNTER or DRAGOON grip frames last year. Even better with the Gunfighter grips. Try a BISLEY also....half my guns are RUGER BISLEYS now.

:Fire::redneck::castmine:

[Just Duke]

You might do better if you try a set of EAGLE GRIPS Gunfighter model on one of your VAQUEROS (Original Size?) The flat bottom add a little bit of length and the subtle contouring helps a lot. I use them on VAQUEROS and BISLEYs alike.

I converted a bunch of Original Size VAQUEROS (357 and 44, 5.5 inch barrels)with either HUNTER or DRAGOON grip frames last year. Even better with the Gunfighter grips. Try a BISLEY also....half my guns are RUGER BISLEYS now.

:Fire::redneck::castmine:

Why hey there EDK! :drinks:
I have had the Eagle grips on back order for 6 months.Thanks for the tip I did not know they are bigger.

[eka]

I have had pretty good luck with my Ruger three screw 4 5/8 with the RCBS 201 SWC shooting target type loads. Shown here is 6.2 Gr. Bullseye at 25 yards. For anything more serious, I prefer the RCBS 45-270-SAA. My bore diameter is a thousandth larger than my cylinder throats as well. I've thought about getting the throats reamed, but I have hesitated since it's a three screw. I kinda hate to mess with it.

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii255/donquijote_photos/Shooting%20Photos/DSC_0433-1.jpg

Keith

[MtGun44]

You might try a softer alloy and see if they bump back up. That is pretty good
accuracy anyhow so it's not like this is a critical need.

Bill

[44man]

Using a softer alloy means a larger expander to keep from sizing while seating. That in itself will cause a loss of accuracy and negate any gain from bump up. I am not a believer in bump up in any shape or form.
I would ream the throats, it does no harm to the value of a keeper gun and will enhance it if it shoots better.

[dwtim]

I haven't been at it with this particular gun for nearly as long as most CB members here, but I'm just giving up on pygmy bullets in many calibers--45 Colt is one of them. The best performance I was able to squeeze out of a bullet less than 250 grains was from a commercially cast 452423 sized to .454". (My Ruger likes bullets sized to at least .453".) I still had stringing shots with Unique; I was hoping that this powder would fill the case a bit more.

When my supplies of pre-formed lead are gone, I'm moving to an alloy softer than WW, and a soft, homemade lube. My plinker will be the Lee 252 SWC, and my business bullet will be the RCBS 270 SAA. Honestly, what is the point of using a lighter bullet? They just shoot lower and need more powder to work right.

[coalgeo]

My experience has been about the same. I have a 70's vintage Blackhawk (7.5") with rather large cylinder bores (.454 to .456) that shoots very well with .454-sized 255 grain Keith style (Lyman mold) and a "new" model Blackhawk (5.5") with the changed grip that also likes the 255 grain bullet but does not seem to care if they are sized to .452 or .454. However, neither Blackhawk likes the lighter bullets - 200 grains or so. I have tried Unique, Trail Boss, HP38, Bullseye, etc. etc. - heavy crimp, medium crimp and so on. Fianlly gave up and only load the 255 grain Keith style. They both seem to like WW w/tin - at 850 to 900 fps I usually get zero leading and good accuracy.

[Wally]

Boolit Bub,

Looks like your experience is the same as mine. I also have a .45 ACP cylinder and use a Lee 200SWC-TL CB unsized. I use a load of 5.0 grains of Bullseye and I do get occassional flyers; but accuarcy is generally quite good. Uisng the Lee 230 TC-TL, the accuarcy is more consistent. No bullet under 250 grains offers satisfactory accuracy in the .45 Colt caliber. I have given up trying.