Went out to the range today with all three of my .44's (sorry, three is all I have) for some long over-due fun. I also wanted to test some reloads I'd made up for two of the 44's. All three are revolvers and two of them are single action, the other being a 6" Dan Wesson. The two singles are a Ruger Super Blackhawk (7.5") and a Uberti 1860 Army replica. The reload was a tumble lubed Lee 310gr FPGC over 8.0 gr Unique.
My shooting was at 25yds and I found the Ruger liked the load a little better than the DW. Both were in the 1.75" range but both had first-shot fliers that opened up the groups. The DW opened up more than the Ruger (2.75" vs. ~5"). I fired a second group from the DW and this happening was more pronounced than the first group.
Another thing I noticed is the cases came out of the DW noticeably dirtier than they did from the Ruger. I fired some other reloads with the same bullet out of both guns and the rounds fired in the Ruger still came out cleaner than they did from the DW. This second reload was warmer than the first (though below max) and the empties also came out easier from the Ruger than the DW. This could be due to the fact that with the DW I was pushing out 5 at once with a shorter rod and the Ruger is one at a time with a longer rod to push on.
I'm wondering why the empties came out dirtier from the DW than the Ruger. Obviously the chambers are a bit different between the two revolvers. I don't have the proper tool to measure chamber dimensions but I wonder if someone could "enlighten" me as to what's causing the difference in "cleanliness". Both were clean when I started the range session. I bought the DW new in 1987 and the Ruger is about the same vintage although I just got it a few months ago. It looked to be lightly used by the PO's. I've also shot gobbs of reloads through the DW over the years, most of them in the +P .44 special range. It's still tight but does have a little flame cut on the top strap but its had that for years and it hasn't grown.
Some of you might be wondering how the 1860 Army did. Well, not nearly as good as the other two modern revolvers. I only got off 10 rounds before it got too dirty. I also had issues with cap pieces jamming things up and had to take the cylinder and barrel off to get things working again. Accuracy was about 8-9" at the 25yd line. But it was fun making all that smoke! My load for it today was 30gr of Goex 3f and a Speer .451 ball with a Wonder Wad in between ball and powder. Wish I'd gotten .454 but had a brain fart when I was buying the .451's. Still fun anyway!