45 blackhawk help!!?!!!

[Thumbcocker]

Plinky56:

I think we may have a generational thing going on here. .44man's generation often do not sugar coat things that they know from experience. My father is of that generation and I was 15 years old before I knew that my first name wasn't ******. Learned a lot form Dad but not always in the most caring method. .44 man has a tremendous amount of experience and says what he knows from real world testing and trial. Everything that I have tried that he has suggested has worked as advertised. He and I will never agree on the Bisley grip frame (I like it he doesn't) but you can take what he says works to the bank. I think a properly set up .45 Colt revolver should shoot as well as anything but I think there are many .45 Rugers that are not set up right. .44's seem to be either more forgiving or more often set up right. That is why I switched over. Good luck in your quest.

[44man]

I care for nothing else then to make all better shooters. I will not give out fluff and if it doesn't work, I will say so. I will rub some wrong but I tested. So much repeated that does not work.
My hardest time here is to not make enemies if wrong so I say things I do not mean. Sorry, true! I can dispute but like you all too much.
Let it be known that you are the best of the best and are my friends. New guys do not know me but I will spend hours and hours for everyone.

[44man]

How to get a light trigger on a Ruger or BFR? I have to tell you. If you lighten the trigger spring and the trigger kicks your finger, the gun is not safe. Hang fire or failure. What is wrong? Transfer bar is too short and drops off the firing pin or nicks it. I make my own transfer bars by hand from tool steel, harden and temper. They are longer to cover the pin. Takes fitting but the lightest trigger I can get will never fail.
Then I use over power hammer springs since primers must be STRUCK with a certain force. NEVER weaken a hammer spring. Rugers and BFR's need 26# but if a caliber takes rifle primers you need 28#.
You that weaken hammer springs or buy reduced are wrong. Need more sensitive primers and are wrong.
I know I asked Plinky56 but he would never know. More free info.
Cock the hammer and see how much the bar covers, half or less and leave the trigger spring strong.Attachment 178993 This is proper.

[dubber123]

I must be lucky, most of mine are set to 2.5#, but a few are a "light" 1.75#, and all have the same transfer bar coverage as shown, using the factory bars. I regret passing on so many Ruger single actions over the years due to the horrible factory triggers. If I had known they could be fixed with nothing but time and no parts, I would own more now for sure.

[DougGuy]

If I had known they could be fixed with nothing but time and no parts, I would own more now for sure.

Bottom line is this: You *must* be able to dry fire the revolver and hold the sights motionless as the hammer falls. <<< THIS is mandatory if you ever hope to manage shooting a single action revolver regardless of make or caliber. This is the one and only GOAL that MUST be attained to be able to shoot a single action revolver with any degree of accuracy. Once this is mastered, you simply commit to memory your grip and finger pressure and pull motion on the trigger and do the same with live fire.

I do like and use and also recommend the Wolff 30oz. trigger return spring. Swap it in and save the factory spring in case the gun ever needs to go back to Ruger for repairs. If you HAD a nice trigger on it when it was sent back in, it won't be nice when you get it back..

The other thing that can be done inexpensively with the Ruger is to file down the pad on the hammer above the engagement notch ala David Bradshaw, this lessens the creep in the factory trigger yet still maintains a safe firearm unless someone goes too far. The top of the trigger is the sear and should NOT be touched or modified under any circumstances unless it is worn and rounded from use which at this point it should be replaced. The angle and sharp corner on the trigger must not be modified.

[44man]

I must be lucky, most of mine are set to 2.5#, but a few are a "light" 1.75#, and all have the same transfer bar coverage as shown, using the factory bars. I regret passing on so many Ruger single actions over the years due to the horrible factory triggers. If I had known they could be fixed with nothing but time and no parts, I would own more now for sure.

Yes I have seen some TB's that will work but average is too short. Most of my BFR's are OK but the 45-70 was too short. Seems to be no standard with them.

[SSGOldfart]

Try some jacketed bullets. Could be your rifling is too shallow for the real thing for some reason. That may give you some idea, anyway.

Try a good premium jacketed bullet over H110 or IMR 700x, your primers could be a issue too.

[dubber123]

I am curious if the OP checked what the dufus in post #13 mentioned.. If there is a problem there, no amount of internet wisdom will make his gun shoot

[Silver Jack Hammer]

Don't know if my pics got posted, but the pics are of targets shot 2 hand hold off hand at 25 yards with different Colt's SAA's and different powders, all SWC boolits I cast.

[Silver Jack Hammer]

[Silver Jack Hammer]

The top (or left) 2 brown NRA targets -posting turned the image said ways are RCBS 45 270 SAA shot from my new Colt's black powder frame SAA. The white paper with the square is an old 3rd Gen .45 with 454424. The front sights have since been filed to bring the groups up to zero.

[plinky56]

I have a lee 255gr rnfp mold coming this weekend and hope to pour a small pile to test them out. Will let you know how it goes.

[SSGOldfart]

Good luck with it,keep us updated

[odfairfaxsub]

No offense to 44man but......when you meet him you finally realize he's not as gruff in person than he is on the forum. This guy is a freaking sage and legend on revolvers. He's not throwing **** and long legged stories. Never seen a guy shoot a golf ball at 100 yards in my life w a Dagon bfr revolver w a MOA red dot. This guy can shoot and I've seen it and he was really kind to me when I was flinching like a abused dog trying to shoot his cannons. Few things to know about him

don't talk reduced loads w magnum cartiges w him....he'll tell you buy a pellet gun or a 38special

understand that we may not know what the part is called but call it something else....he knows what the part is called, what it looks like, and has touched that part and gun if it's a bfr or a ruger and has made its opperation slick as glass

the guy has done things w open sights that only God himself would want to compete w him as that would be his equal in such a match

[44man]

Thanks friend. No I am not gruff unless bad info.
Little history about the TB. If you went to a national IHMSA shoot and they tested your trigger to see it kicked you could not shoot. State shoots did not test your gun. Mine would not be allowed in the nationals. Did I cheat with my TB? Maybe I did. Called production and no after market anything allowed. Never said home made. Did I do wrong when they allowed guns with better sights then a Ruger. Ruger started with the Micro sights but later we could not change since Ruger did not supply them. But you could use a Freedom or S&W with better sights. It was a contentious game with many upset.
So it was luck to get a good trigger on a Ruger but if the trigger kicked you were out. They did not understand the TB was key and not all were short.

[.45Cole]

454190 will tell you how it runs. PM me if you need some. Mine are BHN 10-12, .452, LBT blue

[1bluehorse]

I am curious if the OP checked what the dufus in post #13 mentioned.. If there is a problem there, no amount of internet wisdom will make his gun shoot

I note that you are the "dufus" you allude to... good one, and a good point to address. You are correct in your assesment of the cylinder/barrel alignment. If that alignment is not correct the gun won't shoot. Been there with a 4in Redhawk. Ruger fixed it.

[Lloyd Smale]

been doing this a long time and have owned many 45 colt rugers. Heres what ive found. Very few of them will shoot 255 or lighter bullets extreamly well. Ive got one rcbs mold for a 255 that seems to do better then others (rcbs even made 3 different takes on this bullet) For the most part there twisted best for heavy bullets. A good 300-320 lfn pushed to about 1100-1200 fps is the sweet spot for factory ruger 45s. Another real good bullet to try is the rcbs 300 swcgc. It shoots well in every 45 cal handgun ive ever tried it in. This is the main reason I prefer 44s. they are much more flexible to load for. there easy to find good loads both in 250 grain and heavys and loaded light or heavy. Now I'm sure someones going to come along here and claim there 45 shoots great with a 255 and maybe it does but ive owned AT LEAST a dozen factory 45 rugers and at least a half a dozen custom rugers in 45 and have spent a lot of time handloading and a lot of money trying to make myself a liar. Truth be told that maybe 1 in 5 45 colt ruger will shoot as well as an average 44 mag ruger.

[DougGuy]

Truth be told that maybe 1 in 5 45 colt ruger will shoot as well as an average 44 mag ruger.

I'm gonna throw this out there, there ARE some physical differences between the two calibers. Some of it is engineered in, some of it is well, forced in, but the differences are there. There is the fact that a 1:16 twist rate for the .45, 1:20 for the .44 could be one factor, but I think the biggest culprit might be the fact that the barrels are the same size on the OD, which leaves the .44 and .41 and smaller barrels quite a bit thicker than the walls of the .45 barrel. We all know how Ruger likes to torque the barrels in to the frame hard enough to cause the threaded portion of the barrel at the frame to choke down, some moderate, some VERY severe, but hardly none escaped totally choke free. This is a LOT worse on the .45 caliber models because the barrels are thinner.

And there's also the horrid roll marked "Lawyer Warning" mashed so deeply into the barrel that you can look down the bore and see ridges on the inside behind the lines of text on the outside. THIS is also a lot worse on the .45 barrels, simply because they have the least amount of wall thickness of any of the Rugers.

I am going to suggest that what I stated in these two previous paragraphs have a LOT to do with why an experienced and knowledged caster and shooter such as Lloyd Smale can document poor performance in the .45 caliber revolvers as compared to the .44 which has the thicker barrel.

This only explains the maladys suffered by the barrels, and does not address the cylinder throats which again because they are the largest diameter throats of all the Rugers, the cylinder walls are thinner and there is less metal surrounding and in between chambers therefore any distortion or stress in the steel will be much more evident with the .45 cylinders than any other calibers.

And Lloyd, if I may ask, were you at the time aware of the tendency for the .45 caliber cylinders to be pretty much undersize in the throats across the board? Did you ever ream any of yours or measure them?

Reason I ask is that throat reaming wasn't really a well known fix for these until rather recently. The consensus USED to be size to fit the throats, and this was subscribed to and taught by many of the gun writers. Now, we pretty much know that if a revolver has tight throats, it will only shoot cast boolits but so good, regardless of what one sizes them to.

I have only to wonder how much better those revolvers would have been if the cylinders were correctly sized for cast boolits.

[Lloyd Smale]

reamed about all of them except the newer small framed 45s which are right from the factory. Personaly I think that plays into it a lot but was eliminated by me. My first guess is the difference in twist and a good friend that's forgot more about handguns then I know claims the rifling in at least the old larger framed ones was shallower and shaped a bit different then the 44s were. I will say though that ive had a lot less trouble with the newer small framed ones with milder colt level loads. don't know if they changed the twist or not. Never checked.