DougGuy healed my Rugers

[oldhenry]

My Blackhawk .45Colt/ACP was purchased new in '77. Accuracy has always been fair but not as good as my 3 other RSAs. Slugging the cylinders told me the throats were not to small, but maybe too large.

Recently I sent both cylinders to DougGuy along with the bbl. from my SR1911. The 1911 had performed perfectly with the Lyman #453374 but was not dependable with my SAECO #068 clone.

Doug did a beautiful job on the BH cylinders & performed his Package deal on the 1911 bbl.. Since their return the SR1911 digests #068s without a hiccup. I'll develop a "soft ball" load/lighter spring for the 1911 for my grand daughter now that the 200 gr. feeding problem is solved.

As for the BH: I've only tested the ACP cylinder so far (I'll do the caliber change on the Dillon to .45 Colt & test it later). The following images show the results. I don't know how to attach photos with explanation under each, so I'll make an image explaining list.

I also feel lead to praise the Arsenal 230RF mold & praise Arsenal for making this mold to my size requirements & doing so quickly.

Images:
#1: Arsenal 230RF bullet & loaded round (a max. load of HP-38)
#2: My 25 yd. "red neck" bench rest.
#3: The 25 yd. target ( I shoot steel exclusively).
#4: The 50 yd. bench rest (actual distance probably closer to 45.......my truck takes up some room)
#5: The 50 yd. (45 yd.) target (the flyer is my booboo)

The pock marks on the silhouette were made by my grand son with his .223 (I don't think he'll ever do it again).

Please keep in mind that I'm not a bench rest (or any other kind of rest) shooter (before glaucoma surgery, I shot rifles from a sling). The gun will shoot better than these groups indicate. My shooting eye (R) was compromised by glaucoma surgery. so I'm forced to shoot with my left eye & all shooting (other than these groups) is now offhand (as in standing on my hind legs) because of a stiff neck. I'll be 78 in a couple of weeks & these eyes aren't what they once were.

Since I switched over to my left eye I rarely shoot groups..........if it'll knock the IHMSA chicken off the stand, I consider it a good shot.

Back to the reason for this post: DougGuy does beautiful work at a reasonable price & his turnaround is quick.

Henry
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A real sport involves gasoline or gunpowder ........anything else is just a game

[Chill Wills]

Oldhenry - good report. Sorry about the eye problem. Not fun but we do what we can!

Could you describe a little more what was done to the Ruger cylinders to correct oversize throats? Reaming smaller ones larger I understand is the usual problem and cure. What can be done for us? I have a Ruger 45 Blackhawk made about the same time. It has the same problem as yours. I pin-gauged both the Colt and ACP cylinders, and like yours, they came from Ruger much too large.

[buckwheatpaul]

Great report and photos really help.....stay on top of the glaucoma and do what the doctor says....need to keep ya ah shooten 'em boolits!

[DougGuy]

Oldhenry - Could you describe a little more what was done to the Ruger cylinders to correct oversize throats? Reaming smaller ones larger I understand is the usual problem and cure. What can be done for us? I have a Ruger 45 Blackhawk made about the same time. It has the same problem as yours. I pin-gauged both the Colt and ACP cylinders, and like yours, they came from Ruger much too large.

If I may answer for Oldhenry.. Usually undersize throats need reaming to accept a suitable diameter boolit, but the most benefit from reaming and honing cylinder throats comes from having them all even with each other. This greatly reduces the variation in pressure in the cylinder caused by uneven throats. Tighter throats cause more pressure to build upon firing, which causes the gun to recoil differently in the hands than the same load fired from a chamber with a looser or larger throat. This opens groups considerably.

Same applies to cylinders with larger throats. Obviously they cannot be made smaller, so the proper way to address them is to hone all to match, this means bringing the smaller ones up to match the largest one, then sizing boolits half thou under throat diameter. If the revolver has a decent 11 degree forcing cone, it will shoot quite well even with oversize throats once they are all even.

I have a Uberti Old West model with .4565" throats and a .451" bore, and I shoot the 454190 sized to .456" with SPG lube and it shoots better than I can, with zero leading, never have to clean the barrel or cylinder.

And thank you Oldhenry for such a glowing review! Ain't it great to have guns that put a smile on your face when you pull the trigger?

[oldhenry]

Great report and photos really help.....stay on top of the glaucoma and do what the doctor says....need to keep ya ah shooten 'em boolits!

Paul,
The glaucoma in my shooting eye is permanently cured, but the cure decreased the quality of sight in that eye. However, my pressures were in the 35-36 range & had progressed to a point that the drops did not help. It didn't take me long to choose between decreased sight quality or no sight within 2 years. My left eye pressure is controlled with Cosopt @ 14 & since surgery the right is 11-14 & no longer requires any drops of any kind.

The decreased sight in my right eye ended my rifle shooting (I'm too old to learn how to shoot left handed), but handgun shooting is OK with the left eye.

Henry

[oldhenry]

Oldhenry - good report. Sorry about the eye problem. Not fun but we do what we can!

Could you describe a little more what was done to the Ruger cylinders to correct oversize throats? Reaming smaller ones larger I understand is the usual problem and cure. What can be done for us? I have a Ruger 45 Blackhawk made about the same time. It has the same problem as yours. I pin-gauged both the Colt and ACP cylinders, and like yours, they came from Ruger much too large.

Doug explanation is better than anything I could do. I just put my trust in Doug & the story had a happy ending.

To make the equation work I ordered the Arsenal 230RF in .456 dia. & a .455 size die from Star (before I learned about Lathesmith). That took care of the ACP cylinder. For the Colt cylinder I bought an Accurate 45-250F mold in .456 & will try that setup soon. I also remembered that I had an old Lyman #454424 & as it turns out it produces boolits slightly over .455. I'm anxious to try it because I also have a #452424 that did not shoot well at all in that BH.

Doug also recently did a .357 Bisley cylinder & cleaned up @ .359 being the optimum bullet weight. I got a .360 dia. mold from Arsenal & a .359 size die from Lathesmith. I haven't tried that one yet. However Doug says that my .358 boolits may work OK. Well, I tried my #358429 boolits sized to .358 & they work fine. The .359 boolits may be just icing on the cake.

Henry

[pjames32]

Good report and hope your eyes hold up so you can keep shooting.

[oldhenry]

In order to test the Colt cylinder, I needed empties. All of my .45 Colt brass is loaded. This being the case, I shot 100 rounds this morning. They were my standard Colt plinking load of a Lyman #452374 over 6.3 gr. of Red Dot. Keep in mind that these bullets are sized to .452 and the uniformed cylinders are now .456.

I really didn't expect much, but was surprised.

Image #1: 10 shot group from my pickup rest @ 25 yds.
Image #2: 10 shot group @ 50 yds. & the flyers are probably my fault.

After these groups I shot 60 rounds @ 50 yds. offhand (IHMSA chickens) & was able to connect 31 times............this is in the upper range of my average. I'd be tickled if I could do this every day. Keep in mind that these were not all center hits (if I hit them in the beak or the butt & they fall, they score the same as a center hit). My average on the pigs @ 100 wasn't so good (5 out of 20).

This tracks with DougGuy's theory.

Henry

[tranders]

Good to hear Doug got you going. He has worked on two of my revolver cylinders and has done great work.

[Brad Cayton]

Doug worked my New Vaquero and it's now my most accurate center fire revolver, and my favorite.