Ruger 5" 44 Special half lug GP100

[wildwilly501]

Mine went back 50 rds. Nosler 200 gr 8 gr unique.Cracked forcing cone.Mine seemed to shoot high.Didn't get to shoot enough to really see.

[Livin_cincy]

I am wondering if the weight on the end of the barrel of the Full Lug lowered POI ?

[376Steyr]

Update on hitting above point of aim: I sent in a customer service email to Ruger. The good news is they answered promptly and quickly had a replacement rear sight blade, at no charge, on the way to me. The bad new is the replacement blade they sent is 0.03" taller than the blade that came on the gun, which will make the problem worse. I sent another email, saying the right way to fix this is with a taller front sight blade. I'm sure somebody will suggest filing on the rear sight, but there isn't a whole lot of metal there to file on. I could wind up with a beautiful view of the back of the rear sight assembly before I finished cutting on it. We'll see what happens.

[376Steyr]

Update: My Lipsey 5" went back to Ruger, and to my surprise came back with a new barrel, cylinder, pawl, and cylinder latch. New cylinder has uniform .431 throats, so I can't complain about that. The front sight on this new barrel fits tight to the rib, with no unsightly gap showing. The old one wasn't bad, this is a lot better.
Included in the case was a copy of a test target, showing "246 Remington" hitting to point of aim at 15 yards. When the gun left, the distance from the bottom of the barrel to the top of the front sight was 1.21". Now it's 1.20".
Weather permitting, I'll shoot some Skeeter loads through it tomorrow. We'll see what happens.

[AlanF]

How are these guns doing? Did you get your issued resolved? Getting the accuracy you expected? I am just about to buy one.

[rking22]

I just bought one, may have resisted if I had not had it in my hand! Mine measures out well, dims are on other thread but very good bc gap and virtually no end play. Throats are consistent and .431ish from memory. Now, I dont know what they zero with, but mine was 6 inches high with semester load, pretty much all I load in 44special. Sight all the way down is still couple inches hi at 25, but accurate as I am now. My current loads are a bit small for it. Going to bump up my sizing and see how the 696 likes them. Hope that works out. I may try to do a side by side with this gun and my Clements 41 GP100.
Mine now wears the grips from my 85 gp100, the wood is pretty but hits my thumb knockle. Grab the gun, they feel VERY good and shoot well. Sights are a minor issue, I have a 235 gr I'm going to try....

[376Steyr]

How are these guns doing? Did you get your issued resolved? Getting the accuracy you expected? I am just about to buy one.

I got mine back from Ruger, see above, then it got buried in the safe by other projects. Thanks for the reminder, I can't believe four months went by so fast.

Dug out the Ruger, grabbed some ammo and went to the local shooting spot. Found I had grabbed a very stout Skeeter load, with a 262 grain SWC over more Universal Clays than I wanted to use. I shot them anyway. Accuracy is better than with the original barrel, which was fine to begin with, but the darn thing still hits 6 inches high at 25 yards.

I have a bunch of 429215, which are 230 grains with my alloy, already cast. I'll try them over a charge of Unique and see what happens.

[AlanF]

Thanks for the replies. I have purchased one but won’t be able to pick it up until September. We are in the midst of moving to a new duty station in WI.

[BABore]

I posted this on the Ruger forum a while back:

I picked up a Lipsey's 1770 a few weeks ago and began load development. Being a bullet caster, I measured all of the critical features and checked for any barrel constrictions. It was all good with uniform 0.4312 cylinder throats and a 0.004" cylinder gap. I worked up loads with Unique and Power Pistol in 1/2 grain increments using my 429421 HP bullet at 240 grains. I kept all of these loads at or below the SAAMI 15.5 kpsi limit for the time being. All was good until I saw that the first shot at 25 yards was about 10" high.

When I went to turn down the rear sight, I found that it was only 3 clicks from bottoming out. Bottomed out it was still hitting 6 inches high. I went through my 80 rounds of test loads and found a few good accuracy points. I checked the barrel during several breaks for any leading and found a nice shiny bore. That evening I looked through the Brownells catalog, Novak web site, and several others without much luck. Last Monday I came here and dug back about 4-5 pages back and saw that there were others with the same issue. I also saw that there was very limited resolution from Ruger or other sights. So, I began the process and called Novak first as it is their 0.265 high front sight. They said that it indeed was theirs, but the rear sight was Ruger's so I should call them. I did look on Novak's web site again and they do offer a 0.300 front. I knew it wasn't high enough, so I didn't bother. A call to Ruger was a waste of time. The rear sight is common to several of their different platforms, but they don't offer a shorter rear blade. When I explained all of the above, they wanted me to send the gun back for evaluation stating that it could be the crown was bad. Even after I told them that I had shot several 5 shot groups around 1 inch. I declined and moved on.

Last Tuesday I returned to a website that I had found a sight height calculator on, Dawson Precision out of Texas. I re-ran the numbers and gave the distance I was shooting high as 12 inches. I was only 6" high, but the rear was bottomed out already. The calculator said I needed a front sight 0.352" high. Dawson does offer sights for the GP100, but they aren't any higher than mine. After poking around there a bit, I saw that they do offer front sights for Novak dovetail cuts. While they appeared to be more for 1911's they looked liked they may work. They did not list the dovetail height which was important as there is a 0.060" and 0.075" dovetail versions. They off a standard black serrated ramp, fiber optic, and night sights in a big list of increments well over what I required. I wrote down the part #'s for a 0.340 tall fiber optic and a 0.330 black and gave them a call.

I explained the whole situation and they ran the numbers again, matching what I had. Their Novak cut sights offered are all 0.075" version which I found out was the standard Novak cut, 0.330" wide x 0.075" deep, 65 degrees. Dawson agreed on my sight choices and suggested that I order them on-line as I would get free shipping. I received the two sights on Saturday and got the black ramp (SKU #050-935-00) installed right away. The factory sight did come out hard. The sight needs to be removed from to the left to the right if your looking from the rear or normal shooting position. As I was planning some more test loads for yesterday, I put all of the tools in my range box along with the fiber optic sight (SKU #050-532-00).

My sight height choice worked out near perfect. I tried both 200 and 240 grain loads and I had plenty of adjustment range. Hope this all helps out the next Ruger sight victim.

[rking22]

Babore, many thanks for posting your research and results! Saves us all from going thru the same exercise. I am going to double check my dims and poi to order mine. I think I am going to get the .115 wide as I like/need more light around my front sight. Link below gets you there.
https://dawsonprecision.com/novak-cu...-front-sights/

[376Steyr]

BABore, thanks for posting that info, I ordered my replacement sights from Dawson's today. One more little data point on the Ruger service, when my 5" was returned, they included a COPY of a target that showed "Remington 246" hitting dead on at 15 yards. When I got it back, the revolver had its rear sight screwed all the way down, just the way I'd shipped it, which means any heavier load was going to hit high. A suspicious fellow would almost think they'd run a bunch of copies of one good target, and were carefully putting one in the box with each .44 Special they worked on...

[AlanF]

Thanks for sharing what you have learned. Let us know how the new sights look on this gun. One of the things I liked about this revolver was the brass bead front sight.

[JoeJames]

Thanks for sharing the information. I have had the Lipseys full underlug in 44 Special for a few months. I reckon I am old school, but I do not like the fiber optic front sight. I don't have any problem with the height of the front sight; it shoots to point of aim, no problem there, but I just prefer a regular old fashioned black patridge sight. I have looked all over for one with no luck until now.

[rking22]

Top one is from Dave Clements, was looking for one like it for the 44 then realized it had the wrong dovetail. The one posted above will be here shortly, dont care for glow worms either. The one on the stainless is one I cut on an EDM when I had access, all have orange paint on the face.

[JoeJames]

Top one is from Dave Clements, was looking for one like it for the 44 then realized it had the wrong dovetail. The one posted above will be here shortly, dont care for glow worms either. The one on the stainless is one I cut on an EDM when I had access, all have orange paint on the face.

All I can say is wow! The front sight on the stainless is exactly what I want. Excellent job! I was thinking I was fighting against the modern tide of glow worms, and I was the only shooter left who liked a plain old patridge sight.

[35 Whelen]

This thread reminded me....

When I first got my Ruger Flat Top Blackhawk .44 Special several years ago, it too shot just a little too high with the rear sight bottomed out. I didn't want to bother with replacing the front sight, so I went the other direction. I removed the rear sight, took the elevation screw out and laid the sight on my belt sander letting it lightly ride on the sandpaper while the sander ran. I don't remember how much metal I removed, (I probably posted it here somewhere) but it wasn't much and it did the trick.

Maybe this will help one of you.

35W

[Warhawk]

Babore, many thanks for posting your research and results! Saves us all from going thru the same exercise. I am going to double check my dims and poi to order mine. I think I am going to get the .115 wide as I like/need more light around my front sight. Link below gets you there.
https://dawsonprecision.com/novak-cu...-front-sights/

I have a 5inch half lug 44 special myself. I went to the Dawson website and am coming up with different part numbers???

I really like a 1/10th wide front sight. They have one that’s .315 tall by .100 wide. Part number 020-612. If this sight will fit my GP100 I’m going to give it a try.

EDIT: never mind, a little more digging and I found the part numbers that BABore mentioned. I’ve ordered the .315 tall .100 wide sight. Hopefully that will be enough taller get to it zeroed. I’m not going to miss that little gold bead either.

[Livin_cincy]

... I just shim the target if the sights are off ...

[rking22]

Squirrel keeps moving off the shim.....

[AlanF]

Any updates on how the new sights are working out for you guys?