My New Single Seven

[BK7saum]

I was looking at a new old stock SSM Bisley the other day at the gun shop. $600 was a bit steep for me. Sure did feel good in the hand though.

[Cheshire Dave]

I just picked up a six and a half inch Bisley new in the box for 475. Lipsy has a run of them going right now. There should still be a few on GunBroker.

Sent from my SM-J320V using Tapatalk

[alamogunr]

I would like to take 2 dogs advice and ask if anyone has any powder coated boolits .314 or more? At very least I could load a dummy and see if it would chamber. I would also like to get a few .313. This would allow me to load a few and see how they shoot. I don't really want to get into powder coating but it may be the least expensive option to be able to use cast in this gun. Of course, if .314 won't chamber, I would be faced with maybe getting the chambers reamed or a new cylinder. Or, I could just sell the gun to someone that intends to use jacketed exclusively. If I sell it, I doubt that I will buy another Ruger.

I'll be glad to furnish a paid, padded envelope as Fermin suggested, or any other arrangement that might be preferred. I can also pay whatever is fair.

[BK7saum]

I have some MP 640 profile boolits as cast and some powder coated. They are 100/105 grain as HP and solid and are plain base.

I load my single seven with them sized to 314. I dont remember what my barrel and throats slugged but 314 was satisfactory in size. I have no trouble clambering them. They fall right in.

If you want to try some, I can probably send them out tomorrow. Depending on how many you want, a padded mailer or SFRB would be the twi options. These are range lead water dropped st around 18-22 BHN. I dont remember. I also have some air cooled. If you just want a few, postage is all I'd ask. If you want enough for load workup pr to shoot and check leading, we can work something out there too. Let me know. Kinda busy, but I think I have multiple options already powder coated and ready to go.

[alamogunr]

I have some MP 640 profile boolits as cast and some powder coated. They are 100/105 grain as HP and solid and are plain base.

I load my single seven with them sized to 314. I dont remember what my barrel and throats slugged but 314 was satisfactory in size. I have no trouble clambering them. They fall right in.

If you want to try some, I can probably send them out tomorrow. Depending on how many you want, a padded mailer or SFRB would be the twi options. These are range lead water dropped st around 18-22 BHN. I dont remember. I also have some air cooled. If you just want a few, postage is all I'd ask. If you want enough for load workup pr to shoot and check leading, we can work something out there too. Let me know. Kinda busy, but I think I have multiple options already powder coated and ready to go.

Thanks! Just tell me how much postage you need(be generous with yourself) and I'll get it out ASAP. Right now I only need a few. Depending on what I find out, I may contact you again.

John Schwerdt


Where in OK are you located? My brother lives in Tulsa

[BK7saum]

I live near Durant in South central Oklahoma. I am in Tulsa occasionally for work.

I will see what I have and send them out to you. I'll post here or PM you the tracking number when I do. I hope you get it all worked out once you have some boolits and get some dummys/cartridges loaded.

[alamogunr]

Thanks! Be sure and include what I owe for postage.

[alamogunr]

John, if it was my gun, what I would try is a bullet right out of the mold. It would probably measure .3135" or better. I would want to shoot the greatest diameter bullet I could get to chamber so I would load me up a dummy and using my cylinder as a chamber gauge see how it fit.

If it fit, you would still run the risk of the propellant gasses blowing the lubricant out of the grease groove so I would avoid that problem by powder coating that bullet. Once the cast bullet is powder coated you can size it down until you get it to fit and not have to worry about gas blow by because there is no lubricant to lose and the powder coat does the work of the lubricant instead. I know you don't want to run a powder coated bullet, so go ahead and try the conventional ones first and see what you see. You never know because revolvers are all sorts of contrary contraptions and tend to avoid the rules.

The thing that you said that bothers me a bit is the restriction at the forcing cone. We might have to firelap the gun a little. Shoot it some and get back to me. You know how to find me. There are any number of guys on Singleactions.com that would send you a handful of powder coated cast bullets to try. Especially if you mailed them a postage paid padded mailer.

IF worse comes to worse, and you need a new cylinder and barrel, you have the perfect vehicle for a .257 Jackrabbit conversion!

I'll keep you updated. I looked up the .257 Jackrabbit. It looked interesting but I don't think I'm interested. I've got enough complications in my life, especially at my age. I don't need another.

[JAC43]

My GP100 327 Fed has similar measurements to your Single Seven. The throats barely pass a .314 minus gage but not a .315. The chambers will pass a .340 minus gage but not a .341. I'm planning to size to .314 initially. The bore will pass a .303 minus gage from the muzzle but it stops mid way through the barrel. A .302 minus gage slides all the way through. I will probably fire lap a few rounds to remove the constriction.

[alamogunr]

As I posted, my throats pass a .315(minus) gauge. All are tight on .315. I slugged my barrel for a measured .3134 with a slight constriction felt at the point where the barrel threads into the frame. I just went to the shop and checked the bore. As with yours, a .302 gauge goes all the way through but a .303 will not start at the muzzle.

If I can chamber a loaded round with a .314 boolit, things might just work out. Accuracy might not be perfect but I might never know it. Even a .313 boolit might work. I won't know until I get some boolits and load some rounds. Everything now is just measurements and guesses.

[alamogunr]

BK7saum has offered a few powder coated bullets for me to try. In the meantime I've been reading up on PC. If these work, I'm going to try it myself. Some of the threads I've been reading are pretty long. One goes back to 2014.

If powder coat allows me to use this gun to its potential(which is probably greater than mine) a little extra effort will be worth it.

[alamogunr]

Even though this thread is getting a little long in the tooth, I thought I would post my latest info since knowledgeable people have participated. I received sample boolits from BK7saum and Thundarstick. Both were .314. Seated some of both in a dummy to see if they would chamber. After finding that they chambered with ease, I pulled the boolits and measured. All boolits had been sized down to .311 or less. I'm kind of at a standstill now. I've never had the problem of size down but this was with new Starline brass. I've never used them but NOE expander plugs with the Lee Universal Case Expanding Die comes to mind. Would this help?

I also ordered some 115 gr HP boolits from GT Bullets. Loaded some in a dummy and found that, when crimped in the crimp groove, they were too long for the cylinder. Would probably work seated deeper if not for the large throats.

I have decided not to contact Ruger. I dislike dealing with corporate bureaucracy. If worse comes to worst, I'll just send the gun down the road or have a new cylinder made(?). I won't roll the dice and buy another Ruger. I'm too old to keep fooling with this gun if solving the size down doesn't work.

[Thundarstick]

Still not shot it?

[alamogunr]

Still not shot it?

Yes! Shot it today. One box of commercial ammo. I'm going to load some of the boolits that you and BK7saum sent over the weekend and try to find time next week to try them. I decided there was no reason to keep it unfired if I wasn't going to fight with Ruger over it.

The ammo I shot today worked fine. Only hiccup was for some reason the cylinder locked up after the first 3 shots. Or rather I couldn't cock it. Removed the cylinder and removed the remaining 4 rounds and 3 fired brass. Reinstalled the cylinder and rechambered the remaining rounds and added 3 more. Everything worked fine at that point. I could not see if one round had backed out. That will probably the only commercial ammo I shoot. At $30 for 20 rounds, I won't be shooting much bought ammo.

The range I use is a 70 mile round trip so I don't get to go as often as I would like. Also, cell service is almost non-existent and with my wife's health problems, I don't like to be out of touch too often. I used to go quite often and take several guns, lots of ammo, the chronograph if I was testing new loads plus anything else I could think of that I might need in that out of the way place.

I'll update as I go along.

[Guesser]

The reason your cylinder locked and you couldn't cock it is because your base pin jumped free a "tad". Happens to nearly all the S7 guns. I emailed Ruger and they sent a new pin and latch; still jumped free. I took my dremel and modified the original pin, stays in place now. Or, some have gone with Belt Mountain pins and latches. Mine works well now; stays in place.

[Guesser]

The S7 has been the 2nd most troublesome Ruger I've ever owned over nearly 60 years. The P-90 was by far the worst Ruger in my life, never more!!!

[alamogunr]

Thanks for that info. If I have any more problems of that kind, I'll get a Belt Mountain pin. I've got a couple on other Ruger Blackhawks and on a couple of customs.

I'm beginning to think that the only thing Ruger's are good for is base material for custom guns. No wonder a good number of smiths make a good living modifying them. I've got at least 4 Bisley's in .45 Colt and .44Mag plus a couple of customs. The standard Bisley's are up to 20 years old. No problems with any of them except two of them had to have the throats reamed. They were too small.

[jmort]

My P90s never have any problems, ever. Not a single FTF or FTE
100% reliable. I have never seen a single bad report about the P90 function wise.

[Guesser]

My P-90 went back to Ruger twice, each time it was failure to feed and failure to extract. The only reliable was mil-spec ball ammo and a hand load was a failure every time. My 1911's would run all the same ammo flawlessly. I called Ruger and told them it was going to market and the clerk agreed that that was probably best as Ruger was done with it. They were satisfied that factory ball ammo was all I needed.

[Thundarstick]

Ok, I've got 3 single sevens 2 of them have had at least 100 rounds fired through them and the other over 250 and have NEVER had a single hiccup from any of them. My 6 inch GP100 did have a burr on the cylinder ratchet that galled the frame and locked it up. 10 mins with the diamond files and no more issues from it. Some lemons do seem to find their way into the fruit salad though.