45 acp in my black hawk

[lead chucker]

just got a ruger black hawk convertable 45 acp/ 45 colt, love it. I was wundering if you could hop up the 45 acp loads on it? They say you can get 44 mag performance out ot the long colt with the black hawk. Thought it might be fun to get deer killing performance out of the 45 acp. Just a thought any info would be apreciated. I love this gun. I gues i love all my guns. Its great to be an American.

[MtGun44]

The biggest risk is that these hot loads would someday somehow wind up in an
ordinary .45 ACP and damage a gun or hurt a person.

Stay within the limitations of the cartridge design.

Use the .45 LC cylinder if you feel the need for hot loads.

OTOH - a normal .45 ACP will kill a deer just fine with a decent boolit and good
shot placement. I have several friends that have done it.

Bill

[timkelley]

MtGun44 +1!

[Gee_Wizz01]

MtGun44 is correct on all counts. In my younger days, I loaded some hot .45ACP for use in the BH convertible. I did this after I a read an article that listed some hot loads. I had the plastic ammo boxes sitting out in the garage, and the stick on labels fell off! I had about 200 hot loads and 500 rds of normal .45ACP for my 1911. I ended up having to shoot them all through the Ruger SBH because I couldn't tell which load was which. The standard .45ACP works fine on whitetails with the Lee 230TC bullet. It passes all the way through them out to at least 40 yds. I have also killed a pig with a light semi wadcutter load at approx 30 yds. Also be careful loading hot .45 Colt loads for the BH. The BH handles them just fine, but if you ever get a Colt or a Colt clone, dont get them mixed up.

G

[Trey45]

Just my 2 cents here.

I wouldn't recommend loading anything for your Blackhawk that you wouldn't want to put through your 1911. Now that that is out of the way.....


IF you only have one pistol that shoots 45acp, and that one pistol is your Blackhawk convertible, I really don't see a problem with loading some "Ruger Only" cartridges for it. Take precautions, such as putting them all in a box with a label INSIDE the box that states exactly what they are and what gun they are for. If you should ever buy another gun for 45acp, never have the new gun and the Ruger Only ammo together, not even by accident. I realise this all might seem a bit extreme, but there is a valid reason for these precautions, we don't want to see you or anyone else injured by a gun blowing up and sending shrapnel in every direction.

As the others have said, 45acp in it's standard loading is going to be every bit as effective as one of these Ruger Only loadings for hunting. Unless you're a recoil junky, ( I am a recoil junky ) there's no real reason to load up the 45acp past its standard.

[shooting on a shoestring]

I took my .45 Colt BH well into .44 Mag territory and broke the aluminum grip frame. It now sports a brass one. For the most part I run 250 grains at 1000 fps, although I occasionally shoot 300 grains at 1250 to 1300 fps.

[bigboredad]

I use different bullet styles to keep my loads separate that and the .45 acp loads that I load for my blackhawk are to long to chamber in my 1911. It makes it very easy to keep them separated. I really enjoy having the .45 convertible and I shoot both regularly

[deerslayer]

I use different bullet styles to keep my loads separate that and the .45 acp loads that I load for my blackhawk are to long to chamber in my 1911. It makes it very easy to keep them separated. I really enjoy having the .45 convertible and I shoot both regularly

That is some good thinking.

[Dale53]

I have the Ruger .45 ACP, also (SS Bisley .45 Colt/.45 ACP Convertible) as well as several 1911's and a couple of S&W 625's.

I have successfully loaded and SAFELY shot the NOE clone of the Lyman 454424 (250 grs) out of my 625's at 900+ fps. I use Auto Rim cases to eliminate the possibility of accidentally getting them into a 1911. This should make a FINE deer load at reasonable ranges.

I have thought about loading this same load in .45 ACP cases for the Blackhawk. The Blackhawk can certainly handle them but since the .45 ACP headspaces on the case mouth, I wouldn't be able to use a roll crimp on the 454424 bullet.

However, I do have .45 Cowboy Special cases and they might headspace properly - maybe I'll try that just for grins...

On the other hand, there is little reason to do this with the .45 Colt cylinder close at hand that will allow most any sane load to be safely used in the Blackhawk.

Interesting to think about it, tho'...

Dale53

[Multigunner]

The way I've heard it the feed ramp of the 1911 extends into the chamber a bit more than it should, so hot loads for the .45 ACP require cases with a much thicker web to avoid blow outs.
I think Detonics first started making up hot loads on the thick web cases.

Not sure but one might make suitable cases from cut down .30-06 cases. If so the neck would have to be reamed.

[theperfessor]

My 625 is the most accurate revolver I own. I've shot 250 gr loads in it at 900+. I just wonder if there might be any stripping problems with hot loads given the long jump from the case mouth to the forcing cone which you don't have with the longer 45 Colt case Doesn't seem to be a problem in the 625, just sharing a thought.

[Dale53]

theperfessor;
I only have the two 625's but it hasn't been a problem with mine. People that have the BFR tell me that it is of no matter.

I have heard from knowledgeable people that you had best use "harder" bullets in the S&W .45 ACP revolvers because of the shallow, narrow lands (they do not use the standard S&W wide and deep five lands and grooves in the .45 ACP). I shoot WW's + 2% tin and have no problems with them (my revolvers will shoot well under 1" at 25 yards). Maybe my alloy IS "harder", eh-h-h-h?

Dale53

[RayinNH]

When I have hot loaded rounds, I use a Red felt tip marker and draw a line across the backside. When they're in the plastic boxes I just use a ruler and strike a line right across the whole line of them. The red alerts me to the hot loads...Ray

[Heavy lead]

I have a 625 in 45 acp and love it, the concept of the full moon clips is brilliant, even enough so I'd love to have a 44 mag custom built to us 44 auto mag rounds with mooners, or at least a custom cylinder turned for a 29. Anyway I've one convertable Blackhawk, and I just won't waste anymore time with the acp cylinder, it's a very accurate revolver with the colt cylinder even though it has .455 throats. The only thing I use the acp cylinder for is burning up rounds that were a might too hot or just didn't work rignt in the 1911's. I should just sell it. Just can't see the purpose of that big long cylinder with a little stub of a cartridge in it, too bad Speer didn't make an extra long shot capsule for it.

[softpoint]

I have a blackhawk convertible, two 625's, and a couple 1911's. I keep my revolver loads separate from auto pistol loads by several methods. I use auto rim brass for some of my revolver loads, and I have had the acp cylinder of my blackhawk countersunk to accept them. I have seated bullets out far enough that they would not go in the magazines of auto pistols if the ammo was to be used in revolvers. I also have a batch of .45 Super brass that I keep separate from everything else, a glance at it tells me what it is. Just be careful, use some positive way to keep things separate. The Sierra manual gives some rather stiff loads for .45 revolvers if you are looking. A plus to using Auto rim brass in revolvers is that it can headspace on the rim and you can use a roll crimp on bullets with a crimp groove or a cannellure

[bobke]

for me, a couple of things have made shooting 45acp in convertible bisley fairly painless and straightforward. have a regular acp load of 200gr lbt fn or 200gr swc at 840fps for wilson commander that shoots to exactly the same point of aim as 250gr swc at about 1000fps, in my gun, my sights, my hold. may be circumstance, but it works. it's a really comfortable load in bisley, allows one load for all my acp work and keeps inventory issues at a minimum.

but, and as properly pointed out above, there are many reasons to use some real discipline if you use different loads for auto and revolver and commingle same on occasion. i just happened to get lucky in this case and will keep it simple for my purposes.

[Bass Ackward]

Boy oh boy how life can be strange. I have just gained access to one of these from the 70s and the Colt chamber throats measure .455 and the ACP cylinder's measure .4525 all into a .451 bore.

You would think that the gun would perform better with the ACP cylinder using cast. Wrong! Now you are thinking that it needs at least 454 slugs. Wrong!

The gun prefers .451 semi wadcutters.

Why that is important above is that if you can take a bullet design and seat it out just enough, then it will not work in a 1911 should this be a concern. In fact, I seat an LBT 260 out to 1.375 that puts it in the Scoffield category.

In truth, if you hit a deer at 900 fps with a 250 grain bullet, he won't be able to tell you if that 900 fps came from a Colt or an ACP. And 250 grains of lead at 900 fps has killed everything on this continent and did it out to 400 yards on horses in the 1800s.

So, after you digest that, what's the reason for this question again?

[beagle]

I have a fairly new .45 Blackhawk convertible and it's a gem. The ACP culinder is every bit as accurate as the .45 Colt cylinder and that's nice because I'm flush with ACP brass.

To answer your question.....yes. You can use hotter loads in them than loads published for the M1911A1 but beware in case you own both as has been pointed out above. I do have both and restrict my M1911A1 loads to 200 grain SWCs.

Look at my article on castpics/aricles by members/Heavy Bullets in the .45 ACP Blackhawk. Pretty easy to push a 454190 at 1,000 FPS without a grunt of pain from it.

I also had good luck and got higher velocities and less pressure using the .45 ACP brass with small pistol primers so you might look at that as well.

I'm no speed demon but shoot for 1,000 FPS on my using loads./beagle