Slugged my .44 caliber Super Blackhawk..

[DougGuy]

This always was an exceptional shooter, I could count on it to cloverleaf a playing card with a ragged one hole group at 40yds or so, and keep them all on the playing card at 85yds. Not bad for shooting offhand sitting with wrists rested on knees. That's when I had 40s-ish yr old EYES too!:mrgreen:

Before I came to this forum I always hunted with J words in this ol girl, and it has put more deer in the freezer than any other gun I own. Now I am getting up to speed on hunting with cast boolits and I decided to slug the barrel and just see what the numbers said before I go off hunting boolits for it.

Surprise, surprise, this one is about as good as it gets as far as factory Rugers go. Looking down a clean and lightly lubed bore, there is only the very slightest ring in the reflection just about where the shoulder of the barrel sits against the frame, and I mean it is barely detectable to someone who knows what they are looking for. This is entirely a good thing.. Slugging the bore delivers a constant resistance against a #8 egg sinker, and there is no perceivable difference when the slug arrives at the threaded end of the bore. Yay!!

When the slug dropped out, it mic'ed right at .431" every way you turn it. Sliding this slug in the cylinder throats, it very gently slides in one, it is an even resistance in 3 more, and a tad stiffer but still slides through the last two. Turning the cylinder up vertical, all the chambers support the weight of the slug, and it doesn't fall free from any of them. It has sprung back just enough that it won't go back in the bore, so I am going to say that the bore is a good .430" and call it that. The cylinder throats will probably be on the tight side of .432" with a pin gage with one or two .4315" or thereabouts.

This being a 1978 gun, I think that's when Ruger was gang reaming the cylinders 6 holes at a time and that would explain the 3 different cylinder throat diameters. I'm not surprised, but I'm very glad none of them are any bigger than .002" over groove diameter.

For cast boolits, I would like to use a WFN boolit between 280gr and 310gr. I particularly like how the 300gr Lee C452-300RF performs in my .45 Colt Vaquero, so the Lee C430-310RF would be the .44 caliber equivalent in that boolit design. (If anyone that casts these would like to help me procure some of them I would be very grateful.) It is a gas check but I have no problems using gas checks since I would prefer the alloy to be a/c WW or Lyman #2, and run them out the muzzle about 1200f/s.

Would you go with .432" boolit diameter for this load?

Would you want to run a .432" reamer through the cylinder to even up the throat diameters or is that splitting hairs?

Also, what forcing cone angle do you think would be best suited to these long boolits?

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb374/DougGuy/44%20Magnum/20130710_2130111_zpsc12df89a.jpg (http://s1202.photobucket.com/user/DougGuy/media/44%20Magnum/20130710_2130111_zpsc12df89a.jpg.html)

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb374/DougGuy/Guns/20130211_191541_zpsdf42125f.jpg (http://s1202.photobucket.com/user/DougGuy/media/Guns/20130211_191541_zpsdf42125f.jpg.html)

[Piedmont]

I wouldn't even up the throats being of the mind that if it ain't broke don't fix it, and you said it shoots well. You can probably size either .431 or .432". With those WFNs sometimes you have to size smaller than you want just to get them to chamber (long front band can cause trouble). On the forcing cone, you have been shooting this for some time and have eroded a different angle than was probably there to begin with. It is shot-in. I would not mess with the forcing cone.

[DougGuy]

Thanks.. The forcing cone is actually dark all the way around until right where the rifling starts and it takes a shine about even all the way around so I'm thinking the timing would have to be pretty dang close for it to do that. It may look a little different once I get to shooting slightly larger diameter cast boolits than the factory J words I have been feeding it.

[MtGun44]

If it is accurate, why change anything?

Bill

[DougGuy]

Agreed Bill, just asking. What would your choice in boolit diameter be for this one?

[44man]

Groove size will do it and a little more will not hurt if they go through the throats.
You are not lucky with your Ruger, they are better then many say and actually have less poor guns then anyone except BFR's.
Leave the throats alone because all are over groove and if you can tell a difference you are shooting one hole groups at 200 meters.
Leave the forcing cone alone too, many can not be cut without getting too large at the back. Ruger's have enough cylinder play to align the boolits.

[gray wolf]

I would size to the largest throat and let the pistol dictate from there.
It sounds like you have been very thorough in your thinking---BUT--don't over think it.

Just sayin.

[44man]

I would size to the largest throat and let the pistol dictate from there.
It sounds like you have been very thorough in your thinking---BUT--don't over think it.

Just sayin.
Exactly, leave a good gun alone. You can spend thousands and will have trouble matching a good Ruger.
Just read a story about a famous IHMSA shooter, one I shot with to tell the truth, best of the best. He shot a Freedom but had a Shilen barrel on it. I actually beat him a few times with an out of box Ruger even though he could not shoot production and we were a different class.
Leave the wonderful gun alone. You might make it worse.

[bosterr]

Exactly, leave a good gun alone. You can spend thousands and will have trouble matching a good Ruger.
Just read a story about a famous IHMSA shooter, one I shot with to tell the truth, best of the best. He shot a Freedom but had a Shilen barrel on it. I actually beat him a few times with an out of box Ruger even though he could not shoot production and we were a different class.
Leave the wonderful gun alone. You might make it worse.

I used to shoot IHMSA as well, the last match was in 1984. In revolver class I started with a 7 1/2" Super Blackhawk, then went to a 10 " and got as far as AAA. My highest score was 36. Now, the last I heard, one needs a Freedom Arms to be competitive. There used to be quite a few clubs in Penna. active in IMHSA, now I think there is only one. It got so expensive to keep it up, besides, my Sister divorced my spotter.

[Changeling]

Holy **** DougGuy you never said you were a "Suger Daddy" to that revolver! The first picture clearly shows an atempt at a "Boob Job". It needs more lift, LOL.

[Mohillbilly]

I have a few like yours . Fine revolvers , leave a good thing alone , and save your money . I'd take the money and get another Ruger in say , a Bisley 45 colt, or a Stainless convertable in 45 Colt/ACP . ENJOY your gun and shoot alot , because you won't live long enough to wear it out ......

[DougGuy]

I agree, it doesn't need "fixing" and I appreciate the replies. I was just tickled at how it slugged and wish my other Rugers could have been so lucky..

This one in .45 Colt took cylinder throat reaming and removing a barrel constriction to bring it around to behaving with cast boolits but once that was done, whoa yeah well worth the effort.

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb374/DougGuy/Birdshead%20Vaquero/DSC01517_zpsf2299cee.jpg (http://s1202.photobucket.com/user/DougGuy/media/Birdshead%20Vaquero/DSC01517_zpsf2299cee.jpg.html)

[44man]

I used to shoot IHMSA as well, the last match was in 1984. In revolver class I started with a 7 1/2" Super Blackhawk, then went to a 10 " and got as far as AAA. My highest score was 36. Now, the last I heard, one needs a Freedom Arms to be competitive. There used to be quite a few clubs in Penna. active in IMHSA, now I think there is only one. It got so expensive to keep it up, besides, my Sister divorced my spotter.
I shot PA many times but one club used white targets and there was always snow on the ground at the start of shooting.
I was international class with all guns, shot hundreds of 40's, won state with the Ruger, 79 out of 80, last ram my fault. Freedoms were popular but it is still how you load. DW was a good gun until they changed hands.
I still have the silver hornpipe and dimensions are still .430" groove and .4324" throats. It still shoots. I never worried about throats if they are over groove. Even if they vary a little, it will do no harm.
I tested each chamber on many, many guns looking for a bad one, never found it, Turns out it is the loads, not the chambers. I have never had to mark a chamber.
Other then the .45 with small throats, nothing needs done to a Ruger and you can spend big bucks to feel good but they will not shoot better.

[DougGuy]

An update on this fine Ruger 44..

After starting this thread I took it out and shot it quite a bit, and my buddy was sitting to my right and was the recipient of quite a bit of spitting, which I had not noticed this before since all I ever did with this gun was kill deer with it.

I was fortunate enough to get a response from a forum member who cast some boolits for me from his Lee C430-310-RF mold and sent them soft lubed and sized .431" with gas checks. Anyway I already knew a couple of the cylinder throats were smaller than the others, and needless to say I waited until I actually had the boolits in hand that I would shoot before going any farther. There were two holes the .431" boolit went in fairly snugly, two that had to be forced, and two that would not allow the boolit to enter the hole at all. We are probably talking less than a thou between the tightest and the loosest. A .430" boolit would go in all 6 but still very snug on a couple.

So I had a brand new Manson .431" reamer, it dropped through the two loose holes, took finger pressure to go through the two sorta middle sized holes, and barely any effort at all with a T handle to take it through the two tight holes. There was so little metal removed, it didn't even take the bluing out and there weren't even any shavings that I could see on the reamer flutes when I got done. I think the tight holes might have been a little out of rounds, maybe a little oval shaped. The .431" cast boolit goes in all 6 now, very snugly which is fine with me. They likely wouldn't have chambered all the way without the tiny bit of straightening up the throats that the reamer did.

All well now, and the forcing cone was real small and not really even so it got touched with an 11° cutter just enough to even it up. I know there isn't enough metal taken off to harm this shooter, all that was done was barely evened up what was there and not gone hog wild with the tooling.

I had all the advice of this thread, and I kept that in mind and was very judicious and very careful in my work, taking the bare minimum to allow the .431" boolits to chamber.

Thanks to all the members who replied in this thread, I dang sure kept those thoughts in mind with this one. Will get a range report when I get to shoot it next time with those fine 50/50 + 2% tin cast boolits....

[Greg G]

Another option for cylinder throat sizing I haven't seen mentioned on the site is to use a Sunnen valve guide sizing hone. I'm in the machine shop business and have one. One of the mandrels for it is a .437" (I used it for 361 and 391 big Ford trucks that had 7/16" exhaust valves), but that is just a nominal size and it will go down smaller, like 430". That hone and a dial bore gauge would do a perfect job on throats. Most automotive machine shops will have this tool.

[DougGuy]

You would have to make something to fit in the back of the charge hole to keep the cylinder squared up and on center of the hone those things bounce around a lot and you could very easily have a throat that was belled on both sides of it. I have used them before and you can dial them in for some very precise diameters, down in the .0001" of an inch but like I said, a bushing or collar in the back of the charge hole would be mandatory.