Inaccurate Super Blackhawk update

[osteodoc08]

Some of y'all may recall me complaining and thinking of ditching my Ruger SuperBlackhawk Hunter in 41 mag due to its inaccuracies.

I took a known, accurate 41 mag blackhawk cylinder and the SBH cylinder.

The accurate one, I was able to pass a Hornady XTP bullet through it with fair finger pressure on all chambers. The SBH was near impossible to pass the XTP bullet through and I really had to push hard with a dowel to get it to pass.

I took some 600 grit wet or dry sand paper and rolled it around a 40 cal brush and chucked it in my drill. I ran this up and down the chambers until an XTP could pass through with minimal effort. I then proceeded to 1000 and 1500 grit. I followed this up with flitz on a .410 mop to get a final mirror finish. Now the XTPs will plunk down and pass through with nary a push.

It's in the ultrasonic cleaner now. Ill report back on accuracy when I get a chance over the next few days.

[osteodoc08]

94621

Finished product

[C. Latch]

I'll be interested in seeing what sort of results you get. I sent my .45 to cylindersmith.com before I ever shot it. Some were tighter than others, I've wondered what I 'missed' by not shooting it first.

[osteodoc08]

I'll be interested in seeing what sort of results you get. I sent my .45 to cylindersmith.com before I ever shot it. Some were tighter than others, I've wondered what I 'missed' by not shooting it first.

Aggravation.

[**oneshot**]

I firelapped mine to get rid of the constiction in the barrel, then opened up the tight cylinder throats to get them all on par. It's been a super accurate gun ever since. Mine started out accurate but with some weird leading issues that drove me nuts trying to figure out. I figured I got a monday morning gun since my other rugers are fine from the box.

[44man]

I hope you only enlarged the throats and not the whole chambers.
Chambers too smooth increase head pressure too. You want brass grip.

[cbrick]

I hope you only enlarged the throats and not the whole chambers.
Chambers too smooth increase head pressure too. You want brass grip.

That's the first thing I thought of looking at the picture.

Rick

[osteodoc08]

No change in the chambers, just throats. I used a small piece of sandpaper and entered from the throat end. The chamber areas largely untouched. It's shiny because it was ultrasonic cleaned and lightly oiled when I took the picture. I was trying to show the chambers and you can still see where the throats are. In any event. The throats were enlarged to where the .410 bullet passes through with easy finger pressure. When compared to my 57-1, the smith had even bigger throats. Probably why it shoots my cast so well. Wording changed. I did flitz the entire thing though. I doubt I removed any major metal with it.

Even the base pin hole was super shiny. I can promise you I didn't touch that.

[detox]

Handloader issue #285 August 2013 has a good article on loading for the .41 magnum. The 226gr Saeco /Redding 410 cast shoots verygood and the old 223gr Hensley & Gibbs 258 cast does good also. For higher pressure loads use Accurate #9. For lower velocity 800-850 Red Dot and Titegroup does verygood.

Writer also stated cylinder throats generally measure .410 and never over .411.

You can go back and rough up charge holes with coarse grit paper if you think they are too smooth.

[cbrick]

You should be good to go then, all throats uniform and at or very slightly larger than groove diameter. Size your boolits to a mild snug fit in the throats. Be interesting to see how it shoots now.

Lot's of folks seem to think that the throats in a revolver cylinder are there to size their boolits, not so. The boolit should be sized properly to the throats, the purpose of the throats is to align with and guide the boolit through the forcing cone into the bore in perfect alignment with the center line of the bore. In a perfect world the only change to the boolit exiting the muzzle from what you loaded into the brass is engraving. The less the boolit is molested during that trip the better it is for accuracy.

Rick

[detox]

I got more leading in cylinder and face of cylinder when i sized bullets (any alloy soft or hard) to match throat diameter of .3575.....flame cutting past bullet in cylinder

I now get very little leading and verygood accuracy sizing bullets to .358....less flame cutting.

I am sure someone will dissagree :takinWiz:

[osteodoc08]

Went out today and shot it. If I could upload pictures, I'd let them do the talking. I keep getting error messages.

But basically I evaluated the chambers compared to my smith. The casings fit tighter in the blackhawk so I wasn't worried about chamber issues.

I started off at 25 yards. I was able to get a 1.2" group with the XTP's but only a 2" grouping with cast.

I stepped back to 50 yards and was very surprised. One group with the XTP was 1.48 and the other 1.55. I was really excited. Unfortunately cast hovered between 3-4" with the best being right at 3". Not bad, but not near as good as I hoped for.

As a side note, previously in this same gun my loads with the 265gr LBT showed signs of high pressure with primer flattening. Now they do not. Same load out of same box. It grouped right at 3" when previously closer to 4.5".

All in all I'm happy. If someone can post my pictures I'd love that. PM an email.

[osteodoc08]

94669

50 yds. 210gr XTP over 296

Other grouping done at 25 yds and 1.2"

[osteodoc08]

94670

50 yds with same XTP load.

I wanted to try at 75 and 100 but ran out.

[osteodoc08]

94671

50 yards with 265gr LBTLFNGC over LilGun

[osteodoc08]

94672

Pic through laser rangefinder. Not sure why it's upside down.

[RED333]

Nice you have you pistol worked out, and stop standing on you head to take pics.LOL

[osteodoc08]

Nice you have you pistol worked out, and stop standing on you head to take pics.LOL

Kinda. I want to get my boolits as accurate as my XTP bullet. At least it will be a worthwhile investment of my time at this point.

[canthitsquat]

Kinda. I want to get my boolits as accurate as my XTP bullet. At least it will be a worthwhile investment of my time at this point.Just keep trying different powder and loads, and it should tighten up.

[cbrick]

Kinda. I want to get my boolits as accurate as my XTP bullet.

Won't be long before you will be trying to get your jacketed bullets to shoot as good as the boolits. :mrgreen:

Most of Veral's designs work pretty well for their intended purpose. I'm not familiar with that 41m boolit, perhaps a different design/weight could work some better. What alloy are you using? How about case tension? Are these cases old (many times fired)? What load, powder/charge/primer?

Rick

[osteodoc08]

I've used 210 non Keith SWC, 220K, 220K HP, 255gr LBT WFNGC and 265 LFNGC. The heavies under a full charge of 296 or LilGun are the most accurate so far. I've got a Lyman Keith style I'm working on and Blammer most recent 230gr LFN I've yet to cast with to try. I've got some 2400, 296 and LG for full power duties. I'll also try some 231, HS-6, TrailBoss. I'd say I'd try BD, but I believe they removed load data for the 41.

If nothing, I've got 400-500 XTP and 200 Sierra 170gr to work with.

[Bohica793]

Glad to hear you got most of your issues worked out. As to powder, 2400 and BlueDot have been my go to powders. I encourage you to work up some loads with 2400 and see if those lead groups don't come together better. Also, I assume you have verified your bore size against the diameter of your lead loads, right?

[osteodoc08]

Glad to hear you got most of your issues worked out. As to powder, 2400 and BlueDot have been my go to powders. I encourage you to work up some loads with 2400 and see if those lead groups don't come together better. Also, I assume you have verified your bore size against the diameter of your lead loads, right?

Yes. Bore is GTG. It was the throats that were the issue and still likely is the case but with it shooting the XTPs so well, I'd rather play with load development at this point.

[tacklebury]

Well, one thing you might be running into is that shooting lead bullets following jacketed doesn't often work well. The copper fouling is harder than the lead and often debreeds the leading edge of your cast bullets. Maybe you should try getting some copper fouling remover and clean the barrel well and then see how the leads fare without sharing ground with the jackets... 8)

[osteodoc08]

Well, one thing you might be running into is that shooting lead bullets following jacketed doesn't often work well. The copper fouling is harder than the lead and often debreeds the leading edge of your cast bullets. Maybe you should try getting some copper fouling remover and clean the barrel well and then see how the leads fare without sharing ground with the jackets... 8)


Will do.

Hoping to get a few hundred boolits cast for it this coming weekend. About 2 months ago I had 700 rounds loaded up. I'm down to less than 50. Brass is all clean. Looks like I've got some work to do. I'm also gonna seperate the boolits out by weight and see if it helps any.