Anyone fit a new model blackhawk cylinder to an old model blackhawk?

[paul h]

Yes I undertand the caveats about headspace, end shake, barrel cyinder gap and timing. That said, is it possible to fit a new model blackhawk cylinder to an old model? I have an old model 357 and was thinking of fitting a 357 cylinder to it to make it a convertable. From the research I've done the new model cylinders are slightly longer. So no big deal to cut it back with the lathe and set end shake and barrel/cylinder gap. The bigger question is regarding the timing end of the cylinder and whether or not that will trip me up.

[Char-Gar]

The Ruger New Model Blackhawks cylinders are pretty much drop in interchangeable. Ruger hold the tolerances that close.

The Ruger Old Model Blackhawk cylinders are not interchangeable even with other OM cylinders. They require fitting, having done a few.

I have both New and Old Blackhawk and have never thought about fitting a MN cylinder to an OM frame. I believe not only is the NM cylinder longer but it may be wider as well. That is something to check out, as I am not certain about that, and I don't feel like pulling guns from the safe to find out.

The OM and NM lockwork is quite different and I don't know how that would effect when and where the bolt rises vis-a-vi the cylinder notch. My gut feeling is that your project is either not doable or would not be worth the effort.

[pietro]

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The Ruger OM cylinder frame has a smaller internal opening for the cylinder, IOW, the OM frames are smaller, too ( NM frames = OM Super Blackhawk frames, size-wise) - which translates to (besides the lengths) a fatter (diameter) cylinder on NM's, as compared to OM cylinders.


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