New Blackhawk convertible

[WebMonkey]

170904

had been considering a single action in .357 for awhile.
I load a ton of .38spl for my wife but don't shoot it myself much.
decided on this .357 with 9mm cylinder in stainless.

it is a 6.5 inch barrel.
wiped off the excess oil and will probably send it to my gunsmith before anything else.
I can slug the cylinders/bore but don't have the reaming setup myself.
I can see already the cylinder throats are tight on the cast projectile shown in the photo.
it is a lee hollow point at .3585.

I'm also seriously considering having the barrel cut down to 5.5 or 5.25.

anyway, pretty excited about working with this one.
'monkey

[charlie b]

Nice pick.

Think about the barrel and how you want to use it. The extra length is really nice if you are going to shoot longer distances, like pigs/rams.

But, I had my 7.5" cut down to about 1/8" beyond the ejector housing. I really liked that length for carrying in the woods. And with my eyes, anything further away is dealt with by the rifle.

[WebMonkey]

'preciate the tip.

I'm thinking along the same lines. walking through the rec property. it's all woods.
I would have bought a 5.5 inch version if they made one at present.
I thought the 4.5 would be even easier to manipulate but i like having the barrel longer than the ejector rod housing.

50 yards is the extreme for me and a pistol so I'd probably be ok either way.
the ruger American predator .308 in the background will handle the longer distances (I hope).
:)
'monkey

[44man]

Short is nice for carry but I like long barrels. I picked up a 27 years ago in the dark ages! It was short and nickel plated. Someone gave me a box of older factory loads in .38 SP. I stopped hitting things, found boolits were hitting right in front of me on the ground. A factory boolit stopped at the muzzle and I split it on the bottom.
I sent it to S&W and had them strip the nickel, put an 8-3/8" ribbed barrel on it with S&W bright blue. I put a Phantom scope on it and it would hit 1" targets at 100 from prone using the 358156 HP and 2400. S&W charged me $35 at the time so you know how long ago it was.
I have never made any .357 shoot like it did. I wish I would have kept it and the mold.

[Pine Baron]

Be real interesting in how it shoots the 9mm.

[contender1]

Before I'd send it off,,, I'd shoot it. See if it performs to your expectations. And, by shooting it before any work is done, you have a baseline to see if your money spent was worth it.
It's not often that a 357 has to be reamed. Again, shooting is the best test.
Barrel length is a personal choice. Many folks would like for Ruger to offer one "in-between" the 4-5/8" & the 6-1/2". And of course,,, there are those that wish for longer barrels as well.

[WebMonkey]

took the blackhawk out to the rec property today.
was able to ride the motorcycle out there since i was just taking the blackhawk.
171142

the .357 performed pretty good.
best 6 round group was 1" @ 15 'paces' offhand.
i used a lee single cavity hollow point over 4.5 grains of titegroup.
there was a little leading after the forcing cone.
the projectiles don't 'slip' through the cylinder throats but didn't appear to shave either.
171143
projectile recovered 8" into the newspaper box from 20 'paces'.

the 9mm was a different story.
i used the lee 356 102 round nose over 4 grains of titegroup.
(already had a couple boxes made up so i shot those).
the 356 loaded cartridge had to be 'helped' into the cylinder each and every time. so i know for sure those throats need some love.
after 1 cylinder, leading was really noticeable. the projectiles hit the target pretty good though. around 1.6" was the best.

so, in conclusion:
;)
i will most likely get some work done on the .357 cylinder and definitely on the 9mm.
i plan on loading the lee hollow point into 9mm cases if need be and will keep them fat rather than sizing them down to .356.
most likely though, i won't shoot the 9mm a ton but rather enjoy the .38spl/.357 mag cases with the lee HP.

will also most likely figure if i have a choke point at the cone or if it was just the swaging in the throats that led to leading.

the 6.5" barrel wasn't as cumbersome as i thought.
a 5.5" would be better but i liked the accuracy and sight picture of the 6.5". i may have to leave it alone.

any/all comments welcome and i apologize if i left anything out.
i started pistol/shotgun reloading in the 70's under the tutelage of my grandfather (mother's side).
he raised game birds and the dogs to go with.

lately, i've had better luck with my rifle reloading though :)

'monkey

[Drm50]

I bought a 357/9mm for my old man back in 70s. The 357 shot fine, we could never find a 9mm
that shot satisfactory. Dad shot 158 Kieth style bullets/2400 powder and shot many groundhogs
out to 50yds with it.

[robertbank]

I cast a Lyman 35402 bullet for a friend of mine who has the same gun you have. I size the 9MM bullets .358 while lubing them. The sizer hardly touches the bullet but does. Accuracy of course improved immediately as the leading stopped in it's tracks. He did open up his 9MM cylinder mouths to .358. His concern was he wanted to match as best he could the bullets to the barrel. He also uses a larger spud in his 9MM sizing die I believe. Seems to work for him. Good luck with your gun.

Take care

Bob

[Char-Gar]

I seriously doubt your revolver needs any work of any kind. I see no purpose to pay money to have the barrel bobbed an inch or inch and a half.

Size you bullets .357 or .358 and enjoy your revolver for the rest of your lifetime. If you just love to spend money, then have at it. There is no limit to the amount of money you can spend on that revolver and get nothing significant in return.

[Virginia John]

I concur with robertbank. I have the same Blackhawk and I load 9mm with a .358 diameter and they do well. I also use a little heaver bullet, in fact, I use bullet that I use to load my .357 and .38. Keep your gun for a while and experiment with it. I'm sure you will find a combination that you like.

[robertbank]

I seriously doubt your revolver needs any work of any kind. I see no purpose to pay money to have the barrel bobbed an inch or inch and a half.

Size you bullets .357 or .358 and enjoy your revolver for the rest of your lifetime. If you just love to spend money, then have at it. There is no limit to the amount of money you can spend on that revolver and get nothing significant in return.

Charles my Ruger GP 100 had cylinder throats of .356 and 357. Accuracy was elusive with copious amounts of leading. Ruger cylinder throats and consistent sizing are often strangers. My BH 45 Colt Convertible suffered from the same malady ie tight throats. Glad your experience with Rugers differs. They are excellent kit guns but often need some work to get them running from my experience.

Bob

[WebMonkey]

I seriously doubt your revolver needs any work of any kind. I see no purpose to pay money to have the barrel bobbed an inch or inch and a half.

Size you bullets .357 or .358 and enjoy your revolver for the rest of your lifetime. If you just love to spend money, then have at it. There is no limit to the amount of money you can spend on that revolver and get nothing significant in return.

the .357 cylinder throats were .002 under bore on average.
I could shoot jacketed just fine sure, but that's not why I cast.
the 9mm were .355 all the way around. again, I could just shoot jacketed and not spend any money on the gun.

the cylinders are being reamed to .0005 over bore diameter so that I can shoot cast out of and not lead it up as noted in my range report higher up in the posting.
also noted in the range report, I pretty much decided not to bob the barrel.

so in this instance, I'm not sure how this would be a case of diminishing returns :)

will post on this again when I get the Blackhawk ready to shoot.

thanks to all for the comments!
'monkey

[robertbank]

Good for you. You will have a shooter when you are done. With the 9MM just size your bullets .358 and you should be good to go in that caliber. My friend turned his into a real shooter. You won't be disappointed.

Bob

[DougGuy]

You would be best served with throats of .3585" diameter, and size both 9mm and 357 to .358"

[WebMonkey]

Roger that!

'Monkey