C. Latch
05-15-2017, 05:40 PM
I wanted to share this here because I don't remember seeing it posted here before, and I've found it useful:
I've posted before about my bisley blackhawk .45 that I enjoy shooting. One minor annoyance I've had is that with a very few hot loads with soft brass (usually a case that I annealed so as to extend the life of the case neck), I've had a hard time ejecting the case. So I looked into the possibility of adding a full-length (target length, I think ruger calls it) ejector setup. Problem is, even if I bought all the parts and converted my .45 to a target-length ejector, I'm still left with a fairly expensive holster that's molded to a standard-length ejector setup.
A couple of weeks ago I made a few observations:
1) My ejector rod bottoms out on the revolver's base pin, which is longer than it has to be.
2) My ejector rod could be 1/16" longer and still fit and function.
I did a bit of shopping and found:
1) For less than $10 I could buy a target-length ejector and cut it to be 1/16th" longer than my stock ejector rod. I did this, cutting it long and trimming until it just barely fit.
2) For less than $10, I could either buy a ruger base pin and shorten the head or buy a shopkeeper-length base pin, which is already very short. I got the shopkeeper-length pin. It works, it's easy enough to remove, which is all that matters length-wise. As a *possible* bonus, I've heard of people having their base pin come loose under recoil. In theory, a shorter and lighter base pin should be less prone to this (less mass).
3) When I moved to the shorter base pin, the ejector bottomed out on the ejector spring. I bought another spring ($2.50 I think) but shortened my stock spring a bit. It still is long enough to keep the ejector fully forward, but doesn't bottom out until after my cases eject.
The upshot is this: I spent $20 on parts (from Midway) and didn't even need the spring and might have been able to get full case ejection without the new, longer ejector rod. Merely changing the base pin might have been enough.
The downside: My base pin is no longer captive. It can be fully removed. I don't know if that's a downside....time will tell. It's hard to imagine a scenario where it came out completely without being pulled intentionally. Perhaps a stock-length pin could be shortened a bit and still be captive but allow full ejection, or maybe ejection that wasn't full but was enough to allow easier grasping of the fired case, for those of us with short fingernails or fat fingers.
Anyway....I'm enjoying having full ejection. Hold the revolver correctly and empties fall into your hand. Work the ejector rod slowly and you can stop just short of full ejection. Best of all, you can do all of this and still have a standard-length housing.
I've posted before about my bisley blackhawk .45 that I enjoy shooting. One minor annoyance I've had is that with a very few hot loads with soft brass (usually a case that I annealed so as to extend the life of the case neck), I've had a hard time ejecting the case. So I looked into the possibility of adding a full-length (target length, I think ruger calls it) ejector setup. Problem is, even if I bought all the parts and converted my .45 to a target-length ejector, I'm still left with a fairly expensive holster that's molded to a standard-length ejector setup.
A couple of weeks ago I made a few observations:
1) My ejector rod bottoms out on the revolver's base pin, which is longer than it has to be.
2) My ejector rod could be 1/16" longer and still fit and function.
I did a bit of shopping and found:
1) For less than $10 I could buy a target-length ejector and cut it to be 1/16th" longer than my stock ejector rod. I did this, cutting it long and trimming until it just barely fit.
2) For less than $10, I could either buy a ruger base pin and shorten the head or buy a shopkeeper-length base pin, which is already very short. I got the shopkeeper-length pin. It works, it's easy enough to remove, which is all that matters length-wise. As a *possible* bonus, I've heard of people having their base pin come loose under recoil. In theory, a shorter and lighter base pin should be less prone to this (less mass).
3) When I moved to the shorter base pin, the ejector bottomed out on the ejector spring. I bought another spring ($2.50 I think) but shortened my stock spring a bit. It still is long enough to keep the ejector fully forward, but doesn't bottom out until after my cases eject.
The upshot is this: I spent $20 on parts (from Midway) and didn't even need the spring and might have been able to get full case ejection without the new, longer ejector rod. Merely changing the base pin might have been enough.
The downside: My base pin is no longer captive. It can be fully removed. I don't know if that's a downside....time will tell. It's hard to imagine a scenario where it came out completely without being pulled intentionally. Perhaps a stock-length pin could be shortened a bit and still be captive but allow full ejection, or maybe ejection that wasn't full but was enough to allow easier grasping of the fired case, for those of us with short fingernails or fat fingers.
Anyway....I'm enjoying having full ejection. Hold the revolver correctly and empties fall into your hand. Work the ejector rod slowly and you can stop just short of full ejection. Best of all, you can do all of this and still have a standard-length housing.