Ruger Blackhawk

[JDL]

I have a Ruger Blackhawk in .357 with a bore that measures .3575" but, the cylinder throats are slighter tighter at .357". Should I open up the throats or leave it alone? What should they be reamed to, .358"? Thanks
JDL

[missionary5155]

I would first shoot it....
But if I was going to ream (and I would get ready to) I would go to .358 and would not feel bad with .359...
I like Fat boolits getting squeezed into the barrel. I cast soft and push-em as fast as I need.

[SCIBUL]

Hello.
+1 with missionary5155. I have a RUGER Blackhawk with the same barrel than yours and I opened the cylinder throats to .358. I have excellent results with the LYMAN KEITH 173grs boolit or RCBS 38-150-Kt. Boolits are made of air cooled WW, sized to .358 and lubbed with LYMAN 50/50. I load it with Vectan A0 ou Vihtavuory N110. Put a WOLFE spring kit in the revolver and enjoy !

[Bass Ackward]

I would ream. If you shoot it, it might work fairly well. That performance may be just enough to discourage you from making the correct decision. Then it will always work, but fewer accurate shots and more frequent cleaning will always be the problem. IF you are impatient cleaning, you will have a greater percentage of opportunities to damage the bore. Even if you are patient, and if it sours you on the gun eventually, it could cost you a lot more. So if you like the gun, I would bite the bullet.

If you use a .358 reamer and do it by hand, you will end up being slightly larger than .358. Then as the tool marks come out, you will open another .0005 to .001 depending on many things in the reaming process. So you will end up with throats in the .3585 to .3593 area already. Plenty large enough. The Cylindersmith does 358.

[cowboy]

Howdy-
Own MANY Ruger single actions, tight throats are the rule on mine, the >45s being especially tight- .452 bullets got swagged down to .449 in a hurry on mine!
Had to ream them. Accuracy improved.

[Larry Gibson]

That's awefull close; just .0005" difference. Are all the cylinder throats .357"? I would run 3-500 full bore magnum loads with 150-158 gr jacketed bullets through the revolver first. Good practice, smooths things out in the barrel and many times the throats even out .0005-.001" larger. Then if the throats are still smaller than the barrel reaming is the option. The cheaper bulk jacketed bullets work fine. I've just completed this with my Ruger .44 FT using 240 gr JSPs at 1400 fps. The barrel is now smoother at .4295"and the cylinder throats (at first were .4295 to .430) are all right at .4305" now.

Larry Gibson

[9.3X62AL]

Unless radically backwards like the .449" throat into .452" groove situation described above, I would go the Larry Gibson route and see what results dimensionally from that process.

[missionary5155]

Good morning I am a bit removed from real prices.. how much would 400 .358 158 grain bulk jacketed (ugh) thangs cost ? Plus powder and primers ?
Then how much to rent or buy a reamer ? Last reamer I bought is a BIG unit from Brownells for 12 guage size and that was $65 (or so) some years ago...

[nicholst55]

Ruger uses a 'gang-reamer' that does all six holes at once. They continue to use them when they are worn to the point they should be scrapped. As a result of this process, their chamber throats tend to be both undersize and/or oblong. Those .357" holes may not be that same diameter all the way around.

The reamer runs $80; the pilot pack runs another $50 if you need it. Cylindersmith will ream them for $30. Guess it depends on how many you plan to do.

[Larry Gibson]

At current inflated politically motivated prices 300 bulk Remington 158 SPs will run around $55. Since you are shooting/practicing with the 300 rounds (no need to just sit at a range and blast them away just for the sake of it) the cost of the primers and powder isn't "additional". If you're intending on using a GC bullet then the cost of 300 of those should be deducted also.

Here's the real point; if you buy a reamer and do it yourself or pay to have it done you could end up with too large of throats. Once the metal is reamed it is gone and can't be put back. With shooting the 300-500 rounds of magnum jacketed ammo the throats might turn out just right (mine did on the .44 and have several times in the past on other Rugers). You also get the benifit of 300-500 rounds of practice with the Ruger and it also helps smooth up the action. Besides, if it doesn't work you can always go the reaming route. Can't do that the other way.

Larry Gibson

[txbirdman]

This problem has been ongoing with Ruger especially with the .45 Colt. A few years back on another website a guy bought a reamer and basically let anyone who needed to ream their cylinder to use the reamer. I got my chance and greatly improved the accuracy of my Vaquero. This all ended when a 'low life" decided to keep the reamer for himself. I have a machinist friend who fixed his Bisquero by honing the cylinder to desired dimensions.