New 45 Blackhawk

[Jetwrench]

I have a few Questions for you blackhawk guys. After wanting one for half me life. I finally got a 45 Clot Blackhawk 5.5 in barrel, WILL be buying the rosewood grips.

1. A super blackhawk is a 44 both fluted and non fluted by looking at the pic's. A blackhawk is a 30, 357, 45Colt. Is their a strength difference?

2. Does the Bisley grip frame help with recoil or is it just for a different grip angle?

3. As this gun has only and most likley will only shoot lead, What are some mould / bullet sugestions?

Thanks guys
Jetwrench

[oldhickory]

To answer question #3, the Lyman 452424, 255gr.(I use the older version that casts a .454 boolit) with 9.5 grs of Unique is about as good as it gets for a heavy load. For something to just punch holes in stuff, I like the Lyman 452460, 200gr. with the same 9.5gr. of Unique. Both group VERY well, the 200gr. load groups a lot lower of course.

[missionary5155]

Good morning
Many years ago while living in Chattanooga Tenn. I had a Super Black Hawk 44 Mag. It was a fine shooting revolver. In the early years of IHMSA (steel critter shooting) the SBH was THE winner generally . So that is the real test of strength. But I also knew two fellers that bought 10 each year and test fired all ten. Then kept the 4 most accurate. Generally 2 shot GREAT. 2 shot OK . the other 6 were plain terrible.
I own several 41 Mag BLACKHAWKS. They are strong, generally shoot well ( if the cylinder throats are all = ) and will take any load I have ever wanted to put through them.
I do not have a .45 colt. But before I bought any molds I would first check the cylinder throats for diameter... are they all the same. Then check the barrel. Is it smaller than the throats ? Hopefully so. If barrel diameter is larger that revolver will NOT be accurate with cast. To me accurate is 2 inch groups any day all day sitting on my larger muscles at 50 yards. So if the cylinder throats are = and larger than your barrel diameter get a mold at least cylinder throat diameter or larger(+.001 +) .
If your cylinders are smaller that can get remideed.... so do not loose heart. Your Ruger can end up a very nice shooting piece of hardware. This is not expensive by the way.
Bisley grips. I personally like mine. Your hand may be different. Your are may bend different. Your body will be different. The best I can say is try the two side by side. I do NOT like Bisley grips on my 4 3/4" 41 mag BH. I really like them on my 6.5 " 41 mag BH. The 5.5" is a toss up.
God Bless you !

[44man]

I have a few Questions for you blackhawk guys. After wanting one for half me life. I finally got a 45 Clot Blackhawk 5.5 in barrel, WILL be buying the rosewood grips.

1. A super blackhawk is a 44 both fluted and non fluted by looking at the pic's. A blackhawk is a 30, 357, 45Colt. Is their a strength difference?

2. Does the Bisley grip frame help with recoil or is it just for a different grip angle?

3. As this gun has only and most likley will only shoot lead, What are some mould / bullet sugestions?

Thanks guys
Jetwrench
No strength difference that I know of, just a different grip frame. In the .45 Ruger you MUST measure throats to make sure they are larger then the bore. From .0005" to .002" over, then fit a boolit to the throats.
You need small hands for the Bisley. I HATE them, they beat the crap out of my knuckle. I have large hands. I had the SBH hunter in Bisley and sold it fast to a friend. He loves it.
I would try them both before making a decision.
I won't recommend a boolit because I don't think you would like to shoot what I do from my Vaquero! [smilie=1:

[Dale53]

I have a Bisley Vaquero with 5.5" barrel. It is the large frame Blawkhawk with fixed sights and the Bisley grip. I previously had the Vaquero with 4 5/8" barrel. I like the Bisley grips better and especially like the longer barrel.

For Cowboy and Buffalo shoots I used the Lyman 453664 bullet. It has a large square grease groove that holds a lot of BP lubricant and shoots REALLY well.

It also works well with smokeless.

My bullet for general use is a newly acquired 454424 with round grease groove. It is a four cavity mould and will do most of what I want with smokeless powder. The round grease groove works just fine with smokeless but would be less than the best with black powder. I will also use this bullet in my 625's if I need a heavy load with them.

I understand that the current models of Lyman's 452424 mould comes with square grooves. They keep changing from one to the other. They are no longer available in a four cavity mould.

You can still get the 452664 in a four cavity mould. There is NOTHING wrong with this bullet design if it pleases you. The meplat is quite wide (MUCH wider than the original .45 Colt load) so it should also be pretty good for hunting.

Dale53

[leadeye]

Good choice! I use the RCBS 250 FN as a general purpose bullet for both my BH and NHR in 45 LC usually on 10 grains of Unique or something in that area. I use the RCBS 300 GC SWC for high powered stuff on top of powders like 296 and H 110. I think the difference between the Bisley and regular grip is simply personal choice, I have both, but the Bisley gives up something in the classic appearence. I don't think there is any strength difference in the fluted or unfluted cylinders relative to the 45 lc loading, just a matter of appearence.:-D

[shooting on a shoestring]

Jetwrench,

Concerning strength, frames are the same, but the cylinders in .45 have less wall thickness than .429 magnums, so I don't expect the cylinders to hold the same pressures. However due to the larger diameter giving more surface area for the pressure to push on, means more work gets done, or boolits go faster with less pressure in .45.

But, I broke the aluminum grip frame off of my 7.5" .45 Colt Blackhawk shooting 23 grains of 4227 under 300gr Lee wide flat nose boolits. I replaced it with a brass one from a gentleman on this board. I much prefer the brass. It looks classy, feels better with more weight in the grip, and is stronger (hasn't broke yet).

I do notice that shooting 250 or 300 grain boolits, the lead pile goes away in a hurry. So, I have pretty much migrated back to my .357s for funnzies.

[DanWalker]

I have the same gun.
My primary load is 6.5 grains of Red Dot under either a 250 grain swc or a 320grwfngc.
I've been using 18.5 grains of 2400 for a heavy,"kill anything" load, but am tired of getting beat up by my pistol.

[Jetwrench]

I plan to slug the barrel and throats tomorrow and get in a little more practice. For now I have been useing Magtech 250gr cowboy loads.

I will stay with the lighter loads until I get some new grips, the black plastic (or whatever it is) is chewing up my hand. I think I must have medium hands, a little small for the blackhawk but I will try grips before I try to get a bisley gripframe.

Later I will want to warm it up some, Not to the point of breaking the gripframe, I'm just not that strong a fellow:mrgreen: (think my wrist would go first).

But was thinking, with full power loads would 454 brass last longer? Just the brass NOT the 454loads. Jetwrench

[Dale53]

Modern .45 Colt brass is just fine as it is. No need for .454 brass. I have both and see no reason to use the .454 stuff. Plus, I much prefer large pistol primers (as in the .45 Colt) rather than small rifle primers (as in the .454 brass).

Dale53

[Hunter]

I use the Lyman mold 452651. It is a 325gr round nose flat point.
As I understand it the fluted cylinder is not weaker than the unfluted.
The stops on the cylinder is the thin spot, that will be weaker than past the pressure point of the cartridge.
Many say the Bisley grip frame is more comfortable. I like the standard Blackhawk just fine myself.