shooting high

[redriverhunter]

hello all,
i have ruger blackhawk 41 mag. got used and at 25 yard its shooting 6 inches high then it doubles at 50 yard 12 inches I have the rear sight screwed all the way down.
the load is a is a 213 gn lee cast bullet 15.5 gn of 2400
any ideas of what going here
thanks

[NHlever]

I hate to say it, but it looks like Ruger installed the wrong front sight on your gun. Give them a call, and they will put the right one on for you. I know it's a pain, but it seems somewhat common these days. I had to replace the front sight on my .44 too, but it is a stainless gun so the sight is just pinned on.

[Echo]

+1 * * * (needed to have five characters...)

[hamour]

You could try speeding that bullet up, treat you adjustable sight as if it was a fixed one and play with the load. When i use .38's in my .357 revolvers they hit high compared to the magnums. So put a magnum load n the 41 and see how it does for you.

[HeavyMetal]

First I think your load is pretty much a 41 mag load. As such the rear sight should have "dialed" in. If you have it all the way down and your still high your front sight is to tall.

If this was mine I would mount it in a padded vise and very carefully take .020 off the top of the sight and then go shoot it. Do this with the intent of keeping the top of the sight flat and square! Any angle on this area will move the group right or left depending on which direction the top is sloped in.

Your rear sight should have about four or five click off bottom to be sighted in. This will give you some adjustment for future loads.

[Lloyd Smale]

heavy metal has got it a little backward. If your gun is shooting high you need a taller front sight so dont file on what you have. If it were an inch or so id tell you to file the top of your rear blade a bit but as far off as you are youd have to about file the whole sight. You have two options as i dont think you want to go with a lighter bullet or blow your gun up trying to get enough speed to drop it that much. You can either build up your front sight with a little talented welding or send it to ruger with an explantion and they will fit a new sight blade to it. If it were a stainless gun its a piece of cake as the sight is pinned in and its an easy home fix but a blued gun will need to have the sight silver soldered on and the barrel reblued. Ruger will sometimes do it for free and if they charge you im sure it will be resonable. Ive seen this many times on 44s and 45s from ruger when trying to shoot heavy bullets but never on a 41 using normal weight bullets. My guess is you bought it used and someone allready has gotten carried away with a file.

[hammerhead357]

I think I would sent it back or get a gunsmith to install a taller front site. If you send it back to Ruger they may do the work for nothing and if you call them and explain the problem they may send you a prepaid shipping container...Just my worthless 2 cents worth....Wes

[BruceB]

Hamour has it right, I believe.

The pistol is sighted for .41 MAGNUM loads, and 15.5 of 2400 is NOT a "magnum" load by any stretch of the imagination. Lyman reports 14.5/2400 as giving 1100 fps from a TEN-inch barrel, and a max load (compressed)of 20.5/2400 for 1550 fps. That is one heck of a difference.

The bullet weight (41028) was 212 grains.

All that's needed is to increase the velocity, which cuts down the amount of time the bullet spends in the barrel, during which the revolver is ALREADY RECOILING, and thus throwing the bullet higher at slower speeds.

Note that the Lyman figures were obtained using HERCULES 2400, not the current Alliant stuff. Still, dropping the max charge one grain will be quite safe. My own standard .41 Mag load is the the RCBS 41-210 (217 grains in my alloy) over 17.5 grains of NEW 2400, which gives 1350 fps from the 8.375" barrel of my Model 57.

Handgun makers have a difficult job trying to accommodate all the factory loads out there, let alone the array generated by enthusiastic handloaders. There's nothing wrong with the gun. If the intent is to use ONLY the reduced-velocity loads, then re-working the front sight is a reasonable proposition. As it is, though, I would just set the sight at three or four clicks up from dead bottom and start increasing the load until the impacts coincide with the sight picture.

Simple.

[Hang Fire]

First I think your load is pretty much a 41 mag load. As such the rear sight should have "dialed" in. If you have it all the way down and your still high your front sight is to tall.

If this was mine I would mount it in a padded vise and very carefully take .020 off the top of the sight and then go shoot it. Do this with the intent of keeping the top of the sight flat and square! Any angle on this area will move the group right or left depending on which direction the top is sloped in.

Your rear sight should have about four or five click off bottom to be sighted in. This will give you some adjustment for future loads.


The front sight is too short. Front sight adjustment has opposite effect as that of rear.

[Thumbcocker]

[QUOTE=BruceB;590472] As it is, though, I would just set the sight at three or four clicks up from dead bottom and start increasing the load until the impacts coincide with the sight picture.

Simple

Tried it with my .44 special and .30 carbine, no dice.

[HeavyMetal]

DANG!

I knew I should have add: " I think"! to that post!

[sixshot]

I build up the front site with JB weld on my blued Rugers, file it down after its dry & just color it with a magic marker. I don't like sending them back to the factory.

Dick

[Rodfac]

sixshot's solution will work...but a return to Ruger is the answer. The front sight is way too short, no matter what kind of load you're shooting thru it. The installed the wrong sight at the factory...wonder what the last owner thought...and was he trying to unload a gun that had problems.? Regards, Rodfac

[pdawg_shooter]

I think UPS loves Ruger!

[725]

Agree with all the above (except that make the front sight shorter thing) HA! One more question: Are you hand-holding or shooting off a bench rest? Those bench rests do strange things to POI. Usually way different results when using one or the other. Drop it in a Ransom Rest to minimizes the human element.

[big dale]

You might try loading some much heavier bullets, but it sounds to me like your front sight is not high enough. I used to have an old lee 240 grain mold that worked great for my Blackhawk, but it never would go six inches high at only 25 years.

The only other solution that those two that I can think of is to shoot at much longer range. It might be just the thing for dirt clods at 75 yards.

Big Dale

[shotman]

Well you could bend the barrel.I will agree with pdawg. I dont know how Ruger can have time to to make new guns as much as they have to lick up the mistakes. I have had 5 Ruger pistoles and ALL have been sent back. One was returned 3 times and still wasnt right . I have a 10-22 and a bearcat . No more Ruger handguns

[Four Fingers of Death]

You might try loading some much heavier bullets, but it sounds to me like your front sight is not high enough. I used to have an old lee 240 grain mold that worked great for my Blackhawk, but it never would go six inches high at only 25 years.

The only other solution that those two that I can think of is to shoot at much longer range. It might be just the thing for dirt clods at 75 yards.

Big Dale


I would have thought the heavier boolit would impact higher due to the slower velocity allowing more recoil movement. Thats been my experience from memory.