How can I keep the Base Pin Latch from coming out on my Ruger Blackhawk?

[Bullshop Junior]

The base pin latch keeps coming loose on my Ruger Blackhawk 45 Colt. I have lost a couple now, and it is getting kind of expensive at $12 each.
I have already tried loctite and it did not work.
And other ideas?

[Mk42gunner]

I would stake the two pieces together with a small punch in the screw slot of the nut portion so it is not visilbe.


Robert

[Calamity Jake]

"I have already tried loctite and it did not work."

The threads have to be OIL FREE for the loctite to work.

Clean the threads both nut and screw with acetone or break cleaner, let them dry then apply a small amount of loctite

[lastmanout]

Oil free is important. I have been using the loctitie blue in that comes in a 'crayon-like tube. A paste instead of a liquid. Very easy to use and I have had better results. Waste less also.

[S.R.Custom]

The threads have to be OIL FREE for the loctite to work... Clean the threads both nut and screw with acetone or break cleaner, let them dry then apply a small amount of loctite

Yup. Clean & dry. I've never known the stuff to fail when applied in this way.

[Bullshop Junior]

I had used acetone to clean it but I will try it again.
Thanks

[leftiye]

If all else fails - Belt Mountain makes aftermarket base pins and and retaining latches, I believe. Brownells also has another brand.

[Safeshot]

Ditto on the "oil free" application. Also try the "Red" Loctite for "bearing retention" it usually requires heat to get it loose if at all. Let the Loctite cure for as long as recommended for the specific type. Good luck.

[Bullshop Junior]

I might try to get a locking one. Has any one tried them, and how do they work?

[Char-Gar]

Get a Belt Mountain pin and your worries will be over. Accuracy might pick up a tad in the process. Some of them require a bit of fitting and others slip right in, you never know until lyou get one. Follow the instructions.

[Calamity Jake]

Ditto on the "oil free" application. Also try the "Red" Loctite for "bearing retention" it usually requires heat to get it loose if at all. Let the Loctite cure for as long as recommended for the specific type. Good luck.

DO not use the red bearing retention loctite on screw thread applications if there are springs envolved, the high heat needed to release the red may also anneal the spring leaving it unsprung.

Use the Loctite small screw thread locker(Blue or Purple) or you can talk your mother out of some nail polish, it works good as a small thread locker too.

[Bullshop Junior]

I tried red & blue and it still came loose. I think it has somthing to do with shooting HOT loads all the time, cuzz I broke one off......

[leftiye]

"you never know until you get one. Follow the instructions."

Actually they make two base pins - one that fits, and one for oversized cylinder axis holes that you may have to open up the frame a little to fit, and that you might have to polish/sand down some if it is too big for your cylinder axis hole - for a perfect fit.

Sounds like a locking one may be the way to go. Less convenient, but it doesn't do whatever it feels like either.

[S.R.Custom]

Here's a new one for ya... and what perfect timing for this conversation.

Just got a SBH in the shop today with the same problem. The base pin on the gun was too long. Well, it's more accurate to say the groove in the pin was cut wrong, and here's how you can tell...

Hold the gun in your right hand and thumb the hammer back. With your left hand, push and hold the base pin all the way in the seated position. Now with your right hand, lower the hammer slowly while holding the trigger back in the fired position. When the hammer gets to the bottom, push on it with your thumb. Is it trying to push the base pin forward? This one was...

As a result, with each shot, the hammer was trying to pound the base pin out the front of the gun...

The fix was easy enough-- we chucked the pin up in the drill press, and while it spun, we took a file to the end of the pin and took off about .010". (That would be the fat part of the pin's end, not the spring loaded center.) Problem solved.

I mention this to you because it could be that this is what's causing the latch to loosen and/or break. The base pin being pounded against the latch with each shot would do it.

[shooting on a shoestring]

I had the same trouble with my 7.5" .45 Colt Blackhawk. Belt Mountain base pin with the set screw to the rescue. Love it. Tightened up the cylinder play a bit and it never comes out until I ask it. I loved it so much I immediately bought a Belt Mountain base pin for my .357 4 & 5/8" SSNMBH the same day I bought the gun.

You won't regret it.

[Bullshop Junior]

I have been thinking about the Belt Mountain, but I am not shooting the 45 much now, and I am trying to rebuild my snow machine so don't have the money right not either, but maybe in a few weeks.

[pietro]

[The base pin LATCH keeps coming loose on my Ruger Blackhawk 45 Colt.]

FWIW, the OP seems to be about a basepin LATCH coming loose - the pin that lies crosswise to the basepin, holding it from moving forward under recoil - and NOT a basepin.

Staking the threaded end should work for that.

If what's coming loose under recoil is actually the cylinder pin, aka basepin - ILO buying a Belt Mountain, if the issue pin has no sideways "slop", then a small hole can easily be D/T'd in the cylinder pin head for a long setscrew, made to bear in a small detent made in the barrel bottom at the proper position.

.

[kingstrider]

Awesome thread, I have a 50th anniversary model with the same problem. I also bought two more Blackhawks that I should be picking up today and am interested in the Belt Mountain pins. According to the website, the #5 Style with Bowen Lock Screw requires fitting. Can anybody explain why it is different than the regular #5 style that has the cap screw instead?

[MT Gianni]

Daniel, I have the locking base pins on my guns and like them.