Super Blackhawk!

[Arthur Roy]

Picked up a NM Super Blackhawk yesterday. One of the tightest Rugers I have ever handled. .002 cylinder gap and zero end play. Trigger breaks like glass at 3.13#. Can’t wait to see how she does for accuracy!

[DougGuy]

Poke some boolits into the front of the cylinder throats and see what will go and what won't.. It sounds like it has everything else going for it!

Also, if you have one of those plastic cleaning jags, patch it snug into the bore with paper towel, with a steady push, push it toward the frame. If the resistance doesn't change and it comes out of the forcing cone, you have NO choke! YAY!! If it gets a little stiff at the barrel/frame junction, that's a constriction in the diameter of the bore doing that. If it stops and you near have to beat it through, that's severe choke..

[Wooserco]

Had one like that back in the early 90's. 10-1/2" barrel. Would not shoot lead worth a hoot. Didn't do well with jacketed. Peddled it off, at a loss of course.

[Arthur Roy]

I checked the alignment yesterday. Put a tight patch on a jag and pushed it down the muzzle and no constriction. It also goes from the barrel into the throats of the cylinder with zero resistance. The only way you can tell it enters the throats is that slight resistance change from rifling to no rifling. I haven’t checked the throats yet. I use a Starrett small hole gage and mic. I will probably fire the hone up to even them all out if they need it. Just by the measurements this is the nicest factory Ruger I have ever handled.

[SavageKustoms]

Always nice to come across a gem like that! Picked up a solid NM Blackhawk in 45 Colt that had all the extra work done before I laid eyes on it. Great revolvers with a little tuning.

[Arthur Roy]

The only thing that I need to fix so far is the timing on the Pawl is just a touch late. It is so slight that I didn’t even notice it when I bought it. I will probably pull it apart and stretch the pawl this week.

[Bazoo]

Awesome, congratulations. Love to see how she groups.

Welcome to the forum by the way!

[bosterr]

Poke some boolits into the front of the cylinder throats and see what will go and what won't.. It sounds like it has everything else going for it!

Also, if you have one of those plastic cleaning jags, patch it snug into the bore with paper towel, with a steady push, push it toward the frame. If the resistance doesn't change and it comes out of the forcing cone, you have NO choke! YAY!! If it gets a little stiff at the barrel/frame junction, that's a constriction in the diameter of the bore doing that. If it stops and you near have to beat it through, that's severe choke..

Hey Doug. If your fix for thread choke is firelapping, please share your procedure for curing it. Any different for stainless guns?

[DougGuy]

Hey Doug. If your fix for thread choke is firelapping, please share your procedure for curing it. Any different for stainless guns?

I don't want to steer this thread, there are threads all about fire lapping already posted, you could learn more from members from those posts than I could tell you, and yes firelapping Ruger's stainless barrels are an extremely slow process.

[Rapier]

Guys, been an RCA member since 75, so not putting Ruger down at all, Ruger buys parts from jobbers, it is how they keep the price down, assembly lines. Any time you look at buying a Ruler wheel gun, check the barrel groove diameter and openings on the cylinder's chambers.
I bought a great used 10 1/2" NM SBH that had .429 and .430 chamber openings and a .4325 barrel. So took some "fixing" to get it to shoot. Opened the chamber throats and found a 433 sizing die then opened up one of my 240 gain moulds with lapping compound on the mill. One thing about shooting and making cast bullets is that you can change things around, until a gun shoots.

[murf205]

Congrats and welcome to the forum. Is that Super Black Hawk a new gun or just new to you? I have read that the factory is not thread choking their barrels as often lately.

[Arthur Roy]

It is new to me. I haven’t looked up the serial number yet, but it is old enough to have the billboard on the side of the barrel instead of the bottom.

[HWooldridge]

I bought mine new in 1978 so it was an early New Model SB. Very accurate with almost any load but it had a fairly heavy trigger pull that I didn't care for. I finally traded it off for a Colt Series 70 in 45 ACP (which was a tack driver).

[DougGuy]

I bought mine new in 1978 had a fairly heavy trigger pull that I didn't care for.

That can be fixed rather easy by lowering the height of the hammer pad, takes most if not all detectable creep out of the trigger. Swap in a Wolff 30oz. trigger return spring you will have a crisp safe trigger with almost no detectable creep. It's not a match/competition gun so the goal is not 100% creep free although sometimes it comes out with zero detectable creep, the goal is for the shooter to be able to hold the sights motionless while the hammer falls.

[curioushooter]

You are a fortunate fellow!

[Ed K]

That can be fixed rather easy by lowering the height of the hammer pad, takes most if not all detectable creep out of the trigger.

Is this discussed somewhere on the forum? I searched but could not find it.

[Arthur Roy]

Well I finally found time to try a few loads in my SBH this past weekend. To start off, I put a Powers No.5 base pin in it and that eliminated the slight timing issue it had before. Now when I say slight, I mean it was almost undetectable unless you cycled it very slowly.

I started off with one of my favorite molds for the 44, the RCBS 44-250-KT. I loaded these over 7 grains of Red Dot. Accuracy was in the 2.5-3” range at 25 yards. So not great. I really wanted Red Dot to work well as I have about 30 pounds of it here. I tried 8 grains with no improvement.

I then tried HS6, my favorite powder for the larger bore revolvers. I use this in my 44’s, 45’s and 475’s. Loaded 12 grains with the same bullet and got .75-1.0” groups at 25 yards.

I am very happy with that and planning on loading some more to try this weekend. Just an update if anyone was interested.

[Budzilla 19]

Back in the early ‘90’s, I had a blued 10” that would shoot crazy accurate! But, some guy came along, more money than sense, and away it went! Fast forward some 25 years, and now have a 10” stainless model, muzzle brake, trigger job, tuned action, all cylinder throats the same size, no choke in the barrel. OMG, does this thing shoot! Lee 310 grain cast, pc, and sized to .432”, healthy dose of A2400, it’s a beast. I’m glad you got yours, they are a real deal handgun!

[gwpercle]

Awesome ...

Thanks for posting ... Ruger Super Blackhawks are Fun ...

Try some other powders / loads ... you will find what it Likes !
Gary