In about 1977 or ‘78 I got the bug for a short-barreled Ruger Blackhawk Convertible in 45 Colt and 45ACP.
It and I walked out of the gun shop and straight out to the river to put some rounds through it. The second cylinder of 45 Colt, the sound of the “boom” had a twang to it. It clearly did not sound right. I stopped shooting and starting looking. Nothing to see from the outside, I pulled the cylinder out. It looked good and something caught my eye in the frame. The forcing cone really, at 6 0’clock, there was a big crack in the cone. Long story short, I ended up with a new replacement and the first one went back to Ruger. The gun shop was kind enough to trade it out and deal with the bad one.
I shot the new one putting thousands of rounds through it. Accuracy was lousy! The 45ACP was hopelessly worse. All kinds of loads were tried. About 10 to 15 years later, when I was on the phone with Veral Smith about something rifle related, and the poor accuracy of this handgun came up. He mentioned the throats might be off. I did not have pin gauges in those days. I pushed soft lead slugs through the cylinders and found they were running 0.456” and a few 0.457” in both the 45 Colt and 45 ACP. Veral made a large diameter 4-cavity mold that cast a copy of the factory bullet weighing 255grains. That helped a bit but the large bullet and small barrel diameter wasn’t a great set-up for accuracy. I could not even get the large bullets loaded into the 45ACP case to fit into the cylinders.
My interest in the revolver dropped off.
On a side note, in addition to the cylinder problems, the backstrap fit the cylinder frame crooked, which left a very sharp edge and corner on the left side that drew blood if I shot more than a few cylinders through it.
Recently, I bought a used Ruger Security Six as a gift for my youngest son. It arrived with a light hammer strike and lots of FTF. I called Ruger to see if they would look at it. …No parts or service on the Security Six. That is another story. While on the phone, I asked if they would look at the Blackhawk. Yes! $45 for FedEx to send it to Ruger and the late 1970’s Blackhawk went to have the cylinders checked.
It took a month to get it back, which I think is very good.
Ruger agreed with me. Both oversized cylinders were replaced! The first thing I did was get out the pin gauges. All 12 holes run a loose pass on the 0.451” ZZ and almost pass the 0.452”. I don’t have half sizes. This is as close as I can check. The work sheet that came back with the revolver only stated the cylinder work BUT they either replaced or maybe reworked and refinished the gripframe/back strap. Now it fits straight and smooth! Thanks Ruger!!! That is a bonus!
It went on the say, they did clean, lube, time and perform a function check with test firing.
Here, on Cast Boolets, I read that Revolver BC gaps should be 0.004 to 0.008”. With feeler gauges, I cheeked the gap on both cylinders and also on a few other revolvers I had close at hand. My new cylinders on the Blackhawk pass 0.011” and hold 0.012”. This is on the large size but the revolver is NOT going back. I will live with it and smile.
Other revolvers measured 0.003” on the Ruger Security Six, and I have since resolved the FTF problem, it goes bang every time now too. A S&W 586 measures 0.009” and a S&W M-67 measures 0.004”.