Ted Nugent branded .45Colt — 260gr at 800fps. Nice short-range hunting round. The revolver is a Ruger Blackhawk with pewter grips
If .45Colt is unavailable, a mild 200gr plated plinking load in 45ACP is an option. Or any other round in either caliber. The trick is adjustable sights for adjusting point of aim to point of impact, similar enough ballistics to make the adjustment unnecessary most of the time, and one at a time ejection that makes rimmed and rimless ammunition work equally well. I thought, incorrectly, that .45 Auto Rim would work just as well, but it’s not necessary for this type of revolver.
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Are you saying you can fire 45avp in a single action without some sort of adapter? That would be way less expensive for plinking if true.
Yes, that’s precisely the benefit of the single action design.
It’s not safe to carry a spare cylinder around stuffed full of ammo.
What if it were to fall to the hard concrete floor and land primers-down right between your legs? Wouldn’t that be six little barrels pointed upwards? What if a hard slam on the concrete set off one or more primers?
Most single action revolvers have this little thing that sticks out in the center of the cylinder that catches this little bar so that when you cock the hammer the bar pushes up on it causing the cylinder not to rotate. I forgot what the internals are called but that’s how it works. So if you drop a cylinder primer down nothing *should* happen. It’s not a smart idea to screw around with sure, but it works pretty good.
It’s actually how people use to load single action muzzle loading revolvers during a gun fight if they only had one pistol. They kept the loaded cylinder in their pocket and loaded as needed. It kind of stopped being necessary once self contained ammo became common because no matter how fast you can take apart a gun, slide a new cylinder on, and then put it back together.
Also, I remember watching the mythbusters take a bunch of .38 rounds and then slamming on the primers with the butt of a revolver to see if they could get them to go off to test a myth. It never happened. And that was basically best case scenario, the rounds didn’t have anything blocking the hit, and multiple hits happened.
“Most single action revolvers have this little thing that sticks out in the center of the cylinder that catches this little bar so that when you cock the hammer the bar pushes up on it causing the cylinder not to rotate. ”
I think you are thinking of the transfer bar, which does not work the way you think it does and would also not do anything to cover the primers in a cylinder out of the gun.
I think he was talking about the pawl that pushes on the star on the back of the cylinder, not the transfer bar?
opps didn’t see “not” to rotate guess he wasn’t talking about the pawl or he doesn’t know it just spins the cylinder not locks it.
“Most single action revolvers have this little thing that sticks out in the center of the cylinder that catches this little bar so that when you cock the hammer the bar pushes up on it causing the cylinder not to rotate. I forgot what the internals are called but that’s how it works.”
On an S&W, it’s called the cylinder stop stud. Different makers use different terminology. YMMV
“It’s not safe to carry a spare cylinder around stuffed full of ammo. ”
It’s also pretty much pointless since the rounds will all fall out.
>It’s also pretty much pointless since the rounds will all fall out.
Good point. Let’s hope an improved idiot doesn’t develop a speedloader retainer clip of some sort that allows swapping in a full cylinder.
Admittedly, I suppose I was thinking of a cap and ball revolver, maybe something like this: homeplace-artsstuff.blogspot.com/2011/01/swapping-cylinders-in-cap-and-ball.html
Again thinking like an improved idiot, how about cowboy action reloads that are deliberately not full length resized?
Will this spare cylinder work in a standard New Model 45 LC Blackhawk ?
If so , is it available ?
Be nice to have both 45 ACP pistol and Revolver use the same ammo !
Ruger says that the cylinder is fitted to the gun, and should not be used with any other. They even electro-pencil the last three digits of the serial number on the correct cylinders.
In the past I’ve used the 9mm cylinder from a similar setup (.357, .38 special in one cylinder, 9mm in the other) for a different gun and had satisfactory results. I figured it’s mass produced, w/ very little hand fitting at that pricepoint so it was probably OK.
I am not saying it would be safe for you, and Ruger will not sell you the extra cylinder.
Great design, Bill Ruger should be proud of his Blackhawk. Making convertible models are sheer genius. The .45ACP for plinking, the .45LC for work.
Those grips are beautiful – thanks for the pictures of them. Would you happen to know if that frame is the original XR3 or later XR3-RED ?
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Spud:you’ll have to ship your gun to Ruger to have one fitted. I suggest contacting them first for cost,etc.
P.S. A new convertible Blackhawk is $500-$600. They also come in .357 Magnum with a 9mm cylinder.
.45 Auto Rim brass will not work in either cylinder
Thanks, I edited my description.
“I suspect that .45 Auto Rim would work just as well…”
Nope. Too much rim thickness to clear the breechface.
They also make one that is in 9mm/.357/.38. I’ve heard the 9mm is very inaccurate though.
Also .45 colt can be loaded safety about as hot as .44 mag. Blackhawks, and Redhawks can handle the extra pressure.
Be careful. That depends on your gun, not on the cartridge.
I have one of these.
I plan on putting some stag grips on it.
I would also like to have my gunsmith put a gold bead front sight and a Bowen rear sight on it.
I have one of the early convertibles, a Single Six. .22LR, .22WMR. Really fun to shoot.
Roadkill:I had one (& miss it!). As .38/.357 is a .357 (duh!) diameter bullet & 9mm is .355 there is indeed some accuracy loss but given that Blackhawks are not finely-fitted Olympic target pistols,have a long single-action lock time,& the huge range of different factory loads in .38Sp/.357MAG & 9mm I can live with it.I’ll wager few shooters could tell the difference.
The grips are by Adams and Adams engraving. Their website gives a list price of $52 & state the grips have to be fitted. I bought this gun used:it came with these & a pair of what look like Herritt redwood grips. The grip screw for the pewter grips was missing.’Guns of the Old West’ magazine had a piece on Adams & Adams with photos of their work.As these grips looked identical I contacted them & they sent me 2 grip screws at no charge. You can see the results.