[bear wallow]

I just picked up a used Blackhawk .44 5.5" barrel. At 25 yds. this thing made all 6 rounds touch each other with open sights.. For me that's great. I just thought I'd share.

 

[SAA]

Congratulations on a good gun!

I just bought a used Blackhawk 357 with 4 5/8" barrel, haven't test-fired it yet though.
Should have it home in about 2-3weeks, I´ll post some pictures when I got it home.
I hope it will shoot as good as yours.

 

[warrior1]

bear some nice shootin with a nice gun.saa i just picked up the same 4 5/8 inch blackhawk,i was surprised
how well it did the first time out.dan

 

[glanceblamm]

Bear Wallow
I know what you are saying as my SBH seems to preform very similar. The very first time that I loaded and shot it the first struck high so I cranked the sight down some. The second shot was still high so I cranked the sight down even more. I fired the remaining four shots and it appeared that I had four misses. What happened was these four had grouped within the confines of the black electrical tape that I had used to hold the target in place!

There have been a lot of post here indicating that the .44 mag seems to be inherently accurate and this sure does seem to be the case.

 

[Cayoot]

I just picked up a used Blackhawk .44 5.5" barrel. At 25 yds. this thing made all 6 rounds touch each other with open sights.. For me that's great. I just thought I'd share.

What was your load?

 

[rbergum95]

bear i know how you feel. i picked up a 4 5/8 inch stainless .45 colt 3 weeks ago. first group i fired at 25 yards were all touching. i havent fired a group over 2 inches with it yet. i cant wait till i get the chance to run some handloads through it.

 

[c1skout]

Boy oh boy am I jealous of you guys. I can't get my 44mag to shoot worth a darn. It is bad enough that I think I may trade it on another. I bought it used a few years ago and still haven't found a load that it likes. One of my LSWC handloads will usually shoot a couple shots into about 2 inches, but the rest might not even be on the target. ( I do my test firing from 20yds, shooting two handed resting the gun on my knees.) I went out with it last week with 4 different loads, 2 factory and 2 handloads, and the difference in the way the shots each hit the target was remarkable. Using the same point of aim, the point of impact between the two most disparate loads was over 1 FOOT windage at 20 yards! Elevation difference was no more than I would expect to see between different loads. I dont have enough windage travel on my rear sight to adjust that one factory load to point of aim. The handload that mine likes best so far is W296 with a Bullx 240gr LSWC at around 1200fps.

 

[44 Man]

Ruger had a problem a few years back with some cylinder throat dimensions. They were too small and would swage the bullets down when you fired and would shoot all over the place. You may have that problem with your pistol and it is an easy fix by a gunsmith to open them up to proper dimentions or send it back to Ruger.
As for the verticle changes between loads, it is usually not quite that drastic but could be exagerated if you didn't use a firm grip. You may still not have enough adjustment to cover everything. As I move to heavier bullets in my SBH, I run out of sight adjustments. With 300 gr bullets, the rear sight needs to be bottomed to zero them at 25 yds. When I shoot 320's, I have no more adjustment left and they shoot about 2" high. For a mild .44 special load in that same gun, I need to raise the rear sight 7 clicks. 44 Man

 

[blackwolfe]

Hey 44 man, Is that factory blue on your .44. It looks deeper and darker than factory on the computer I'm viewing it on.
Wolfe

 

[buffermop]

I used to own a Ruger " Blackhawk" .357. with a 4&5/8 barrel. Could not hit the side of a barn with it. Traded it in for A Ruger Mark 2. Nicest target pistol I ever owned.

 

[c1skout]

I checked my cylinder throats. 3 of them measured .431 , the other 3 measured .432 . My gun was made in 1996 according to the Ruger website. The vertical change between the loads wasn't very dramatic... it was the horizontal that had me running out of adjustment. Some shoot way right, some way left. Like I said, over a foot difference between them.

 

[bear wallow]

I just picked up a used Blackhawk .44 5.5" barrel. At 25 yds. this thing made all 6 rounds touch each other with open sights.. For me that's great. I just thought I'd share.

What was your load?

Factory white box Winchester 240 JHP

 

[lloyd smale]

ive owned lots of ruger 44s and have yet to find one that wasnt exceptionaly accurate. cant say that about the 45 colts ive owned though. Had a few duds in 45.