My Ruger Super Blackhawk Shoots High...Need some advice?

peaceviddie

peaceviddie

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I bought a Ruger Super Blackhawk (7.5 inch barrel) a couple of years ago and finally brought it out to the range last weekend. Even with the sights screwed all the way down, it is shooting high at 25 yards. I read on other forums that slower bullets shoot higher because the bullet takes longer to eject the muzzle. I loaded my bullets at the minimum (Hodson's data centre estimates that 5.5 grains of HP38 will shoot a 240 grain LSWC at 800 feet per second); do I need to replace the sights or can I anticipate that my problem will correct itself as I work my loads up (i.e., I'm hoping to load to about 1000 feet per second)?

Thanks,

Robert
 
peaceviddie said:
I bought a Ruger Super Blackhawk (7.5 inch barrel) a couple of years ago and finally brought it out to the range last weekend. Even with the sights screwed all the way down, it is shooting high at 25 yards. I read on other forums that slower bullets shoot higher because the bullet takes longer to eject the muzzle. I loaded my bullets at the minimum (Hodson's data centre estimates that 5.5 grains of HP38 will shoot a 240 grain LSWC at 800 feet per second); do I need to replace the sights or can I anticipate that my problem will correct itself as I work my loads up (i.e., I'm hoping to load to about 1000 feet per second)?

Thanks,

Robert
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How high is it shooting at 25 yards, is the gun brand new or pre-owned (already shot in). I would be doing some background research on the right weight bullet for the twist rate of the rifling, this way you'll be somewhere near the optimum for performance of that particular model of gun.
Hodson's data centre is pretty accurate in their ballistic estimates though; so I would suggest your loads need only slight tweaking.
 
artemis90 said:
How high is it shooting at 25 yards, is the gun brand new or pre-owned (already shot in). I would be doing some background research on the right weight bullet for the twist rate of the rifling, this way you'll be somewhere near the optimum for performance of that particular model of gun.
Hodson's data centre is pretty accurate in their ballistic estimates though; so I would suggest your loads need only slight tweaking.
Click to expand...
The gun is brand new. With the sights fully screwed down it is shooting about 6 or 7 inches above point of aim. Out of the box it was off by more than a foot.
 
The range of the sight is set up to use with full power loads. By loading to the minimum power you're down into the upper end of .44Spl velocity. And yes, the gun will tend to shoot high for all those reasons you've read about.

I ran into this same issue with my own Blackhawk. My solution was to mark and file off the rear blade by about .020 to .025 and file the notch deeper by the same amount. That brought the working range of the rear sight movement to where I am able to shoot full power loads as well as adjust to handle the softer .44Spl like loads all within the adjustment range.

If you're not comfy working with metal to these accuracy standards or simply lack the tools to perform and CHECK your work (I measured side to side frequently with a set of calipers to ensure I was reducing the metal parallel to the original line for example) then you'd want to have a smith do the work for you.

You and I are not the only ones to run into this issue either. On another forum where Super Blackhawks are a popular discussion item I found that others have had this issue and the fix was pretty much as I described it.

Oh, I also recall that there was a casting line or bump that was slightly restricting the movement of the elevation adjustment of the carrier. While I had the sight out to reduce the blade I filed off the bump so that the rear sight would have a little more range of movement on the elevation. You can see this yourself. When the sight is adjusted fully down into the frame there's still a lot of daylight showing under the end of the sight just by the hammer. On mind the added movement amount has increased to where I can close that up pretty much fully. The odd thing is that since that was a couple of years ago I simply can't remember at this point if I removed metal from the sight assembly or the main frame. Sorry. But I do remember that it was pretty obvious as to what was restricting the movement and that it was a risk free fix. But that doesn't help you much I'm afraid.
 
As BCrider already said, I was going to say to file a little off of the rear sight. You'll lose some of your range of adjustment on the high end when shooting full power loads, though.
 
BCRider said:
The range of the sight is set up to use with full power loads. By loading to the minimum power you're down into the upper end of .44Spl velocity. And yes, the gun will tend to shoot high for all those reasons you've read about.

I ran into this same issue with my own Blackhawk. My solution was to mark and file off the rear blade by about .020 to .025 and file the notch deeper by the same amount. That brought the working range of the rear sight movement to where I am able to shoot full power loads as well as adjust to handle the softer .44Spl like loads all within the adjustment range.

If you're not comfy working with metal to these accuracy standards or simply lack the tools to perform and CHECK your work (I measured side to side frequently with a set of calipers to ensure I was reducing the metal parallel to the original line for example) then you'd want to have a smith do the work for you.

You and I are not the only ones to run into this issue either. On another forum where Super Blackhawks are a popular discussion item I found that others have had this issue and the fix was pretty much as I described it.

Oh, I also recall that there was a casting line or bump that was slightly restricting the movement of the elevation adjustment of the carrier. While I had the sight out to reduce the blade I filed off the bump so that the rear sight would have a little more range of movement on the elevation. You can see this yourself. When the sight is adjusted fully down into the frame there's still a lot of daylight showing under the end of the sight just by the hammer. On mind the added movement amount has increased to where I can close that up pretty much fully. The odd thing is that since that was a couple of years ago I simply can't remember at this point if I removed metal from the sight assembly or the main frame. Sorry. But I do remember that it was pretty obvious as to what was restricting the movement and that it was a risk free fix. But that doesn't help you much I'm afraid.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice!

Cheers
 
Or instead of modifying the sights, you could just shoot magnum loads through it and see where the POI is then. I load 24.2gr of H110 behind a 240gr hard cast bullet and my Super Blackhawk is super accurate.
 
Ive got the same revolver, love it.
I ran into the same problem. My first rounds through the gun were 240gr SWC trailboss loads 900fps. Sights bottomed out, it hits 8-9 inches high. But, factory Rem 180 gr JSP ~1500fps are right on.
A few other guys tried it and found the same, it definitely likes em hot.

Thatguy
 
Simply load some hotter shells and your problem is solved. Why would you buy a .44 mag to run such mild loads? There are much smaller calibers out there that will duplicate your hand loads. Please understand I am not against mild loads, but if that is ALL your going to shoot why not just get a different gun?
 
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