Ruger Super Blackhawk
- Thread starter Mopar15
- Start date
Love them! Inexpensive, built like tanks and they're great shooters. I have 7.5 inchers in blue and in stainless.
Little Howie
CGN Regular
- Location
- North of Montreal
I have a Super Blackhawk Hunter (7.5" barrel, stainless) - excellent longer range accuracy with the right ammo. very pleasant to shoot, even with hot loads.
The Hunter with the plow handle is nice. Good weight to it and it comes with the round trigger guard but is combined with the slightly longer dragoon model grip for the best of both worlds. Larger grip with no scraped knuckles.
Also easy to mount a scope or red dot with the included rings and built in mounts.
Also easy to mount a scope or red dot with the included rings and built in mounts.
Last edited:
TheHowitzer
Member
- Location
- Calgary, Alberta
Super Blackhawks are great pistols. Ended up selling mine, though, and regret it. I Inherited my dad's .44 RedHawk, and love it. Asides from family heirloom sentimental value, I honestly prefer the RedHawk to the Super BlackHawk, but I'm weird. X3 on the fugly giant rubber grips. I keep the wooden ones on for show, but as soon as I get to the range, the rubber ones go on. Makes shooting hot loaded 240 grain .44's more fun
A really fun gun. Especially if you want to play with long distance hand gun shooting.
The stock grips are too thin around the upper neck for anyone with larger hands. And that results in the trigger guard smacking the shooter's middle finger black and blue after a few cylinders of full power reloads. I got around that by making up some new grips that are quite a lot fatter around the neck. This both gives me more to hold onto and hold more evenly and increases the width of the surface against the palm of my hand so the gun doesn't distort my hand as much and doesn't jump back as much.
A lot of the SBH's suffer from thread pinch where the barrel is crush threaded into the frame. This creates a slight tight spot that hurt accuracy in some examples. Mine is waiting for me to make up some fire lapping ammo to relieve this spot. You can do a google search for "fire lapping Blackhawk" and read a bunch of articles and postings about this issue.
If you get one also check the cylinder throat diameters. Ruger has a bit of a reputation for making them too tight. They SHOULD be about .430 to .432 so the bullet isn't sized as it moves through and enters the forcing cone. Another common issue with the SBH's is finding the chamber mouths are at or even a little under the bore size. Again this hurts the gun's accuracy.
I know this all sounds like it's time to move on. But really there simply isn't another option at this price point. And it's not every gun that has these issues. But they are common enough even on the new ones to warrant some measuring.
Checking the chamber mouths is easy with a set of calipers. To check for bore pinching at the barrel threads you have to slug the bore. You do this by hitting a soft lead round ball or similar soft lead shape into the muzzle with a plastic hammer. Once just about flush drive the slug down with a 3/8 dowel. Once the slug is free and moving easily carefully push the slug down to the frame/thread fit. Feel for any increase in resistance at the point the slug is passing through the thread/frame area. If you don't feel anything then congrats. If you feel a little more drag then look into the fire lapping fix.
The stock grips are too thin around the upper neck for anyone with larger hands. And that results in the trigger guard smacking the shooter's middle finger black and blue after a few cylinders of full power reloads. I got around that by making up some new grips that are quite a lot fatter around the neck. This both gives me more to hold onto and hold more evenly and increases the width of the surface against the palm of my hand so the gun doesn't distort my hand as much and doesn't jump back as much.
A lot of the SBH's suffer from thread pinch where the barrel is crush threaded into the frame. This creates a slight tight spot that hurt accuracy in some examples. Mine is waiting for me to make up some fire lapping ammo to relieve this spot. You can do a google search for "fire lapping Blackhawk" and read a bunch of articles and postings about this issue.
If you get one also check the cylinder throat diameters. Ruger has a bit of a reputation for making them too tight. They SHOULD be about .430 to .432 so the bullet isn't sized as it moves through and enters the forcing cone. Another common issue with the SBH's is finding the chamber mouths are at or even a little under the bore size. Again this hurts the gun's accuracy.
I know this all sounds like it's time to move on. But really there simply isn't another option at this price point. And it's not every gun that has these issues. But they are common enough even on the new ones to warrant some measuring.
Checking the chamber mouths is easy with a set of calipers. To check for bore pinching at the barrel threads you have to slug the bore. You do this by hitting a soft lead round ball or similar soft lead shape into the muzzle with a plastic hammer. Once just about flush drive the slug down with a 3/8 dowel. Once the slug is free and moving easily carefully push the slug down to the frame/thread fit. Feel for any increase in resistance at the point the slug is passing through the thread/frame area. If you don't feel anything then congrats. If you feel a little more drag then look into the fire lapping fix.
