The quest in getting my Ruger New Model Blackhawk to shoot well is over. To quickly recap, this column is the latter of half of my June 2003 write-up where I was struggling to figure out how to get a revolver to shoot well! My wife purchased this handgun for me as a Christmas present in 2002; it is blued with a 5.5" barrel and chambered in the classic .45 Colt. I spent a good deal of range time trying to find a load to shoot less than two inches at twenty five yards. One load with jacketed 240gr Sierra bullets showed promise but I really wanted to shoot cast slugs and they were all over the place. The first modifications were performed by Debick Gunsmithing in Saltsburg, PA. He rethroated the cylinders and gave the Ruger's internal workings a good polishing then installed a Wolff Spring Kit. These changes turned the patterns into something that resembled actual groups, though they were still greater than the two inches I was looking for.

Jumping ahead a few months to the present time I have added a few more things. The sloppy factory base pin was retired for a snug fitting unit from Belt Mountain Enterprises. This little $21.95 addition did wonders for tightening the cylinder to frame fit which in turn significantly helped the groups. This inexpensive and effective modification was installed while sitting at my computer desk and only took a few minutes. Belt Mountain makes base pins to fit single action Rugers and Colts with many different styles to choose from. The one I purchased has a knurled head with an allen lock screw to keep the pin in place when shooting hot loads. On occasion the old pin would creep forward under heavy recoil...a very undesirable situation! The Belt Mountain base pin with the allen screw lock down eliminates this problem. As of now most of my single action Rugers have Belt Mountain pins installed.

Now that the gun was shooting rather well I found one more problem that needed immediate attention...the shooter. I just could not get a comfortable and consistent grip on the factory stocks. Being a professed Contender addict I spend most (if not all) of my range time shooting the Thompson/Center handguns. The factory Ruger grip is much shorter and flared at the bottom. After some work with the Dremel tool, a little filing, and fine grit sandpaper I had the grips reshaped to a form that better fit my hand. I removed the flare so I could better grasp the butt of the gun and spent some time fitting the grips to the frame.

Now I was really making some progress. The Blackhawk has all the components and was in condition to really shoot. I was also starting to really feel comfortable shooting this revolver. With the internal workings of the gun being rough from the start and me not being comfortable, the loads I fired previously really did not have a chance to shoot well. So I reloaded the same loads that were first fired and retested them. One of the first loads I tried that produced 4" patterns was now clustering 255gr Penn SWC and 270gr Thunderhead bullets into less than 1.5" at 25 yards. These bullets are propelled with 25gr of Hodgdons H4227 and a CCI Large Pistol Primer in Winchester cases. The jacketed bullet load from previously that used Sierra 240gr slugs is now cutting clean 1" groups.

With a little time and less than $100 in custom repairs I have a handgun that doubles as an excellent back up or primary carry gun for about any kind of hunting situation. The .45 Colt cartridge can be loaded down for small game or full steam to handle some of the biggest game available as long as a quality handgun is being utilized. This Ruger New Model Blachkawk is certainly built for the task.

Good shooting,
Dan B.