Ruger Blackhawk Convertible .45 Colt/.45 ACP
Sturm, Ruger & Co., Inc.’s Blackhawk single action revolvers are some of the most popular handguns ever sold in the U.S. and have been made in a bewildering variety of calibers, variations and barrel lengths. The Blackhawk began life in 1955 as a .357 Magnum revolver that was seen by many shooters, at least superficially, as a clone of the Colt Single Action Army and found immediate acceptance among American gun enthusiasts. William Batterman Ruger, being a classic car enthusiast, decided to name his new revolver the Blackhawk because of his affinity for the Stutz Blackhawk automobile. The lockwork, as originally designed, was similar to the Colt SAA in that it was not possible to carry the gun safely with six cartridges loaded in the cylinder. These early guns are normally referred to as “Old Model” Blackhawks but they have also been dubbed “three screw models” by collectors for the distinctive look created by the 3 screws that hold in the various parts of the action. A major redesign in 1973 resulted in the New Model Blackhawk, a gun that had changes made to its lockwork, including the incorporation of a transfer bar and the elimination of the three screws. As a result, it is possible to safely carry a New Model Blackhawk with six rounds in the cylinder. As far as I know, owners of “Old Model” Blackhawks can still have them sent to Sturm, Ruger & Co., Inc. for a retrofit that will convert the revolvers to use a transfer bar mechanism similar to the ones used by the New Model Blackhawk. One of the lesser known but more versatile variations of the Blackhawk are the convertibles chambered in .45 Colt/.45 ACP. The revolvers come with two cylinders, one for the .45 Colt and the other for the .45 ACP, giving shooters the option of shooting either cartridge with a quick change of the cylinder.
One of the Ruger Blackhawk’s greatest attributes is its strength and in this respect, it puts the Colt Single Action Army to shame. Although the Colt SAA was chambered for the .45 Colt cartridge, it was never offered in .44 Magnum, unlike the Blackhawk which was. The .44 Magnum Blackhawks had cylinder frames that were slightly larger than the .357 Mag. Blackhawks to accommodate the bigger cartridge but still used the same basic design. Bill Ruger mentions in R.L. Wilson’s Ruger & His Guns, pg. 41 that the first two samples produced of the .357 Magnum Blackhawk were in his own words, “fired with six 50% overload proof cartridges, one in each chamber and the guns handled these “blue pills” as though they were gallery loads.” The single action revolvers made by Colt in .357 Mag. are perfectly safe shooting SAAMI spec. loads but I wouldn’t want to try firing six proof loads in them as they are nowhere near as strong as the Blackhawk. The Ruger Blackhawk also uses music wire coil springs whereas the Colt SAA uses leaf springs to power its mechanism. Fans of the Colt SAA will sometimes point out that leaf springs will provide a superior trigger pull and in my personal experience they have a valid point if the leaf spring is installed and adjusted properly. However, coil springs are still superior in many respects, especially for a gun that may see hard use. Music wire coil springs are very difficult to break and in the case of the Blackhawk revolver, even if one of its coil springs does break, it is unlikely to put the gun out of commission. An inoperable gun is a minor inconvenience at the range but out in the field, especially in remote areas of Alaska or Africa a broken gun is a disaster. The Blackhawk makes extensive use of investment castings, which helps keep production costs down, resulting in a handgun which is priced low enough to make it very affordable, even for shooters of very modest means.
Most shooters would probably think they are safe in assuming that the Blackhawk revolver was chambered in .45 Colt from the very beginning of production but as pointed out by John C. Dougan in Know Your Ruger Single Actions:The Second Decade 1963-73, the .45 Colt Blackhawk was introduced in November 1970, with the first production gun finished in December 1970. This was 15 years after the first .357 Mag. Blackhawks were produced, with the first .45 Colt/.45 ACP convertible listed as made in November 1971. Dougan lists serial #45-00111 as the first .45 Colt/.45 ACP convertible manufactured but interestingly enough, he also lists serial #45-00085 as the lowest serial number .45 Colt/.45 ACP convertible recorded as of September 1991. R.L. Wilson lists a serial number range of #45-00000 to #45-23031 in Ruger & His Guns, which was current as of 2007. I have no reason to doubt either Dougan or Wilson as they both have done excellent jobs covering their chosen subjects but it seems to me that the minutiae of Blackhawk production has not been completely ferreted out and I look forward to reading both authors’ efforts in the future. Dougan also mentions that 595 .45 Colt Blackhawks were made with brass grip frames but without the extra cylinder in 1972. I’ve never been partial to revolvers with brass grip frames as I’ve always wondered if the grip frames would stretch when fired with heavy loads but they are attractive, at least from an esthetic sense, and a Blackhawk so equipped from the factory would be a desirable collector’s item. As much as I like my .45 Colt/.45 ACP Blackhawk Convertible, I’ve always wondered why Ruger never offered it in stainless steel. I love guns made of finely finished blue steel and walnut but stainless steel is the only way to go for a gun that may be exposed to the elements for long periods of time. The convertibles can currently be ordered with either a 4 5/8” or 5 1/2” barrel with my personal preference being the latter.
Since the Blackhawk is a very strong and well built revolver, handloaders can load cartridges that are much more powerful than the original .45 Colt specifications call for but it is imperative that such loads not be used in a Colt Single Action Army or any of its copies. To do so is dangerous and will most likely result in serious injury to the shooter. For those of you that don’t handload, the original .45 Colt loads, even the blackpowder ones, are still capable of delivering excellent performance. The .45 Colt cartridge was introduced by Colt’s Patent F.A. Mfg. Co. in 1873, along with the Colt Single Action Army (SAA) revolver, and both revolver and cartridge were soon adopted by the U.S. Army. The .45 Colt round quickly developed a reputation of being a good manstopper and was even pressed into service for the Filipino-American War of 1899-1902 (also known as the Philippines Insurrection) when reports came back from U.S. troops of the inadequate performance of the .38 caliber revolvers that were then standard issue during their encounters with insurgents, especially the fanatical Moros. Although the war was officially declared over in 1902, fighting continued until 1913 when the Sultan of Sulu’s forces were defeated at Bagsak Mountain. Early in the conflict, Colt SAAs, although declared obsolete by this time, were brought out of storage and sent to U.S. troops. William Weir writes in the 1992 Gun Digest that shipments of Colt Model 1878 Frontier Double Action revolvers followed not long after while James E. Serven in Colt Firearms 1836-1960 states they may not have been sent there and may have been intended for use by cavalry troops in the western U.S. Colt New Service revolvers, designated M1909 by the U.S. military and chambered in .45 Colt, were adopted by the Army, Navy and Marine Corps in the latter stages of the conflict and were sent to the Philippines after they were deemed suitable for military use, as documented by Bob Murphy in Colt New Service Revolvers. Anyone interested in learning more about the Philippines Insurrection would be well advised to read The Guns of the Philippines Wars by William Weir in the 1992 Gun Digest or The Savage Wars of Peace by Max Boot.
The New Service revolvers were excellent revolvers for their day but the extractor star sometimes had difficulty engaging the small rim on .45 Colt cartridges so a special .45 Colt round with a larger rim was made at Frankford Arsenal for use in them. These special cartridges couldn’t be used in the Colt SAA unless they were loaded three at a time, each in alternate chambers, and are rarely seen today. If you happen to have any of them, I wouldn’t fire them since they are likely to be quite valuable. They may also be hazardous to your health as Philip B. Sharpe mentions in The Complete Guide to Handloading, 3rd Ed., pg. 172-173 that some of these special, Frankford Arsenal .45 Colt rounds were accidentally loaded with a double charge of Bullseye powder and the troops found out the hard way when the revolvers they were fired in blew up. Still, even with these mishaps, the U.S. Armed Forces in The Philippines relearned the virtues of a large, .45 caliber bullet fired from a handgun for defensive purposes and although they couldn’t realistically go back to issuing Colt SAAs to the troops for anything but temporary use, they did adopt the Model 1911 .45 ACP semiautomatic pistol and the rest, as they say, is history. Since then, the .45 Colt and .45 ACP cartridges have maintained their popularity with American shooters with the M1911 pattern pistol chambered in .45 ACP finding particular favor today among those who need to carry a weapon for personal protection.
As much as I like M1911 pattern pistols, and there are a lot of good ones made by the likes of Kimber, Springfield Armory, Les Baer and Ed Brown (my particular favorite) I still find myself reaching for a big revolver more often than I do a 1911 when I go to the range or head out to the field for a bit of hunting or shooting. Make no mistake, the Model 1911 is one of the finest pistols ever designed, but I find a revolver much more versatile and more importantly, as a reloader, I don’t have to look for fired brass after it has been ejected into the weeds like I would with a semiauto pistol. I’m a fairly good rifle shooter but a mediocre handgunner, mostly because I don’t practice enough and good handgun shooting definitely requires lots of trigger time. Even so, my Blackhawk with the .45 Colt cylinder installed is an excellent shooter with groups of 2 inches easily attainable at 25 yards, especially when I am shooting 255 grain LSWCs at about 800 to 900 fps. Because of my lack of practice, the first 4 rounds generally cluster into a 2” group but the next 2 rounds open up the group enough to sometimes double its size. It irritates me to no end when it happens but such is the result of the onset of middle age and too much time spent in front of a computer. By the way, when you see photos in the major firearms periodicals of the small groups shot by the various folks employed to write about guns, you might want to try and do it yourself sometime. A lot of the groups are shot with machine rests but it still isn’t as easy as it looks. The 255 grain LSWCs I fire during practice sessions make holes in the target big enough for me to see with the naked eye at 25 yards under good conditions, which makes it easy for me to see exactly how I am doing from shot to shot, and its mild recoil makes it a lot of fun to boot.
One of the many things I like about the .45 Colt round, and this is applicable to most big bore revolver rounds, is the fine accuracy that can be obtained with a variety of powders. So far, I’ve used Red Dot, Unique and Bullseye with my personal preference being Red Dot. I’ve always had a soft spot for Alliant powders for use in handguns and shotguns and I have never been disappointed with their products. 99% of the .45 Colt cartridges I fire are loaded with a 255 grain LSWC to about the same velocity and power level as the original blackpowder load but as I stated earlier, if you are shooting a Blackhawk, T/C Contender, Ruger Redhawk or some other handgun of similar strength, it is possible to load the .45 Colt cartridge to power levels that are much greater than the Colt SAA can withstand. That’s assuming, of course, that you are using modern brass for your handloads and you don’t get too carried away by trying to match the .44 Magnum. I can’t stress enough that as good as the .45 Colt is, it is not a .44 Magnum or .454 Casull so don’t try and handload it beyond the safe limits of its case design. This is especially true of the early .45 Colt cases of balloon-head construction that were meant to be loaded with blackpowder. As far as I am concerned, balloon-head cases should never be used as they are nowhere near as strong as modern brass. Many balloon-head cases have been fired with mercuric primers, making the brass they are constructed of extremely brittle and that much more unsafe to use. In fact, if you have any balloon-head cases, I would suggest you either stash them away as curiosities, sell them to a collector or take them to a metal recycler and sell them for scrap. Most balloon-head cases are close to 100 years old and it just isn’t worth it from my perspective to have them around except for display, what with the potential for mixing them up with modern brass and inadvertently loading them with powder charges that they are not meant to safely handle. Over the 15 years or so that I’ve been shooting the .45 Colt I’ve heard of more than a few shooters who talk about how they can load their .45 Colt cartridges hot enough to match the performance of the .44 Magnum. I am not one of them and in that respect, I agree with Ken Waters’ observation in Pet Loads (Handloader No. 54, March-April 1975) that the .45 Colt case was not designed to handle the sort of pressures the .44 Magnum can and I feel it is foolhardy to try it considering all the comparatively weak guns like the Colt SAA floating around that the .45 Colt is chambered for. The .45 Colt has more than enough power to get the job done and it isn’t worth the risk, unless the loss of a few fingers and maybe even one or both eyes is something that doesn’t bother you.
With the .45 ACP cylinder installed, my Blackhawk can fire any .45 ACP load available to me, either factory made or handload, and if it fits in the chamber, it will fire without the slightest complaint, assuming of course that the round isn’t a dud. I haven’t measured the interior diameter of the chambers in the .45 ACP cylinder my Blackhawk came with but my subjective impression is that one of them is cut to a slightly different dimension than the others as it is sometimes difficult to to extract a fired round when it is dirty. It doesn’t seem to hurt its ability to shoot good groups and since I don’t use the ,45 ACP cylinder much, I have decided to leave it alone for now but it is something I plan to investigate at some point. I have to adjust the sights when changing between the .45 Colt and .45 ACP cylinders and manually remove each fired round but it is a tradeoff I am willing to make in return for the overall versatility of the gun. With my Blackhawk, the point of impact shifts down about 3 to 4 inches when I switch from the .45 Colt to the .45 ACP (assuming I am firing 255 grain LSWCs in the .45 Colt and 230 grain roundnoses in the .45 ACP) so if I am in a hurry or just feeling lazy, I just hold over a bit when using the .45 ACP cylinder instead of adjusting the sights. Groups fired with the .45 ACP cylinder are virtually identical to the .45 Colt. Handloading .45 ACP rounds is a straightforward affair with lots of suitable powders and components available. Powders I’ve tried include Winchester 231, Alliant Bullseye and Red Dot, all with good results. Eventually, I will make an effort to develop a .45 Colt load that will shoot to the same point of impact as factory .45 ACP 230 grain hardball loads but that is a project that will likely take more time than I currently have and will have to be deferred. Thankfully, the barrel on my Blackhawk Convertible is very nicely made and doesn’t show the slightest trace of leading, even after firing many rounds, unlike some handguns I’ve owned over the years.
As much as I love my Blackhawk Convertible, there are a few things I wish Sturm, Ruger & Co., Inc. would do to make the gun just a bit better. First on the list of improvements would be to replace the aluminum grip frame with a steel one. The .44 Mag. Super Blackhawk comes with a steel grip frame with either a square trigger guard or a round one and I’ve never understood why all of Ruger’s blued single action revolvers don’t have them. The second thing I would do is replace the aluminum ejector rod housing with a steel one. I have a blued Super Blackhawk that has a steel ejector rod housing fitted up by Bowen Classic Arms and not only does it give the revolver a bit more heft at the muzzle, it dramatically improves the gun’s appearance. I’m sure the folks at Ruger decided that making both items out of aluminum would keep the price of their blued Blackhawk revolvers more affordable but I don’t think it would cost all that much more to use steel parts instead of aluminum. The third and final thing I wish Ruger would do is replace the base pin with one that locks in place, either with a set screw or a lever, at least in Blackhawks chambered for the bigger cartridges (i.e. .41 Mag. or larger). Base pins that don’t have some sort of lock have a bad habit of coming loose and moving forward under heavy recoil and it can be annoying, to say the least, if it happens when you absolutely, positively need a revolver to work. Any custom pistolsmith will be more than happy to upgrade a Blackhawk in the manner I have described but it would be nice if they came from the factory that way. Still, Ruger’s Blackhawk revolvers are some of the strongest, finest handguns ever made and if you are a real gun enthusiast, once you buy one, you’ll probably buy several more. I’ve already got my eye on a .44 Magnum Super Blackhawk Hunter but it is also available as a limited edition from Davidson’s in .41 Magnum, another cartridge I am very fond of, so I am torn between the two. Maybe Santa will be generous this year and I will find both under the Christmas tree, a holiday ritual I am still allowed to practice in these politically correct times, at least for now.
Some of you may pooh-pooh what I have to say but earlier this year, the governor of my once great state of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, signed into law a bill that abolishes the sale of any handgun ammunition starting in 2011 that isn’t a face to face transaction with a state approved dealer. I’m not sure yet what sort of record keeping requirements will be mandated as a result of the new law but I’m sure the good folks in Sacramento will think of something. If you decide you don’t want the State of California to know what sort of ammo you’ve been purchasing, it may not be a bad time to stock up now before the law takes effect. The California Rifle and Pistol Association has already begun a campaign to overturn this new law but in my bitter personal experience, it is probably going to be very difficult to repeal. It is just an unfortunate reality of life that once any law is on the books, it is virtually impossible to get it repealed, especially in the People’s Republic of California. Still, I urge anyone reading this to join the NRA, The Firearms Coalition and if you are a resident of California, the CRPA. They are all good organizations and they need your help. You can help financially or through volunteer effort and they would all welcome either. The tea party movement is still active and that is another way to get involved in the effort to take back this great land of ours from those who would destroy it. Make no mistake, there are large numbers of people, especially in government, that would love to turn America into a socialist paradise and if we ever do implement a socialist/communist agenda, it will be the end of freedom as we know it. It’s up to all of us to make sure future generations enjoy the same or greater freedoms as we have and we can’t do it by waiting for someone else to get the ball rolling. So whatever you decide to do, as long as it isn’t illegal and it isn’t violent action, just get up and do it. Your grandchildren will thank you for it. -- John Swikart (October 20, 2010)
Copyright October 2010 ALL ABOUT GUNS
