Ruger's Light Working Gun

American Handgunner, Jan, 2001 by Mike Cumpston

YOUR BASIC PLAIN VANILLA BLACKHAWK .45 CONVERTIBLE IS THE IDEAL WORKING GUN.

During the early '70s, the late Dr. Mel Tappin produced a thought-provoking series of books and articles about survival in the event of short-term or long-term social upheaval. In his book Survival Guns, he explored various common-sense approaches to selecting a battery of basic arms that would be of particular value in the event of societal breakdown, including interruption or loss of gunsmith and factory repair facilities.

Logistics played an important part in his recommendations, which frequently included selecting defensive and utility guns chambered for the same rounds.

Tappin regarded the Colt 1911, complete with selected spare parts, as the ideal defensive sidearm, and recommended the basic Ruger Blackhawk .45 Convertible as an ideal working gun. The Blackhawk would draw from the same ammunition supply as the 1911 and had the added advantage of high performance .45 Colt hand-loads.

A prominent factor in his praise of the Blackhawk was the robust nature of the design. The Blackhawk family closely resembles the hockey puck in freedom from parts breakage.

By and large, owners of .45 caliber handguns are high volume shooters. This has always been true among 1911 shooters and the recent renaissance of the old Colt round has a growing number of single-action shooters stacking up supplies of empty brass and machine-cast bullets of traditional design.

Whether motivated by recreational or survival concerns, the basic Blackhawk affords the .45 enthusiast a useful vehicle for expanding his shooting horizons.

Performance Parameters

With a growing supply of ACP components and fond memories of hours spent afield with a short barreled .357 Black-hawk, I set out to explore the performance parameters of a 4 5/8" barrel .45 ACP/.45 Colt Convertible, giving particular attention to its applicability as a belt-portable field gun and general recreational piece.

The short .45 with its no-frills alloy grip frame and ejector rod housing weighs in at 38 ozs., making it 1 oz. heavier and 1.5" longer than my Series 80 Colt. This makes it 8 to 10 ozs. lighter than the all-steel magnum New Model Blackhawks now available in a full selection of barrel lengths.

The only non-standard features on my gun are a set of stag grips and the well-publicized alteration of the trigger return spring, which set the trigger pull at a fully functional 1 lb. 6 ozs.

During initial and later range sessions, I entertained myself by shooting at homemade cottontail rabbit targets and the standing woodchuck images designed for the bow and arrow set. I did this with a variety of .45 ACP rounds as well as a Keith-like handload consisting of 18.5 grs. 2400 in the Colt cylinder. This load diverged from the Keith standard by substitution of CCI Magnum primers and a cast 250 gr. flat point cowboy bullet.

I found that I could hit the vitals of my small game targets with good consistency shooting one-handed from 60 feet. This was with the noonday sun flaring off the front sight. Given optimum sunlight and a two handed grip, my range of confidence extends to 25 yards.

The .45 Colt load seemed promising and I put up an archery deer target at 50 yards to refine my sight setting. After minimal fine-tuning, the Colt loads consistently landed in the chest and neck area which, while resembling the vitals of a trophy whitetail, was actually about the size of a Labrador retriever. This was done from standing, two handed under a roofed firing point that provided ideal lighting.

It leads to the supposition that, all things remaining equal, I should be capable of using the Ruger to address deer-like targets of opportunity more than 50 yards distant. The reality of the situation, however, is that in the field, ceteras seldom meets pan bus.

With good lighting and an ideally placed deer, maybe I could extend the range. With poor lighting and an obscure target, my effective range would get significantly shorter.

.45 ACP Cylinder

I used the above sight setting while bench testing a representative sample of loads at 25 yards. My favorite light-spring Gold Cup load consists of a 200 gr. commercial cast SWC over 3.5 grs. of Bullseye. This hit point-of-aim for elevation and windage. At an average of 1.75" for three, five-round groups, the Ruger duplicated the accuracy of this load from my stock Series 80 Gold Cup.

The CCI Blazer 230 gr. ball load was on for elevation and about 1" to the right of center. Federal 165 gr. Personal Protection loads hit center and 4" to 5" low. Groups with the ACP loads were at least the equivalent of those produced from my Gold Cup.

Neither of my Colts shoot particularly well with generic ball ammunition, but the Ruger consistently recorded five shot clusters of under 2" with the Blazers. My smallest group so far is a 0.88" five shot string using the Blazer ball.

Velocity Question

Reloading manuals usually show velocities in .45 Auto Rim revolvers to be significantly lower than ACP loads fired in autopistols with the same nominal barrel lengths. I expected to see the same tendency with the somewhat shorter Ruger.