A new in box/unfired 9mm Ruger Blackhawk OM cylinder was acquired. Its lovely. And its over size to allow for proper fitting. Yes, it has the large throats and it won't cut clover leaves at 50 yards. But, with the price and availability of ammo, 9mm being more available and often less expensive than even 22 lr....it will provide hours of full power practice on steel to 25 yards, tin cans, paper targets, golf balls, orange polymer rolly on the groundie thingies....etc. And....I suspect we'll post a 15 yard target later with factory and handloaded 9mm ammo that shows pretty significantly good grouping with no key holes.
Later I'll check all the headspace, but after tonights install, timing is perfect and all cylinders clear a range rod in the bore.
To it then.
The New Old Stock cylinder. Its pristine. It'll stay that way. No need for bluing. Just a good cleaning, fit checks and then get it dirty on the range.
Buy a good tool once, this one over 25 years ago for facing muzzles square and find millions of jobs for it around the shop from making gauges to sort 22 LR by rim thickness to facing muzzles to facing Ejector rod housings to facing off Blackhawk cylinders for a purrfact fit. If I only has $1 for each time I used it with purrfact success.....
Here the cylinder after a few dozen turns with very light pressure....a tight thumb push fit into place that is very stiff to rotate.
Taking off another .001" (about 4 to 6 turns with my light pressure) and it slides into place, almost zero endshake (probably less than half of the endshake of the tight original 357 mag cylinder). I'll get all the headspace measurements later. This gun has a generous barrel cylinder gap with the original cylinder and the new 9mm cylinder seems about the same. No reason to change the BC gap if it shoots well and I suspect it will, its been generous since about 1973 on this specimen. BC gaps are bragged about a lot but in the long run, most folks don't care cause they don't know they might pick up a dozen foot seconds with a super small gap. Any way, both cylinders fit well, line up with the bore and spin like loonie birds on hot snot bearings with out any wobble or clatter.
Finally, to the rear sight. OM rear sight blades are all black and itty bitty. This one is missing its return spring and was loctighted into place all the way left to prevent loss. Lets fix it.
I file the lower tab off a white outline NM rear sight blade, transfer the spring (using a wee bitty screw driver to compress the spring for the blade installation), replace the screw and center it up. Neat-O....A touch taller for findin it fast and a bit of white line for a crisp outline. Should work great and the left right adjustability has been restored.
That's it. I'm off for the hunt. Packing this week. Dad is on his way. Sis is on her way. Pal from CA is on his way. We are headin to the much flooded swamps and slews south east of Raleigh along the Neuse River (hope the water is down just a bit so we can get all the way into Sherwood Forest!) with visions of buck, doe, boar, bobcat and coyote in our heads. See ya in a week or two.
Later I'll check all the headspace, but after tonights install, timing is perfect and all cylinders clear a range rod in the bore.
To it then.
The New Old Stock cylinder. Its pristine. It'll stay that way. No need for bluing. Just a good cleaning, fit checks and then get it dirty on the range.
Buy a good tool once, this one over 25 years ago for facing muzzles square and find millions of jobs for it around the shop from making gauges to sort 22 LR by rim thickness to facing muzzles to facing Ejector rod housings to facing off Blackhawk cylinders for a purrfact fit. If I only has $1 for each time I used it with purrfact success.....
Here the cylinder after a few dozen turns with very light pressure....a tight thumb push fit into place that is very stiff to rotate.
Taking off another .001" (about 4 to 6 turns with my light pressure) and it slides into place, almost zero endshake (probably less than half of the endshake of the tight original 357 mag cylinder). I'll get all the headspace measurements later. This gun has a generous barrel cylinder gap with the original cylinder and the new 9mm cylinder seems about the same. No reason to change the BC gap if it shoots well and I suspect it will, its been generous since about 1973 on this specimen. BC gaps are bragged about a lot but in the long run, most folks don't care cause they don't know they might pick up a dozen foot seconds with a super small gap. Any way, both cylinders fit well, line up with the bore and spin like loonie birds on hot snot bearings with out any wobble or clatter.
Finally, to the rear sight. OM rear sight blades are all black and itty bitty. This one is missing its return spring and was loctighted into place all the way left to prevent loss. Lets fix it.
I file the lower tab off a white outline NM rear sight blade, transfer the spring (using a wee bitty screw driver to compress the spring for the blade installation), replace the screw and center it up. Neat-O....A touch taller for findin it fast and a bit of white line for a crisp outline. Should work great and the left right adjustability has been restored.
That's it. I'm off for the hunt. Packing this week. Dad is on his way. Sis is on her way. Pal from CA is on his way. We are headin to the much flooded swamps and slews south east of Raleigh along the Neuse River (hope the water is down just a bit so we can get all the way into Sherwood Forest!) with visions of buck, doe, boar, bobcat and coyote in our heads. See ya in a week or two.
