9mm Blackhawk

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TruthTellers

New member
74A95 said:
S&W generally makes a 5 land/groove barrels, and Ruger often does 8 land/groove barrels on the 38/357 Blackhawks.

My 38/357/9mm Blackhawk shows no accuracy difference with factory ammo between these calibers, tested in a Ransom Rest. 9mm handloads have been the most accurate, testing .355 and .357 bullets. The smallest group was 1.4" with 24 shots at 25 yards using .355 bullets in the Ransom Rest. It's barrel slugged at .3577". Don't believe it when people tell you that undersize bullets don't shoot well (in a handgun).
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I've shot .307" bullets in a Ruger .327 with a .314" chamber throat and .312" groove diameter and the accuracy was it hit the target I was shooting at some 15 yards away, yet when I shoot factory .45 ACP in the Ruger Redhawk the accuracy is exceptionally poor compared to my handloads with either .45 Colt or .45 ACP.

Nothing is ever a given when it comes to shooting.
 
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logeorge

New member
SAAMI specs for .44 Mag. & .44 Special bullets are .432". How did .429 become standard? You can't even find bullet sizers in .432". To get one, I had to hone out a .430" and make an ejector punch to fit. This was for a Ruger with .432 cylinder throats and .431 grooves.












'
 
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rodfac

New member
Now, go slug your barrels and see if they match the SAAMI spec, or not.
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Yep, and mine don't plus 9mm dies are designed for .355" dia. bullets. And accuracy with my 9's is better if I use lead alloy or jacketed that measure . 357" YMMv, rod
 
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zeke

New member
Perhaps SAMMI specs may be better called SAMMI voluntary suggestions. Am not of belief they are actually mandatory product design specifications, although some manufacturers may use them as such.

Anyways, there is what is supposed to be, and what actually is.
 
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44 AMP

Staff
So then can I load my LeHigh .355 90 grain bullets into .38 special cases?
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Sure, why not??? They'll fit.....

The rest will be the result of the specific relationships between the bullets, the cases, your load, and the gun you fire them from.

Might be a good idea, might not be. You'll have to test with what you have, and make up your own mind.
 
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74A95

New member
HighValleyRanch said:
I'm confused. So then can I load my LeHigh .355 90 grain bullets into .38 special cases?
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Yes, but neck tension is an issue because 38/357 brass is built around .357 bullets. smaller diameter bullets might 'fall' in the case. Remington brass tends to be thin, and can be a problem with undersize bullets.

I get around that by using a 38/357 Lee Undersize die. That shrinks them down about .002" smaller than the usual 38/357 sizing die, and that works well with .355 bullets in 38/357 brass.

Edit to add: I forgot to mention that I expand the case mouth with a 9mm flaring die. You can try a 38/357 flaring die and see if they still have enough tension to hold a .355 bullet.
 
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HighValleyRanch

New member
Thanks for the tip with the underszing die.
Also, for a while I was cutting the .38 cases down to .38 long and short colts, so maybe by cutting the case down, the thicker wall might hold the .355 bullet better as well.
I was doing that to see if I could get faster ejection with the short snubby rod, and faster reloads.
 
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zeke

New member
Would guess if you using bullets for 9mm, a 9mm die could be used to neck size a 38 case? Then a 9mm expander?
 
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stinkeypete

New member
I used to use a .38 Super die to just expand the neck of my .357 cases. It's okay to mess around.

It's also okay to slug your throat and barrel and see what you actually have.

But, once you are this deep into reloading, the idea of using 9mm seems like a whole lot of bother rather than just shooting .357.
 
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rclark

New member
Once you are this deep into reloading, the idea of using 9mm seems like a whole lot of bother rather than just shooting .357.
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Yep. I Agree. You can load from ~600fps to ~1500fps if you reload in a .357 case. Who needs to load 9mm for the revolver? I also drew the same conclusion with .45 ACP. The semi-auto cartridge cylinders rarely get used. I've got the die sets to to load the semi-auto rounds too ... but no need to use them.
 
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rock185

New member
I don't have a Ransom Rest, but shooting my Ruger convertible from the bench at 25 yards, I could not determine that .357 was any more accurate than 9mm. If anything, I could sometimes do a little better with .38 +P, due to it's soft recoil in the big Blackhawk. Even standard pressure 9mm had more recoil than the 125-129 grain 38 +P I tested. The 9mm +P and +P+ I tested seemed to have recoil closer to .357 than .38+P.
 
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Drm50

New member
I bought a 357/9mm for my dad when they were first out. I had owned several 357s prior, but mine were all 3screw. Anyway dad got another 9mm cylinder and him and another gun nut who was a machinist modified it. My old man bragged with his 3 cylinders he could fire 33 different cartridges. I dd see him shooting 38Super, 380, and several kinds of 9mm. He was know to stretch things a mite, but he had them all wrote down on a index card if you cared to wager. Gun was tuned for moderate 158 cast SWC of which it did good job of slinging down range. It shot 9mm to different point of aim at 25yds.
 
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reynolds357

New member
rclark said:
Yep. I Agree. You can load from ~600fps to ~1500fps if you reload in a .357 case. Who needs to load 9mm for the revolver? I also drew the same conclusion with .45 ACP. The semi-auto cartridge cylinders rarely get used. I've got the die sets to to load the semi-auto rounds too ... but no need to use them.
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If you want to run cheap factory ammo, 9mm is the solution. I bought mine because it was cheaper with 2 cylinders than one. It is at Ruger now, hopefully being fixed.
 
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44 AMP

Staff
I could sometimes do a little better with .38 +P, due to it's soft recoil in the big Blackhawk.
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I don't understand how recoil, or lack of recoil could have any effect on accuracy, unless you are introducing some time factor into it.
 
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