Stainless Bisley Ruger Blackhawk 55 45 Colt Reviews
I'thousand not maxim they're stupid, but man, people make some very questionable choices. Fearing "ballot riots" a grown man traded me used Glock 42 in .380ACP for a new-in-box New Model Ruger Super Blackhawk Bisley in .454 Casull. Not even a elevate line on the cylinder yet.
He made a bad trade. The Ruger Super Blackhawk Bisley in .454 Casull is an awesome, historic handgun, fully capable and well proven to accept any animal on earth.
The .454 Casull is generally considered the commencement of the true heavy magnums. If you believed Dirty Harry and idea it was the .44 Magnum, you are mistaken. The .44 Magnum is, even at its most potent loading, a sneeze compared to the .454 Casull. The top loads of the .44 Magnum produce about 1,200ft/lbs of muzzle free energy. The .454 Casull? Over 1,900ft/lbs. And that's through the aforementioned weight revolver with the same barrel length.
Different many of the big bore magnums, that power isn't because of a particularly heavy bullet. In fact, the inability to load a bullet to or past 400 grains is actually the only downside to the .454 Casull. No, Dick Casull'southward big baby's claim to fame is how fast it pushes the 300(ish) grain rounds. A 300 grain bullet fired from a vi 1/2″ barrel similar this one should exist moving at i,600 fps, at its top end. A 240 gr hollow point? You're looking closer to 1,900 fps.
That's a whole lot of free energy. And pressure. The .454 Casull legitimately operates at rifle pressures. With its perfected case, modest burglarize primer, and a good amount of fast powder behind the bullet, the SAAMI maximum pressure for the .454 Casull is a whopping 65,000 psi. For reference, that'due south slightly higher up both the 5.56 NATO and .308 Winchester rifle cartridges.
Of grade, all that energy comes with a cost paid in recoil. At the top end of the .454 Casull loads from this Ruger Super Blackhawk Bisley, you should expect most 35 lbs of recoil free energy back to the shooter. To put that into perspective, assuming you were shooting it through the exact same gun, the accented summit loads of a .44 Magnum will give you lot 23 lbs, and the .357 Magnum would give you 11 lbs. For more perspective, a fifteen lb rifle chambered in .338 Lapua Magnum provides 29 lbs. Heavy loads in the .460 Smith and Wesson Magnum fired from their 460XVR double action revolvers provides near 31 lbs of recoil energy. That's assuming H110 is used as the pulverisation for all the previous pistol loads.
Anything in a higher place thirty lbs is a heck of handshake.
Fortunately, all that recoil is normally unnecessary, generally considering of the practical genius of Dick Casull.
Handgun hunters owe a whole lot to Mr. Casull. His work, and his incredible influence on other gunsmiths, led the way for revolver hunting as we know it today. I have no doubtfulness there would not exist the variety and quality of firearms or cartridges available to the handgun hunter today if not for Dick Casull.
He didn't get-go out to produce the nigh famous cartridge that bears his proper noun, he started out trying to create a very heavy .45 Colt. He rightly recognized the killing potential of the .45 Colt, but saw the weaknesses of the example pattern likewise every bit the firearms they were fired in.
Eventually, he strengthened the example wall and head, and went with the minor rifle primer to become every bit much case caput strength as possible. He lengthened the case a bit also. The guns he put them in were originally modified Ruger single actions with custom cylinders. This was before he and Wayne Baker created Freedom Arms.
I have fired a few of Freedom Arms revolvers in .454 Casull, and they are all exceptional guns. A Freedom Artillery Model 83 in .454 Casull is a true homage to the primary, merely firing Casull's cartridge in a Ruger unmarried activeness is a bit like bringing the bird back to the nest.
Casull's process means that every .454 Casull-chambered revolver can besides burn the .45 Colt and .45 Schofield cartridges. For the commercial ammunition buyer, that gives you a very wide range of bullets, muzzle velocities, and recoil profiles. For the manus loader, you have a truly extreme assortment of possibilities. I can fire a 180 gr Cowboy Activity Load at 660 fps and wonder if the bullet actually made it out of the butt. I tin can fire a hard bandage 395 gr bullet at 1,300 fps, and wonder only at the ability of the monster I accept created. And everything in between.
For those of y'all who read my review of this same gun in .480 Ruger, you'll recognize all the same general features on this new revolver of mine, save the caliber. They're twin sisters (fraternal).
The Super Blackhawk Bisley carries the same brushed stainless cease throughout the gun. This is definitely a "working gun" end. Y'all tin can notwithstanding see a scrap of the "grain" in the steel, and although the finish is even throughout, there'south cipher special most it at all. The Ruger Bisleys are probably the best revolvers nearly people tin can afford, merely it's not because Ruger spends a lot of time making them pretty.
Following the commonsensical theme are the hardwood grips adorning the Bisley grip frame. The fit is okay. They overhang a chip on the front, i side more than than the other, and the forest doesn't quite meet upwards with the frame on the back.
Although the woods-to-metal fit is simply acceptable, the grip shape itself is just most perfect. Borrowing from the original Colt Bisley target revolver grip frame, Ruger improved on this further, making it the supreme grip for recoil reduction. Fifty-fifty with the .44 Magnum, virtually shooters observe a large comeback in recoil management with the Ruger Bisley frame over the standard plow handle. Some folks take an outcome with the trigger baby-sit hitting their middle finger in recoil on the Bisley frame, but I accept not had a business organisation with this.
One of the weak points on all adjustable sight Ruger single actions are the sights. The front sight is a serrated blackness ramp. On a dark target, or shooting in shadows, this tends to disappear, or at the very least loses its sharp edges. The Hunter models have an orange insert, but these models do not.
The rear sight is one of the most often changed items when customizing these guns. That's because it is also black and unmarked, so only worsens the bug of the front sight. They also seem to vary widely with how hard they are to adjust, and how well the adjustments remain truthful under heavy recoil. Heck, I've had a Single Six rear sight that simply would not hold still. This one does.
One of the peachy features of these newer Super Blackhawk Bisleys in the heaviest calibers is the larger locking cylinder base pin included right from the manufactory. This is a must have for whatever of the truly big calibers, and ensures that the base of operations pivot won't walk out in heavy recoil. The results of this occurring run from annoying to catastrophic, and then it's bang-up that Ruger addresses this from the outset.
Of grade, being a Bisley, not just practice nosotros meet the dissimilar grip but also the lowered wide hammer spur. These guns all include this welcome characteristic. With a deeply textured top surface, this hammer is easy to become to even with heavy winter gloves on.
The single action trigger of the New Model Rugers are rarely anything to crow about, simply this one is a little better than others. There'south a bit of squish, but correct backside that is a surprisingly light trigger. As an average of five trigger pulls, my Lyman digital trigger calibration puts this .454 Casull New Model Super Blackhawk Bisley's trigger pull at 2lbs, 13oz. I would have guessed lighter, and this is likely the all-time of the Ruger unmarried action triggers I think. Certainly the best of the ones I have, and I've got a agglomeration.
To incorporate the immense pressure of the round, the cylinder has been bored to hold but five rounds. This is evidently necessary to contain the .454 Casull, but it's too nice to know that an infinite amount of very heavy .45 Colt (25-30k psi) would never start to fatigue this cylinder.
Because of the New Models' transfer bar, that means that you tin can fully load the cylinder each time, giving the gun the aforementioned real carrying capacity as the original Colt single action cartridge revolvers. In that location's no need to load 1, skip one, and load 4 (or three).
Simply like the .480 Ruger I previously reviewed, if you demand more five full ability .454 Casull loads to accept anything down, run. Run for your life. You've picked a fight with Godzilla.
I put 200 rounds of commercial .454 Casull ammunition through this revolver. I as well threw another 120 rounds of my ain .45 Filly handloads of varying pressures through it, and then 20 more rounds of my own hand loaded .454 Casull top pressure loads through it. I never had whatever issues with the gun in any way. There were no failures to load or burn, and all the rounds ejected with a unproblematic press of the ejector. The sights never inverse and the base pin never moved. The grips did loosen a bit, simply nothing a turn of the single center screw didn't fix.
All the shooting was done inside a week's time. The revolver was well lubricated prior to shooting, just not lubricated or cleaned in any way during the review until all of the shooting was done and it was time for photos.
I measured the cylinder gap and cease-shake on this gun both before and afterwards shooting. Neither changed.
To exist fair, I was non able to precisely measure the finish-milk shake (cylinder front to back play) on this gun. I don't mean I don't have the tools or don't know how, I hateful it is and so minimal that none of the tools I have was precise plenty to measure out it. That is very good news.
It's incredibly rare to have a circular within SAAMI specifications blow up a revolver. That'southward merely not how these guns die. They milkshake themselves to death. Sometimes this starts with excessive end shake, where every circular fired makes the problem worse. With zero showtime on that from the mill, and even after quite a few rounds in a compressed amount of time, I'm confident this firearm is capable of outlasting a lifetime of shooting and hunting. (As an aside, if you lot want your revolvers to terminal, especially your heavy recoiling guns, ensure they are lubricated fairly. I shop a little Lucas Oil tube in each of my revolver cases to make sure I don't shoot them without checking lubrication.)
Unfortunately, the cylinder gap didn't measure quite upwards to the same standards. When I first saw it, I idea "Simply Soft! What light through yonder window breaks?" Measuring .009″ with a feeler gauge, it's far too much, and if this gun wasn't headed to a smith for some work I'd send it back to Ruger to bring it down closer to .002″, or at least to Ruger'due south usual .005″ish.
As it is, it's robbing each cartridge of power. This was easily born out on the chronograph, where non a unmarried commercial circular fired reached within 50 fps of the advertised velocity, and none of my reloaded rounds came very close to what the math said would be the muzzle velocity either.
Since I take a Ruger Blackhawk Bisley in .45 Filly (every bit everyone should), I was able to shoot light to heavy .45 Colt rounds next in each gun. In every instance, the smaller caliber Ruger, which has a much tighter cylinder gap, shot the same bullet faster than the Super Blackhawk Bisley.
This is common with the heavy cartridges, and even more especially for one with as much powder and as high pressures as the .454 Casull, a larger cylinder gap like this bleeds pulverisation.
The cylinder throats measure .456″ with a minus pin estimate. This is adequate, but I'd prefer them a chip tighter. Whatsoever qualified gunsmith can move the barrel in to reduce the cylinder gap, but nobody is going to magically shrink those cylinder throats. Proper bullet selection will exist key.
I presume this is pretty standard for these guns, every bit I hear and read about folks say their Super Blackhawk Bisley's shoot .454 Casull cartridge much better than the lower pressure .45 Colts. This isn't usually how information technology should be. Higher pressures and more gas typically make for worse shooting, non amend. Imperfections, especially an imperfect butt crown, will really show up the more than gas is being pushed through them, and then we would look the .45 Colts to shoot meliorate. (For instance, is there any Single Half-dozen Convertible fabricated that shoots the .22 WMR as good every bit information technology shoots the .22 LR?)
The primal to wringing the most accuracy out of guns like these with wider throats and a larger cylinder gap isn't more pulverisation and force per unit area, information technology's longer bullets closer to the forcing cone that obturate the bore better.
Commercial Magtech 260gr jacketed soft point rounds scored the same as Winchester'due south 225 grain Defender jacketed hollow betoken round, press an average of 3″ for four strings of 5 round groups when shot seated off bags. Stepping up some in recoil and bullet weight, the HSM "Carry Load" 325gr moving at 1,300 fps averaged much amend, at 2.1″ on average. This is good, only it can do ameliorate.
The Cast Performance 300 grain apartment nosed gas checked hard cast lead bullet is my favorite for the heavy .45 Colt. I've taken deer, pigs, javelina, and a wide diverseness of varmints with this bullet in that previously mentioned .45 Filly Ruger Blackhawk Bisley. Loading that aforementioned bullet into .45 Colt Starline cases and pushed past 23 grains of H110, my groups shrank a bit more than, finally dropping just barely under the ii″ marker. Taking that same H110, but increasing it to 26 grains, and now pushing an even heavier Cast Performance 335 grain bullet with a liberal amount of gooey bullet lube, my groups finally shrank to the one.7″ mark, on average.
Whatever of these rounds fired by a competent marksman, save the Winchester Defender, would cleanly take whatsoever deer, pig, or blackness bear at 50 yards. Any of the .454 Casull rounds would do the same for Elk or Moose at the same distance. That 335 grain hard bandage round moving over i,300 fps would take any animal that walks on this or any other planet we are enlightened of. I'd await a pass through on fifty-fifty a grizzly at 30 yards with that one, and it is well nether the maximum pressure limit for the cartridge.
Given the history of the cartridge, and how the Ruger single activeness is linked directly to its birth, the Ruger Super Blackhawk Bisley in .454 Casull is a must have for whatever big bore pistol aficionado. It's also one of the nearly versatile cartridges available, and capable of providing the marksman with the joy of target shooting, or large game hunting on any continent.
Like all Ruger unmarried actions, in that location'southward no better starting material for a truly world class gun. I've got vii Ruger single actions with dissimilar smiths, and as soon as a couple of them come up back, I'll exist having some work done on this one. Probably Hamilton Bowen'southward "Perfected Bisley #3" package. Given the ridiculous low cost of the gun to me, I'chiliad still doing great, cost-wise. Merely even if you left the gun factory, it'southward still a good revolver, capable of a lifetime of solid performance.
Specifications:
Ruger Super Blackhawk Bisley
UPC7-36676-00871-1
Caliber: .454 Casull
Capacity: 5
Front end Sight: Ramp
Rear Sight: Adaptable
Barrel Length 6.50″
Grooves: half dozen
Twist: 1:24″ RH
Material: Stainless Steel
Finish: Satin Stainless
Grips: Bisley Hardwood
Overall Length: 12.40″
Weight: 50.4 oz.
MSRP: $i,049 (Lipsey's Dealer Exclusive)
Style and Appearance ***
Some do stainless better than others. Ruger's brushed stainless end on all of their revolvers is good enough.
Customization *****
At that place's probably no other revolver out in that location that has been modified equally much as the Ruger single action. Maybe the Colt Single Action Army, but I doubtfulness information technology. Customization costs money.
Accuracy ***
Decent, simply zippo spectacular.
Reliability *****
Ruger has done well with these big bore Super Blackhawks. This 1 is no exception. It will run forever.
Overall ***
The potential for this revolver is incredible. The disappointments are (mostly) easily fixed. Ruger has made what was once purely custom now within relatively easy reach of the average handgun hunter and shooter, and done it well plenty to satisfy all but the pickiest of gun writers.
Source: https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/gun-review-ruger-new-model-super-blackhawk-bisley-in-454-casull/
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