“Ruger Only” Dual Cylinder Handloads

Bill Ruger had a beautifully devious mind. After successfully launching his 22 rimfire semiautomatic pistol in 1949, he took what many considered a step backward when he released the Ruger Single-Six revolver in 1953. Many considered single-action sixgun history dead, kaput, but Bill Ruger displayed his confidence by ignoring the naysayers. 

This started a trend Bill Ruger would become famous for, going against the grain of so-called experts and following his own intuitions on what American consumers wanted. Shooters are thankful he followed his instincts and have been reaping the rewards of his many gun designs.

Colt stopped production of their famous Single Action Army (SAA) the first time in 1941, 12 years before the release of the Ruger Single-Six. Surely, Colt knew something. Or did they? Bill Ruger’s Single-Six was a huge success, followed by another success, the flat-top Blackhawk, which was released in 1955, chambered in 357 Magnum. Colt resumed making the SAA in 1956 with their second-generation production. I guess Colt had an “uh-oh” moment after seeing Ruger’s success. 

Bill Ruger had his finger on the pulse of American shooters, following his intuition by forging forward with his ideas. Perhaps “cast forward” would be more accurate, as Ruger reintroduced the lost art of investment casting, keeping manufacturing costs down so working men could afford his products.

After the establishment of the Ruger Blackhawk, someone had the beautiful idea of offering dual-cylinder Blackhawks to the public in 1963. Now you could buy a 38 Special/357 Magnum Blackhawk with a second cylinder chambered for 9mm. This served several purposes. 

First, it made the gun more versatile by letting you shoot two different cartridges. Second, with an abundance of cheaper 9mm ammunition available, you could shoot more. Later, Ruger offered the same dual-cylinder Blackhawks for the 45 Colt by adding a 45 ACP cylinder. Talk about versatility! Now you could shoot Uncle Sam’s cheaper surplus 45 ACP ammunition in your 45 Colt cowboy sixgun.

A few years back, Jason Cloessner, Lipsey’s diabolical vice president of product development, released a dandy dual-cylinder Blackhawk chambered for 10mm and 40 Smith & Wesson (S&W). I call Jason diabolical only because he’s cost me a lot of money over the years with his Lipsey’s Exclusives. 

Many people questioned the release of a 40 S&W cylinder as a second option. Again, Cloessner displayed his genius by knowing shooters. He knew a lot of current and retired law enforcement personnel shot the 40 S&W and most had a closet full of the stuff. The 40 S&W is very pleasant shooting in the Blackhawk while still packing enough punch to handle most sixgun chores. 

But the real beauty of the short-chambered 40 S&W cylinder was its ability to be punched out into a cooler cartridge capable of hotter ballistics. I had Bobby Tyler of Tyler Gun Works punch mine for the classic 38-40. I was extremely happy with its performance but missed my ability to shoot 40 S&W ammunition. Others punched their cylinders to 10mm Magnum. I obtained another 40 S&W cylinder and had it fitted and tuned for my gun, providing me with a triple threat shooter. 

Looking at most reloading manuals, one usually sees a section for “Ruger Only” handloads for large frame 45 Colt revolvers. This is because Bill Ruger made his New Model Blackhawks extremely strong, much stronger than what typical Colt SAA could handle. Now with the same large cylinder chambered for semiautomatic pistol cartridges, you have an extremely strong, thick chambers surrounded with a lot of extra steel.

For the past couple years, I’ve experimented with hot “Ruger Only” loads for the other dual cylinder pistol cartridges, namely 9mm, 40 S&W and 45 ACP. I started this journey with a gifted Buckeye Sports 32 Magnum/32-20 Blackhawk which was missing the 32 H&R magnum cylinder. 

It was no problem driving a Lyman 311316, 115-grain gas-checked slug more than 1,550 feet per second (fps) with a stout load of

Hodgdon H-110. It was these very loads that got me thinking: If it can be done with the 32/20, why not try it with other cartridges? Again, these “hot loads” are for Ruger large frame dual cylinder Blackhawks only. 

These cartridges should be marked in such a way as not to be loaded in standard semiautomatic pistols. Using color-coded, powder-coated bullets, a mark across the primer with a laundry pen, or both, should be used to avoid mixing these “Ruger Only” sixgun loads with standard pressure loads for semiautomatics.

The advantage is having smaller, more compact cartridges at the same power level as the accompanying cartridge. In most cases, you can carry almost twice as many cartridges as the larger one. 

45 ACP

When loading these cartridges for single-action Rugers, we can’t help but think of Elmer Keith. One of his favorite loads for the 45 ACP, or Auto Rim, used his 452423 235-grain cast slug loaded over 7.5 grains of Unique. This load was safe in 1911 semiautomatics and was a favorite for both S&W and Colt 1917s. Later, Keith tried his 260-grain 454424 slugs with the same charge with perfect results. 

For my loads, I used Alliant’s Power Pistol and BE-86 powder with bullets cast from MP Molds 452423 bullets and a Lyman 454424 4-cavity mold. I also used Lee’s 230-grain Truncated Nose bullets cast from their 6- cavity mold. The bullets were

powder-coated and sized .452 inch with a Lee Precision APP press and bushing.

Ammunition was assembled on a Dillon 550C progressive press with charges of 8.0, 8.5 and 9.0 grains for both Alliant Power Pistol and BE-86, with each bullet. Velocities were measured with the Garmin Xero C1 chronograph. The test gun was an older, pre-warning New Model Blackhawk sporting a 7.5-inch barrel. 

In 1998, my daughter Samantha was born. What better way to celebrate her birth than by buying a new gun? I ordered the gun the following day. It was a Ruger Blackhawk convertible chambered for 357 Magnum/9mm. Of course, 38 Special loads could be fired in the gun also. A steady diet of Lyman 358429s loaded over 13.0 grains of 2400 were about all I shot out of this gun for years. This load yielded 1,260 fps from its 5.5-inch barrel.

9mm Loads

It made the perfect test gun for shooting hot-loaded 9mm’s. For bullets, I used a favorite from Lee Precision, it being a 125-grain radiused flatnose cast from a 6-cavity mold. The second slug is a 140-grain radiused flat-nose cast from an 8-cavity mold from MP Molds out of Slovenia. Lastly, I used some 124-grain Speer hollowpoint Gold Dot bullets I had on hand. 

Both cast slugs have always been accurate in 38 Special loadings, as well as 9mm cartridges. My bullets are powder coated and sized .358 inch as I’ve found this size to shoot more accurately in not only 9mm semi-automatics, but the Ruger Blackhawk as well. Both Winchester 231, along with Alliant’s Power Pistol and BE-86, were used for testing. 

40 S&W

The 40 S&W loads consisted of Lee Precision 170-grain truncated nose slugs, which drop out at 180 grains. Again, these were powder coated and sized to .400 inch with my Lee Auto-matic Processing Press (APP). Alliant Power Pistol and BE-86 both got the nod for propellants. 

Shooting involved using a Ransom Multi-Cal. Steady Rest at 50 feet. All listed loads showed no signs of high pressure, such as cratered primers, split or stuck cases and extracted easily, with a single finger using the ejector rod, from the single-action Blackhawk they were fired from.

After shooting targets, I started plinking at rocks 4-5 inches in diameter on the 50-yard berm, having no problem hitting them with the tested loads.     

Now to the meat of the matter. The convertible cylinders are chambered for cartridges designed for semiautomatic pistols. By design, this ammunition must be loaded to lower pressures for the self-loading semiautomatic shell shuckers. When placed in the beefy steel cylinders of the large-framed Blackhawks, these loads are anemic, pressure-wise. Surely these behemoth cylinders can handle higher pressures than the guns they were designed for. 

I’ll say it again. They can, but it is pertinent, imperative and vitally important that these hotly loaded cartridges, while safe to shoot in the large-frame Blackhawk, must be kept separate so there is no chance of getting them mixed up and used in a semiautomatic pistol. Using either color-coded or powder-coated bullets, or a red laundry marker across the base of the cartridge brass, plus having a well-marked container noting this ammunition is to be used in Ruger large-framed Blackhawks only, is highly recommended. 

Knowledge is power, which is a good thing. It’s always better to know what is possible than not. Maybe you’re stranded at home for whatever reason, and you only have 9mm brass in your possession to handload. You now know the kind of high-power loads that are possible for your Rugerlarge-framed Blackhawk revolver. You can carry twice the amount of ammunition having the same punch as the larger cartridges for your sixgun in your pocket. 

If limited to only one powder, Alliant’s BE-86 would be my choice, as it provided the highest velocities and produced accurate loads. Most loads hovered around 1 to 1.5 inches at 50 feet and continued well out to 50 yards.