I had a smith look at my Blackhawk 357 today and he was a bit shocked that the cylinder throats had been beveled. He said he never saw that before and thought I had done it. We looked at a few others he had in the case and none seemed to have as much bevel as mine and most were pretty much just squared off and sharp. He seemed to think it was less than ideal.

Does anyone know if new, like in the past couple years, Rugers are coming with beveling or what is up with mine? I'll call Ruger but would like to have some more info first. Thanks.

I have a Flat Top Blackhawk .45 Colt/.45ACP and a Single Six .22LR/.22 Mag that I bought last year. All four cylinders have beveled throats.

I looked at my Ruger Blackhawk 357/9mm convertible and it is chamfered also, both cylinders.


357 Mag Cylinder






9mm Cylinder






Some of my S&W's are chamfered very lightly but not nearly as prominent at my Ruger.  A chamfer is a whole lot better than a burr there.  I wouldn't worry to much about it as long as the cylinder gap is good.


 

ETA my Blackhawk was bought new in 2002

Well, that's odd. I have a single six from the 50s and it does not have the beveling.  And after looking at a few new 44s and 45s in the shop I was thinking maybe it was something specific to new 357 or at least smaller bore revolvers. Hearing that your 45 has it only adds to the mystery. There seem to be some with and some without. And older guns don't seem to have it. Wonder why. The smith I spoke with thought it would only direct hot gas away from the forcing cone and aid erosion.

I don't see where it really hurts anything.  What I would be concerned with is that your "smith" is concerned about it.    Also Im not a s&w revolver guy but over the years I have noticed a chamfer/bevel on their cylinders similar to what you have shown.  As to the different degree of bevel on different cylinders, Ive read the Ruger is pretty up front about using a drill or reamer til its out of spec.  Which is why having the throats re reamed is highly recommended to get the most accuracy out of the revolver according to Ruger enthusiasts.  From what I have seen the S&W's are a little more refined and uniform but you also pay for that type of precision from the factory.  As to frame and forcing cone damage just remember custom smiths make 475's and 500's out of the frames so no problem there and Ruger does have a lifetime warranty on anything, so that covers your barrel problems.  By the way you didn't mention how it shot?

Thanks for the feedback. I called Ruger today and the general line was "we manufacture to SAMMI specs" and if the bevel is there it was an engineering decision. He didn't have any info one way or the other as to why it's present on some revolvers and not others.

While my smith didn't say so directly, he implied that I might have been sold as "new" a lightly used gun that was modified for cowboy action shooting. He is probably the best smith in town and knows his shit. He did say that maybe this was something new Ruger doing but he's never seen it before and it really jumped out when he was looking at it.

The reason I've been looking into this is that it doesn't shoot great. Obviously, the first thought is the shooter is at fault, but I don't have issues with other guns and I did a fair bit of testing off a rest with both factory ammo and careful handloads with manually weighed charges. At 25 yards I can sometimes get 3 to group pretty good and 2-3 flyers.

This is pretty typical. I was doing 5 shot groups this day off a rest. I hear people claim they can get 1.5 - 2 inch groups at 25 yards with their Blackhawk.



Here is a great example of a horrible group. This was at 15 yards indoors off a rest. Granted, my target choice wasn't the best and my loads may be too light but note how 3 are close and then two way off. I get groups like this a lot. I should probably do 5 shot groups out of one chamber at a time and see what happens but the gun is going back to Ruger today so just have to wait to see what they say.

Have you googled reaming the throats, ton of info on the web and most are on Rugers.  This service usually does well on tightening up groups for Ruger revolvers.  If you, your smith, or somebody else does the throats and the revolver is still not grouping well then Id probably check into sending it back to Ruger.  Also there used to be a guy whose site was cylindersmith, and thats all he did.  Now there is cylinderhone on facebook, looks like he is similar.

I see this discussed a lot with the Blackhawk in 45 colt - maybe due to the popularity of lead bullets. I'm hoping Ruger will do what is necessary to get it working well. If they say it's all "within specs" then maybe I'll look into having someone do a custom job.

Thats true but I think the 45 gets all the press because of the popularity of the Ruger single action 45.  Over the years Ive kept a mental note of people having the throats reamed and every caliber from 22 to 45 seems to benefit from this process quite a bit, but mainly Rugers.  FYI, just a few months ago I read where a guy bought an LCR 9mm and his accuracy was so bad he decided to try to ream the throats as a last ditch effort before sending it back, it ended up fixing his problem.

My 2014 edition Wiley Clapp GP 100 didn't have such bevels, nor did any other revolver I have.  If the gun shoots ok I'd ignore it.

Well, that's just it. It doesn't seem to shoot very consistently. Probably should have tested each chamber on its own but we'll see what Ruger says.

I do think it's odd there are some with beveled throats and some without. Wonder what the logic is.

My gp100 match champion had a slight bevel also.

So, quick followup. I got the revolver back from Ruger and they didn't include any info regarding what may have been wrong. They did install a new cylinder but looks pretty similar to the old one. Maybe the bevel is less, but clearly more than older guns. I also asked them to touch up some poor workmanship issues (burr on the hammer and some uneven tool marks on the frame) which they didn't touch.