DaveM

Hi, I recently bought a new 5.5" Ruger 44 magnum SBH. I have been reading here and there and picked up on a thread about "cylinder gap". Curiosity got to me and I measured mine and found it to be .013. All the post I read said that .006> to .012< is OK. More than that can be a problem. This is a new out of the box and has me a little concerned. It does seem to shoot fine with my reloads.

Any comments welcome.

Thanks

Dave

deserttrans

Dave, I've always used the .005 to .010 as a guide. I've seen some with much more be good shooters too. If it is new, I woud contact Ruger and get their take on it, and send back if required. Just my 2 bits.

bigweatherby

.013 sounds a bit excessive. It may still shoot fine though. I would give a call to Ruger though. Just see what they say.

CtYankee

I would agree, my 1976 Blackhawk (45 Colt) still has a .006 gap and it's had a few thousand rounds through it, some of them rather stiff. You can get shims to take up the slack, but you shouldn't have to do that with a new revolver.

DaveM

Thanks everyone. Yeah I'll give Ruger a call tomorrow and see what they say. FYI, the Endshake is .006. I just hate to have to send it back, but such is life.

Dave

bigweatherby

I am looking forward to hearing what they say.

deserttrans

Measured my 1990 SBH throats today. Checked the cylinder gap while I was at it. .004 on the cylinder and .430 on the throats. It will be intersting to see what Ruger says.

deserttrans

Checked my end shake it is .002. Forgot to mention that in last post.

DaveM

Update, I spoke with Gil at Ruger this morning. He said that .013 is out of spec (.011 is considered maximum spec) and that I could send it back for adjustment. He then ask me how it was shooting and not willing to lie I said it shoots great. He said that my SBH had a lifetime warranty and as long as it shot fine I might want to put some more fodder through it. He said if it starts gassing and spraying lead five years down the road I could send it back to them and they would repair it at no charge other than my shipping cost to them. (providing they're still in business that is)

I'm really torn between the twix as they say. Do I really want to send it to them so they can adjust it to .011 (whoopee) or just shoot it until it starts spraying lead and deal with it then.

Another thing, because I only will shoot boolits that I cast I don't mind a little looseness, Heck, it would not take a lot of powder and lead residue to close the gap to less than spec. (.002)

Sooooo, what to do - what to do.

Dave

deserttrans

That is true Dave, Ruger will fix it for lifetime..... So I guess it's all up to you. If your shooting your own cast bullets, check your cylinder throats. Nice to have .429 to .431.

DaveM

Interesting, as previously mentioned I talked to Gil this morning but around noon my time I got a call from a technician from Ruger wanting to know the skinny. After giving him the measurements I got the impression he wanted to fix the problem. In fact, he said the maximum cylinder gap is .010. Given that info I decided to let him arrange for UPS pickup at my house on Thursday. He said turn around will be 2 to 4 weeks.

So in the interim I guess I visit a few of my banks with my metal detector and make a withdrawal of some lead to cast up some more boolits.


deserttran, thanks - already have and it's between .430 and .431. But shoot fire that reminds me. My bore slug is .4295 and I honed my Lee sizer to .4305. Hope they don't have to exchange barrels. Oh well, Lee sizer dies are cheap and besides, I need another bottle of Alox.

Cheers

Dave

JimH

DaveM - good that Ruger asked you to return your SBH. I don't think the excessive B/C gap was so much the issue but the .006 endshake is excessive, particularly for a new revolver, and can quickly lead to other problems, particularly with heavy loads.

I acquired a new .44 spl BH not long ago with similar excessive B/C gap and endshake issues and it also had less than spec headspace, noticible by brass drag marks on the recoil shield. Ruger asked for return on that piece too and when I received it a few weeks later it was all in spec.

Main reason to relay my story was to caution you to re-check your baseline measurements when you get yours back. On my BH, Ruger had replaced the cylinder during their rework so my previous baseline throat measurements, which had been all uniform and about .001 - .0015 over bore size changed toward the tighter and not so uniform. This was later fixed using a Manson throating reamer.

Hope yours returns to you quickly and all in spec.

DaveM

Thanks Jim, I am glad it's going back for adjustment. I believe you're right about endshake being the most important here. Hopefully, they won't have to change out the cylinder because the throats were a perfect fit for my cast boolits. Definitely will check it out when i get it back.

I sure miss it and it hasn't even been shipped yet. Me thinks it's gonna be a looong 2-4 weeks. LOL

Dave

JimH

DaveM - a few more comments here - my experience on revolver returns to factory for rework or repair has been very good. In every case, the revolver came back with the issues I reported all resolved and more, meaning other attributes were addressed that I hadn't listed as issues. Such things as timing, trigger pull weight and smoothness, and grip frame fit to cylinder frame were all improved in every case. This is all good but you still should check everything thoroughly when you get your SBH back because nobody is perfect.

I do call customer service the day after my return is scheduled to arrive there to get the R.O. number and confirm estimated completion date. CS logs all customer calls and replies against your R.O. number and I then call weekly for updates. Seems to keep your returned revolver from getting set aside due to "other priorities", such as another customer calling more than you do! Suggest always being polite and to the point as CS appears to be busy.

DaveM

Thanks Jim, It's now on its way and will let you know how everything turns out.

Dave