.41 Magnum Old Model Ruger Blackhawk Review
Five Beans Aren't a Handicap!
Backcountry power — The 4 ⅝" .41 Magnum Old Model Blackhawk,
Winchester Supreme 240-grain Platinum Tip and a Bear and Son Zytel Sideliner.
The year 1973 was a transitional one for Ruger’s single-action revolvers. The shift from Old Model to New Model took the company into a transfer-bar ignition system as opposed to the older 3-screw model. This move pretty much laid to rest the old “keep an empty chamber under the hammer” edict in effect since the Colt Model 1873 Single-Action Army.
At 25 yards from a sandbag rest — discounting the lone “operator
error” flyer — the top performer among various loads was
Winchester’s 175-grain Silvertip.
Classics Never Die
As much as I can appreciate the safety/liability considerations driving the change from Old Model to New, I’d grown up with an Old Model Single Six Convertible so when I decided it was time to acquire a centerfire Blackhawk, I bought a used Old Model with a 4 ⅝” barrel in .41 Magnum. The gun was of 1971 vintage, which made it roughly 7 years older than the cartridge it was chambered for. I wanted a powerful single-action field gun short-barreled enough to be reasonably handy. Even with a relatively short barrel, it was and remains the most potent handgun I own — and I intend for it to remain so. Why? I can’t handle anything stouter, nor do I want to. I figure that’s why they invented .30-30 and .45-70 rifles.
What prevented me from seeking out a New Model was purely subjective with no small amount of traditionalist nostalgia thrown in. I simply balked at the ideal of putting the cylinder into “free wheel” by simply popping open the loading gate instead of setting the hammer at half cock. The time-honored loading drill of “load one chamber, skip one, load one, load one, load one, load one” was a familiar one to me. Besides, five shots seemed plenty for a field/hunting gun in which high volume shooting and speed reloads really aren’t usually an issue.
Although the .41 Magnum has never achieved the popularity its adherents may have wished for, it does currently boast a fairly comprehensive array of power levels in factory ammo. The stuff I had on hand included Winchester Super-X 175-grain Silvertip, Hornady 190-grain FTX, Winchester Supreme 240-grain Platinum Tip and Federal 250-grain CastCore. On the more civilized side of things, I also have some HSM Cowboy Action 210-grain Lead SWC, which is nearly a dead ringer for the late, lamented, original Police Load at a comparatively sedate 950 fps.
If you’re braver than I and are truly interested in the outer limits of factory .41 Magnum potential — and have the cylinder length to accommodate it — I can suggest Buffalo Bore’s Heavy Outdoorsman, which features a 265-grain HC at 1,350 fps. Once you’ve tried it, you’ll seriously question the well-aged and somewhat dubious claim about the .41 Magnum being a less strenuous option to the .44 Mag.
I’ll confess that most of my shooting has been with the 175-grain Winchester Silvertip, which is slightly faster than the company’s 175-grain 10mm Silvertip. It’s energetic enough for my needs and doesn’t try to pry the Blackhawk out of my hands. As regards the heavier stuff, for me it embodies the “carry a lot, shoot a little” philosophy. Power has a price, one which I’d prefer to pay in small, infrequent installments.
The .41 Magnum has been around long enough to gain a variety
of loads covering different performance levels (L to R) — Hornady
LeverEvolution 190-grain FTX, Winchester 175-grain Silvertip, 210-grain
HSM Cowboy Action SWC, 240-grain Winchester Supreme Platinum
Tip, 250-grain Federal Premium CastCore.
Chrony Tales
Chronographing the various .41 Mag loads provided some insight as to how much the relatively-short 4 ⅝” barrel on our Old Model Blackhawk affected velocity. Here goes: 175-grain Winchester Silvertip (1,130 fps), 190-grain Hornady LeverEvolution (1,395 fps), .210-grain HSM SWC (957 fps), 240-grain Winchester Supreme Platinum Tip (1,216 fps), 250-grain Federal Premium CastCore (1,114 fps).
Yes, of course there is a drop-off. But it’s one I can live with — muzzle blast notwithstanding — in view of what I got the gun for. At my current recoil tolerance, if I had to stick with one load it’d be the Silvertip 175 grain. Or perhaps any reasonable approximation of the old original .41 Magnum Police Load.
The group of the day was with the Silvertip stuff (see photo), 4 shots out of 5 were in a 1 ½” group at 25 yards, with three of them in a half-inch cluster. Runner up was the relatively sedate HSM. I’m sure the stout Winchester Supreme Platinum Tip was capable of better than the 3.75″ group I got but maintaining “follow through” is tough for me when dealing with the power level of this particular load. I’ve found follow through to be critical with a single action, thanks to the enhanced ignition time. And then, of course, you’ve got that muzzle blast …
Brute Force
There was a time, however, when I was briefly enamored of sheer power. Several years back I decided I needed something beyond the factory sights to accommodate the brutal heavyweight stuff, so I sent the gun to Hamilton Bowen to get his Rough Country rear sight and tall Target Style front blade installed. Hamilton’s advice? “As long as you’re dead set on beating yourself up with that monster stuff, you’d better let me put in an oversize locking base pin.”
Shooting the heavy stuff using the Blackhawk’s original walnut plowshare grips can be rough on the knuckle of your middle finger if it gets barked by the rear of the trigger guard when the gun rolls back — a feature, not a bug, of the single-action design. If you are going to shoot the heavyweights, I’ve found a Hogue Rubber Monogrip offers non-traditional, but nonetheless welcome, protection for that exposed knuckle.
A long time ago, an old gunwriter told me all rubber grips do is “give the gun a running start into your hand.” Maybe so, but if I ever decide to fool with the heavy stuff again, the rubber grips go on. To heck with photogenic tradition …
