I want to buy a ruger blackhawk convertible with the 45 long colt and 45 acp cylinders but they dont offer it in stainless steel. I live in the humid south and want to carry it while hunting and backpacking. Will the bluing hold up or rust quickly? Or should I just buy stainless? If so how much does it usually cost to get a smith to fit an 45 acp cylinder for this stainless blackhawk???
Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't believe Ruger will sell cylinders.
Yes, but you have to send them the gun so they can time the cylinder to your/the gun or take it, if they'll let you, to a gunsmith to be done. I say if they'll let you because there may be a liability issue? They might send the cyclinder to a gunsmith of your choice to gaurantee it gets done by a qualified gunsmith? But either way, it has to be timed...
And since you want it in stainless, you'll have to go the long route. Which is buy the stainless revolver you want, then special order the cylinder and at the same time to save some time. But unless they're real busy, their turn-a-round time should be quick. All the issues I had, 3 separate ones, all took less then 2 or 3 weeks if I remember correctly?
But yea, I bought a Ruger New Model BlackHawk in .45Colt. I got/went with the 5 1/2" bbl blued model # BN-455L.
I really wouldn't mind having a six-gun that would fire both .45 Long Colt and ACP cartridges. That would come in very handy, as .45 ACP ammo seems to be available just about everywhere, and Long Colt cartridges, not so much. If you had a convertible, you wouldn't have to wait three to five weeks for ammo to get to you by delivery truck, or goodness knows how long for your local gunshop to get re-supplied to shoot. You could just pick up a 100 round box of .45 ACP hardball at Wal-Mart and you're up and running. Not to mention that you could use .45 Auto-Rim in the ACP cylinder as well.
When you buy the .45 revolver, it comes with a .45 ACP cylinder too.
Also, you can buy a .357 that comes with an extra 9mm cylinder.
that means .357, .38, and 9mm.
I live in a tropical zone, along the Mexico border near the Gulf of Mexico. All of my revolvers are blued. I've had no problem with them rusting, with good maintenance.
I don't have any experience with S&W. I'm too poor.
My first handgun was a blue model 29 and it would rust if you looked at it too hard.
LOL..I think Rugers blackhawks have more of a matte finish. I don't know how well that works on wheelguns, but it seems to work good on 1911s.
When I had a lot of blue guns, I basically wrapped them in oily rags and stored them that way and reoiled them about monthly. It was the only way to preserve them where I lived at the time in Kentucky where you had four dramatic seasons. Blistering hot, high humidity summers, damp rainy springs and falls and cold drafty winters.
If this is gonna be a daily use gun, I would recommend buying a tube of Flitz adn applying that to the finish regularly. I have many carbon steel blades and Flitz protects them very well. I have tried it on guns too and it seems to work better as a preservative than oil.
Ruger doesn’t seem to sell the stainless NMBH in .45 Colt with a .45 ACP cylinder, but I have returned four 7 ˝” SS NMBHs in .45 Colt for a a .45 ACP cylinder. Three also got a 5 ˝” barrel . The barrel and cylinder were each about $60. Work great.
I also did this with a SS .357 where I sent it back for a 6 ˝" barrel and a 9mm cylinder. The 9mm cylinder with cheap CCI Blazer, is much more accurate than I expected it to be.
