Ruger Blackhawk Ejection Question

[Pugster]

Hi All,

I took Ruger Blackhawk (9mm/.38/.357) to the range yesterday to try out the ammo I purchased from Miwall and I am having some ejection problems with only the 357. For some reason unknown to me, the .357 cases never get ejected fully and always have about 1/4" of the casing stuck in the cylinder. Is this supposed to happen? I thought the ejector rod was supposed to push it so far that the cases will "jump" out. Anyone else have this similar problem?

Is this because of a dirty cylinder? Is it because of the reloads that I am using? Or is it due to the ejector rod length (I eye-ed the length of the rod and it seems to be a tad short to fully eject the 357 casings)?

[Coastey]

The ejector rod will not always push the empty casing all the way out of the cylinder, especially if you're pushing the casing out slowly with the muzzle pointed down. However, if you hold the muzzle up and swiftly eject the casings, I find that they tend to fall clear...unless I'm using a heavy load where the casings have expanded tightly to the wall. If the cylinder walls are dirty or if you've shot .38 Specials in your cylinder without cleaning afterwards, .357s will sometimes stick and be difficult to extract.

[cactuspete]

I had the same problem with my Blackhawk .45 ACP/.45 Colt convertible. Had to hit the ejector rod pretty hard to get the .45 Colt casings out. No problem with the ACPs.

[bwiese]

Just eject so rear of cylinder points a bit downward.

Alternately, just use a 'sharp stroke' on your ejection movement and it should help.

[JTROKS]

+1 on what Coastey and bwiese said. I shoot some very hot loads out of my Super Blackhawk and sometimes the cases require a bit of good nudging. I shoot 300 grain bullets at about 1350 fps out of the 10.5" barrel.

jtroks

[Pugster]

+1 to all your feedback.

I actually tried all those suggestions Saturday night but I think the Miwall factory ammo (357) was a little too hot. Even when I tilted the muzzle up and tried to briskly eject the cases, nothing came out easily.

I wonder if they make a longer ejection rod...

[bwiese]

I wonder if they make a longer ejection rod...

I don't think a significantly longer ejection rod would fit into the gun - the clearance is from back of the ejector head (the part you handle) to several mm in front of the cylinder. I think it's already at the limit given all the other dimensions.

In theory a longer bbl gun (say, 5.5" instead of 4.625") could have a longer ejector housing + rod but that is not the way guns are shipped.

Go down to your local gunshop or Big 5 and try some factory 357 ammo from Remington, Winchester or Federal and see how that fares....