480 SRH 6shot extraction issues

[mustang99]

Well FD, if they replace the cylinder, it won't look anything like that one for a number of reasons you can PM me about. I'm not going to try to explain them again to those who won't hear.

 

[Bob R]

I have both a 7-1/2" and a 9-1/2". I have never fired a factory load through either of them. I have been reloading with a combination of Hornady and Speer brass. Most of my shooting has been with 400 grain Lee bullets and 355 WFPGC by I believe Cast Performance. I normally load under the book maximum by a little.
I have killed an 11 point, full size doe, and Tuesday an 8 point with the 355's. Complete pass through on every one, as expected. After reading this post I decided to check extraction. I opened the cylinder and turned the muzzle up to drop out the 5 loaded rounds. All 6 fell out in my hand.

I have shot some loads that were a little sticky through mine, but nothing I thought was unusual or serious.
I still am of the opinion the 480 Ruger Super RedHawk is the best hunting revolver ever made.

I have a new Custom Mountain Mold that will cast a 375 Gas Check that I am dieing to try out. This will probably be my go to bullet from now on.

Bob

 

[5of7]

I gave it a thorough cleaning before shooting it last weekend with a some Remington BoreX cleaner.
It made no difference in extraction.
I ran a total of 12 rounds through it and had to use the top of my picnic table against the ejector rod to get the empties out.
Here's a pic I took of the chamber, the machining marks are pretty vivid:

I ran the ammo over my Chrony and got an avg of 1409fps from the Hornady 325gr ammo, a little faster than what's on the box....
Still going to try another box of ammo before taking the good folks at Ruger up on their offer to look at it.

I agree that you need a replacement cylinder on this gun. The ripples in the chambers are EITHER due to the drill making a hole so large that the reamer didn't clean up the hole, OR that the reamer was forced in the hole too fast, OR that no lubricant was not used during the reaming operation.

A new cylinder will probably solve the problem and using starline brass should help too... 8)

 

[Fatdaddy]

I took it out New years day with a box of the Hornady 400gr stuff I had and strangely enough the empties almost fell out of the gun. They didn't feel as blasty as the 325gr Hornady loads but I guess that's to be expected from a heavier bullet.
I'm starting to wonder if this is just a pressure induced symptom from the cylinder flex.
This could explain why Starline brass is not having issues. Instead of the Hornady brass being too soft***?, maybe reloaders aren't pushing the pressure limits on the Starline brass reloads.
I'm going to try another box of 400gr and if they don't have an issue, I may just have found an easy solution to my problem....different ammo.

Seems like someone might have hinted to this earlier. :roll:

 

[5of7]

Seems like someone might have hinted to this earlier. :roll:

All we can do is tell you what happened to US.

Each and every gun is a little different, as are different lots of ammunition. It is quite likely that the ammo that you are now shooting is from a different lot than the ammo that I and others fired. Couple that with the fact that we are shooting a different specimen of the Redhawk, and there is really no surprise here. 8)

 

[Fatdaddy]

I tried 3 different gun shops today and all I could find was the Hornady 325 gr offering.
Just for shiggles I bought a box figuring (worse case) I could download or just resell them to my buddy that shoots 480.
Got home right about dark with just enough time to load and shoot 6 rounds, empties didn't fall out but it did eject fairly effortlessly.
It seems to be a crapshoot for some reason on the 325gr offering. I will be running some of the ammo from the new box over the Chrony just to compare velocities and I'm betting they are at least 50 fps slower than the old stock that has been giving me issue.
As soon as I can get a set of dies I will be pulling the 325 ammo and try downloading incrementally to find the sweet spot.
At this point, I'd hate to send it to Ruger only to look like an ass when they don't have the same sticking issue.

 

[silvermane_1]

i just traded for the 480 "six-gun", i already did my homework on the sticky extraction issue long before i did the trade, 99 times of 100 times it is the brass, as other posters pointed out it Hornady soft brass.

 

[Fatdaddy]

I'm thinking the same thing.
The new box of Hornady 325gr ammo that doesn't have the sticking issue gave higher fps (1397fps) results than the Hornady 325gr ammo that is sticking (1371fps).

I noticed the brass that is sticking looks like it is flowing to match the machining marks in the cylinder
whereas the good ammo comes out without these markings.

 

[Doug in Alaska]

I recently acquired an unfired, new in the box SRH in .480 Ruger. Mine has a 9.5" barrel. I ordered a couple hundred of the Hornady brass from Midway as Starline is out of stock. I also had a long talk with Marshal at Beartooth bullets and ordered a couple hundred 355 gr. hard cast, gas checked bullets. I kind of figured on using H110 but he said he has done extensive testing and I'll need to run a little faster powder. As soon as the bullets arrive, I'll call him and get some recipes. I want to run these at around 1100 to 1200 FPS. He was on the production floor when I talked with him and didn't have the data close at hand. I'll let you guys know when I get some loads worked up. He doesn't foresee any sticky extraction problems with the loads he's tested. We'll see. My SRH is a six shot cylinder and was born in December of 2008. Thanks much for the good info.

 

[farmall1456]

I have a 7.5 inch SRH wth test fire date 2001. I looks to me like some of the cylinder chambers have significant tool marks. Enough so that the brass shows a mark in the same location as the cylinder. I have only shot about 50 rouns and killed 2 deer. I have not had extraction problems with the 325 gr Hornaday ammo but the marks in the cylinder and on the brass concern me. Looking at the cylinder and the brass. I think 3 holes have a gouge about 3/8 on an inch from the rear as the brass from these 3 chambers show the marks too. Is there a difference between the quality of the SRH made in 2001 and those made later such as 2008?

 

[Fatdaddy]

Mines made in 02 but I couldn't say about the quality difference.

 

[Doug in Alaska]

I don't know about the quality difference but my cylinder chambers have slight but noticeable tool marks. I compared it with the cylinder chambers on my Ruger .454 Alaskan and they look similar. Haven't had any problems with the Alaskan.

 

[Fatdaddy]

I got my set of 480 dies yesterday and started pulling and weighing the charges.
22.5gr of mystery powder seems to be the magic number.
Backed the charge off to 21.5gr and reloaded them.
Tested 6 rounds and the empties just fell out.

Hornady offered to test the factory ammo for me if I'd ship it to them but I think I'm just going to pull the rest and download a grain.

 

[Fairshake]

I've a 6 shot and wanted a 5 shooter. Then thinking about it and realized that the cylinder wall thickness over the chambers is the same on both. Reduction of one hole just allows additional metal support between the chambers but the area over the chamber to cylinder remains the weak link on either if indeed there is any weakness at all. Now me be happy

FWIW I've read comments on some foum from those having precision micrometers of fired cases being slightly oval w/heavier loads..but doubt that a 5shot configuration weould be any better

 

[5of7]

My handload for the 480 is a 365 gr. RNFP and 21 Gr. of that old standby 2400.

I am getting 1250 on an average and no extraction problems at all....Starline brass and WLP primers. This is from a 7-1/2" SRH.

When it gets warm again I am going to look at some 400+gr. cast bullets.