Let's not get dramatic, that is not what contender or anyone else is saying! You're asking for opinions from everyone and that is what you are getting. Me personally I love customs right now and I also love to do my own work on guns. So for me I personally would try to make it into a one of a kind custom. Having said that contender and the others have offered sage advise. You, or I, or anyone but probably ruger know if the frame is safe and that is the root of what there are saying. It would be wise to have the frame evaluated. Send it to ruger and they will either fix it or trash it. If the latter I'm sure they will offer a replacement of current inventory. And if you do have to pay for a replacement I would suspect it would be deeply discounted. My best friend tried his hand at reloading and double charged a 45 colt case with unique and blew the top strap off his beloved 7 1/2 Colt SAA. Colt who I think has some of the worst customer service one earth or at least did, offered him a new replacement for 1000. That was pretty good I thought. Now back to your issue, I see what contender is saying about liability etc… if I was a custom builder and you called me up saying you have a gun you want built but…….the barrel has a ring and the cylinder was bulged, well I would probably say look elsewhere. Heck Hamilton Bowen wouldn't even remove ruger lettering due to liability. It sounds like you have been reloading and shooting for a long time and it sounds like you are a proficient hand gunner. You are among good company because most here have been doing this a long long time. But remember this is what you signed up for on a forum input from others! And the advise has been wise. I know what I would do after reading what contender said (I'd still try to make a custom) but……I'm not YOU. You have to make your own decision at the end. Who knows, you may call a builder and they say great no problem send it over! But they also might not! But what ever you do don't be RASH! This has happened before, no one is the first to do anything. Like I said my buddy blew up one of his before, Elmer Kieth destroyed at least a handful of guns. What I'm saying is it can always be FIXED.
Send it to me! Pm can be sent!
Keep us updated on what they do, please.
Ruger may surprise you. I sent a .41 mag with a barrel issue, they rebarrelled it, tore it down and cleaned it, reblued it, and refinished the grip frame, had it back in my hands in less than 2 weeks. They really try to take care of their customers.
We will never know. That's the nature of these things. It's an anomaly with the high velocity and ringed barrel, although Ruger may speculate but I doubt it.
.45 acp is is not a very forgiving cartridge to reload. Everything has to be perfect for it to work properly. One of the main things is case tension. I don't mix head stamps for this reason, different manufacturers have different wall thicknesses, which can result in too much case tension, or not enough, which can lead to recoil pushing the bullet in the case causing dangerous pressure spikes. It is also an easy case to double or triple charge, as most powders have low grain recommendations. Could be a combo of these. As op said, we may never know.
Seating depth is extremely touchy because any variation is a large percentage of the total.
But this was being shot out of a Blackhawk!!! A gun notorious for handling powerful rounds!!! It's like my 2,100fps 357sig loads out of my Bond Arms because I knew that nothing I was putting in those cases would hurt that brick of Stainless.
