Ruger Alaskan convertible ??

[eveled]

Edit: disregard I decided not to go through with the project. Thanks to all who replied.


If you had a Ruger Alaskan .454 Casull and you had an extra .44 magnum crane and cylinder what would you do with it?

Would it be safe to shoot .44 mag through the .454 barrel? Am i correct in thinking accuracy and velocity would be way off?

Would you have it bored to .45colt? .45 acp? Or just forget about it?

 

[DutchV]

Reboring a cylinder to .45 gives you a chance to get a close tolerance chamber. Guys do it all the time, as Ruger has a history of loose .45 dimensions. Not sure how much it would help accuracy with the Alaskan's short barrel, though. Going to .45 ACP would be cool if only for the cheap practice ammo.

 

[contender]

I wouldn't use a .44 mag chambered cylinder in a .454 due to the very loose fit of the bore vs bullet diameter. A .44 mag uses a .429 bullet while the .454 uses a .452 diameter bullet. That's .23 thousands difference.
Re-bore the .44 mag to a good .45 Colt as mentioned above.

 

[Hankus]

Since the .454 will already chamber and fire .45 Colt I would rechamber the .44 Magnum cylinder to .45 ACP for SD carry. .45 ACP is a good self defense round. My .454 Super Redhawk is as accurate as I can shoot with .45 Colt already. JMHO. OR, you could sell ME the .44 cylinder and crane so I could do this LOL

 

[Aggie01]

I don't recommend trying to rechamber a 44 mag to .45 ACP.
The body of the 44 mag is .457. That .45 acp bullet wants to be in a .452 hole.
You will have .3"+ of cylinder throat that is too big and this is also where you are headspacing on the case mouth.

You want to go full crazy...bore it all the way through at .480 and load custom shotshells in .460 S&W brass with .450 overshot cards and a heavy roll crimp.
<I have NOT done this, just an idea>

 

[eveled]

Thanks everyone. I checked it and it is too short. Must be from a Regular Redhawk? So I didn’t buy it.

Thanks again everyone.

 

[Track14]

Just buy another Redhawk Alaskan in case you want to go back and you will have less grief. Two Alaskans are better than one with a lot of hassle and grief. And with the sloppy large bore using an undersized bullet it would never be accurate.