I recently bought two nice Ruger single actions: Single Six convertible and a Blackhawk convertible .357/9mm.
Each came with two cylinders, and they fire beautifully with both. Each is otherwise the same as each other, blued 5.5" with factory rosewood.

I think there's a marked for a convertible double action revolver. Picturing a 4" 9mm/.357 revolver in double action is a beautiful thing.
I know there was the Medusa which fired anything from .380 to .357 mag but it was a hideous beast and had a lousy reputation for reliability. I am looking for something like an L-frame or a GP-100 sized revolver with two cylinders.
Your thoughts?

It's been done by S & W in double actions, but mostly to my recollection with .22s (LR and WMR, and the Jet). With some centerfires there is probably little demand due to what these already can use (.357 and .38 Special; 9 mm revolvers have always been a niche item), or there may be cylinder dimension issues (.45 Colt and ACP). Ruger might however, drop them a line.

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Alan
SWCA LM 2023, SWHF 220

Interesting. If shooting factory ammo (lately that's what I shoot) I can save about $6 per 50 if I shoot 9mm over .38 special. 1000 rounds of 9mm comes out about 50% cheaper than 1000 rounds of .38 or .357 locally. (Sometimes less with deals).
Seems logical to shoot 9mm through that Blackhawk.

It is always a GRAND idea to have a revolver shoot 9mm and .357, and the less actual experience you have with them, the "GRANDER" the idea seems. At my range, it usually turns out that best results are had with a revolver designed specifically for one or the other. And the competitors with the 8 shot 9mm revolvers have spent considerable time and money getting them to shoot accurately.


Of course, the shooters who just want to blast away and aren't being scored think they're cool regardless....

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Science plus Art

With the Blackhawk 9mm cylinder, I am having no trouble with accuracy (with 147 grain bullets) and reliable function. Not so much with the Single Six and it's 22 Mag cylinder, which seems to have been bored a little small for WMR cases.
Blasting away is certainly not my style, and I really appreciate accurate revolvers, and this Ruger 9mm was a good choice (for me). The .357 magnum cylinder gives the same accuracy and reliability in that revolver, so it's win-win.

Waaay back when I first heard of 9mm Security Sixes, I wrote Ruger and asked if I could send mine back and have a 9mm cylinder fitted. They said certainly, but that they would keep the 357 cylinder. I wrote back saying, "Y'all don't understand. I want a convertible". They wrote back saying, "We do understand, we just won't do it."

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I always take precautions

If I remember correctly, the bullet diameters are slightly different between the .38 and 9mm with the 9mm being .355 and the .38 being .357

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Forum consigliere

This is true, but I have not seen any practical difference in accuracy from 9mm to .357 in the Blackhawk. We're talking one ragged hole groups at 15 yards with both. If you asked me which target was which after a few boxes of ammo and changes of cylinder, I would not be able to tell you.

I have a 9mm 929 and have put almost 1,000 rounds through it in the last 3 months, but with that said a .357 can do anything a convertible can do. Between .38 Special and .357 Magnum there's nothing a 9mm can do that either of those rounds cannot.

Swapping cylinders on a double action revolver is more involved and people would inevitably loose pieces or mess something up. Taking off the cylinder on a Blackhawk requires no tools at all.

This statement ignores the original posters interest in a 9mm revolver. He wants to fire less expensive factory cartridges.
I assume the least expensive 9mm factory cartridges still have steel cases. My experience has been that steel cased 9mm and .40 S&W will not work in double action revolvers. The combination of their relatively high pressure and steel cases requires too much force to extract. While I presume they are not a problem manually poking them out of a single action one at a time, trying to extract 5 or 6 at a time will bend the extractor rod in a double action. If you recalculate the factory ammo cost savings using brass cased cartridges you loose a lot of the motivation for finding a 9mm plinking double action revolver. Also, if your focus is shooting the smallest groups then a cartridge convertible works against you. For those two reasons I would not have a .357 cylinder machined to make it cable of shooting both revolver and automatic pistol cartridges, but it can be done.

As a side note, Taurus sells double action revolvers that have quick change .22 LR and .22 Magnum cylinders. They have a push button release to remove the yoke and cylinder assembly.

I used to have a High Standard 22 that had both cylinders. Took about two minutes to swap 'em.

It's been many years since I messed with a Security Six, but seems like you had to just about disassemble to gun to get the cylinder out. So yeah, that could be problematical. If I was trying to do it at the range. I have spare top-halfs for 1911s in 22, 9mm and 40 Smith. But I don't take a 45 to the range, shoot it a while then disassemble it and put a new caliber on. I do all that at the house. I see no reason to not do the same with a convertible revolver. If I want to shoot 357s I put the 357 cylinder in it. If I plan to shoot 9s that day I put the 9 cylinder in it. Leave the other one at the house.

But I don't see where it would be a problem switching a Smith and Wesson. Remove one screw, open the cylinder, remove crane/cylinder from gun, take cylinder off crane, put new cylinder on crane, reinstall in gun and put the screw back. What's "more involved"?

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I always take precautions

Nothing is difficult about it honestly. I wonder what it would cost to get a 9mm cylinder for a model 19

My OM Blackhawk is a convertible.

Had it over 40 years, and I’ve never once had the 9mm cylinder in, or had any desire to use it.

I think Taurus makes some 22r/22mag convertible revolvers. I am not a Taurus hater (PT 111 G2 is great gun for the price) but the only Taurus 22 revolver I have looked at had a forcing cone that looked like it had been cut with a sawzall.

What I'd really like is a 9mm-.45acp convertable.....

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Forum consigliere

With the swap in one direction, that would be an interesting single shot conversion .

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Alan
SWCA LM 2023, SWHF 220

Years ago tried a brief experiment of loading 9mm lead in .38 special cases, with a Model 14 tack driver with .38 special, the 9mm lead was all over the place. looked like a target shot with 00 buckshot.

You have a DA Blackhawk! Cool.

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Certified Curmudgeon

Years back I bought a bunch of 122 TC .355 bullets to use in a submachine gun. But between "hard lube" (which smokes like a chimney), Unique (which is also pretty smokey) and "indoor range", it looked like I was shooting black powder.

So I gave up that idea, and loaded the rest of 'em (400 or so) in 38 specials. I noticed no accuracy difference between them and my normal .358 158 SWCs.

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I always take precautions

My favorite bullet to load in 9x19 brass is Badman's 125 grain RNFP with crimp groove (meant for .38/.357).

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Certified Curmudgeon

I have a 25-2 that Trapper Gun in Michigan did a model 28 cylinder for 45 Colt conversion. It shoots great.
I think the simple answer on why DA revolvers where not popular with conversions is that it is a lot easier to change the cylinder on a SA revolver.

Gary,

I've a 44 Spl / 357 Mag convertible.....

It's ah if'n I run out of 44s, jest switch to 357.




And a couple more...

45 Long Colt /45 ACP 5"



My Custom Super Jet........ (It has both the std. 22 Rem. Jet Cyl & an auxiliary 22 Super Jet Cyl pictured)




.

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"IN GOD WE TRUST"

I've never owned a Taurus and would not recommend, but if you're interested their model 692 is going to be the closest convertible DA revolver that you're looking for.

Bought a new model Single Six a few years ago. It's the Hunter edition with 7.5" barrel. Has been an accurate shooter in both 22lr and 22wmr. I've heard people say accuracy isn't that great with convertibles but I'm not sure what they're expecting, maybe to clip wings off a fly from 100 yds? I can hit bullseye with mine between 25-35 yds off hand, just using sights. That's good enough for me.

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Ephesians 6 (Armor of God)

Another example though not factory original.

27-2 45ACP/Colt

Astra made a 357/9mm convertible DA revolvers. On their large frames the cylinder and crane was push button removable.

There is a Korth revolver being marketed by Nighthawk Custom with the same feature, a .357/9 mm conversion, at somewhat of a breathtaking price (but not by Korth standards).

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Alan
SWCA LM 2023, SWHF 220

...the factory fitted them for me.

The .22LR cylinder for the M48 wasn't too hard to find 20 years ago, but harder today. I didn't realize the factory made .45 Colt cylinders for the
M25-2 until I read about them in the SCSW and later found this one here. Considerebly harder to find than the .22. It's still the only one I've ever seen.

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9mm in a revolver is a bit of a pain. With my eight shot I have the bullets walking out of the case and I have a substantial amount of crimp. I use the left overs for close targets in starter cylinders. I don't trust them for the longer shots. My power factor is figured on the USPSA standard of testing taking the walk into account for those six rounds. Revolver 9mm is a different animal than semiautomatic 9mm.

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