Article: Ruger .30 Carbine Old Model Blackhawk revolvers

"From what I have read, the NM .30 Carbine can also be used with .32-20."

That would be impossible with the standard .30 Carbine cylinder without rechambering it. The .30 Carbine head chambers flush with the rear face of the cylinder. There is only a very slight gap between the recoil shield and the cylinder. Even if a .32-20 cartridge could fit into the .30 Carbine chamber (it won't), it has a rim and there is no space for it. There are two ways to convert the .30 Carbine cylinder to accept .32-20. First would be to mill down the rear cylinder face to allow headspace for the rim. Second would be to recess the chambers for rims. I once considering having a .30 Carbine cylinder rechambered for .32-20, but decided that it was an impractical idea. And there is no need to do so as .30 Carbine brass can be easily handloaded to produce any .32-20 ballistics you wish.

My experience with my Blackhawk is that fired .30 Carbine cases do stretch and may need to be trimmed. I have always trimmed .30 Carbine cases to 1.275"-1.280" (after FL resizing) for use in either the .30 Carbine or the Ruger Blackhawk, and have never had any problems with using that length in either, even though it is slightly under spec. And it delays trimming for a few shots. I have quite a few steel .30 Carbine cases (WWII and Korea), and they do not seem to stretch as much.
 
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DWalt said:
"From what I have read, the NM .30 Carbine can also be used with .32-20."

That would be impossible with the standard .30 Carbine cylinder without rechambering it. The .30 Carbine head chambers flush with the rear face of the cylinder. There is only a very slight gap between the recoil shield and the cylinder. Even if a .32-20 cartridge could fit into the .30 Carbine chamber (it won't), it has a rim and there is no space for it. There are two ways to convert the .30 Carbine cylinder to accept .32-20. First would be to mill down the rear cylinder face to allow headspace for the rim. Second would be to recess the chambers for rims. I once considering having a .30 Carbine cylinder rechambered for .32-20, but decided that it was an impractical idea. And there is no need to do so as .30 Carbine brass can be easily handloaded to produce any .32-20 ballistics you wish.

My experience with my Blackhawk is that fired .30 Carbine cases do stretch and may need to be trimmed. I have always trimmed .30 Carbine cases to 1.275"-1.280" (after FL resizing) for use in either the .30 Carbine or the Ruger Blackhawk, and have never had any problems with using that length in either, even though it is slightly under spec. And it delays trimming for a few shots. I have quite a few steel .30 Carbine cases (WWII and Korea), and they do not seem to stretch as much.
Click to expand...

It's worth noting that the currently-made "new model" .30 Carbine Blackhawks do NOT cozy up the cylinder to the recoil shield. There's a gap that exposes some of the base of the case. It may be easier to re-chamber these cylinders to .32-20, although I can see no earthly reason for doing so.

I think the old models that completely contain the entire cartridge in the cylinder with no discernible cylinder-recoil shield gap were much more elegant and finished in appearance. Also the current new models come standard with (in my opinion) cheesy plastic grips. The older walnut grips seemed to have been uniformly selected for nice grain, and they looked great. Just a couple more reasons why I like the older guns - besides being able to load and reload the cylinder just by feel and reverse-indexing. Everything lines up the way it should. And who doesn't like the old "4-click" cocking experience? It just screams "John Wayne must be close by."

John
 
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News to me. My new model must have the case heads flush with the rear face of the cylinder And it has only tiny gap. I must be very careful about case length or the cylinder will jam.
 
Interesting note that seems odd or hard to believe... Ruger built, marketed and shipped the .30 Carbine Blackhawk before they did so with the .45 Colt. Who would have thought that?
 
Somewhere I have a US military box of .30 Carbine where the cases were steel. I was told that the steel cases were experimental.
 
I have had 2 of the Blackhawks, both Old Models and about 8 of the M-1 Carbines. I have reloaded about 7000 cases in a RCBS Carbide die without lube and about 50 with a RCBS Steel die before that. The Carbide die I have needed no lube of any kind to when sizing or removing any of my cases (fired in several guns!). The steel dies needed lube, but was such a mess I bought the Carbide right away, even though is was $79 in 1981 (2 1/2 times the cost of the steel die set!)

I used the Gas Check version of the Lyman/Ideal 3118 mould to make bullets I size to .309" for use in both the handgun and the Carbines. H110/WW296 is the only powder to achieve military ammo velocities! Although my revolvers grouped better with a load of IMR or H 4227! The rifles didn't seem to care which powder was used for 100 yard groups!

The noise is absolutely brain rattling and feels loud enough to shatter your ear drums! (But compared to some of the Contender/Encore cartridges, it's not too bad!)

Ivan
 
DWalt said:
News to me. My new model must have the case heads flush with the rear face of the cylinder And it has only tiny gap. I must be very careful about case length or the cylinder will jam.
Click to expand...

Here's a picture of the current new model .30 Carbine Blackhawk, as pictured in a Ruger on-line advertisement. The gap between the back of the cylinder and the upper frame's recoil shield is quite evident. Compare that to my photo of the old model right below it. I'm guessing that you have an early (transitional) new model that probably retained some external characteristics of the old models, including the shorter front sight, fully-enclosed chambers and walnut grips. I'm further guessing that further changes were incremental to the present specimens with very noticeable differences.

John

RUGER_NEW_MODEL_30_BLACKHAWK_zps1vuufwwg.jpg

RUGER_COMPARISON-text_zps0dlu73jx.jpg
 
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I have had one for years and never shot it. Now I feel the need to shoot it.
 
jag312 said:
Somewhere I have a US military box of .30 Carbine where the cases were steel. I was told that the steel cases were experimental.
Click to expand...

I could be wrong, but the only steel cased .30 carbine ammo I'm aware of are high pressure test rounds. If they are loaded with M2 ball style of projectiles (fully jacketed pointed) then that is what they are. These were not issued in the field. They were used by the various carbine manufacturers for test firing purposes.
 
From what has been written over on the SingleAction.com forums, the NM .30 BH owners over there have no problem shooting .32-20s from their guns. Since I no longer have a NM and only an OM I can not verify this as has been said the OM has recessed chambers...

Bob
 
It is interesting to look at the picture that John posted of the NM and OM BH...notice the difference in front sight heights.... Don't know about any of you, but my OM BH .30 Carbine and a couple of like sighted .41 Magnum OMs could not be sighted in to POA because of that too short a front sight...
 
KEN L said:
I could be wrong, but the only steel cased .30 carbine ammo I'm aware of are high pressure test rounds. If they are loaded with M2 ball style of projectiles (fully jacketed pointed) then that is what they are. These were not issued in the field. They were used by the various carbine manufacturers for test firing purposes.
Click to expand...

I have no idea about .30 carbine steel cased rounds, but the government occasionall made steel-cased .45 rounds to test their equipment to be able to do so if brass ever became scarce. Or so I read.

Tula makes steel cased ammo today.
 
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PALADIN85020 said:
Here's a picture of the current new model .30 Carbine Blackhawk, as pictured in a Ruger on-line advertisement. The gap between the back of the cylinder and the upper frame's recoil shield is quite evident. Compare that to my photo of the old model right below it.

John

RUGER_NEW_MODEL_30_BLACKHAWK_zps1vuufwwg.jpg

RUGER_COMPARISON-text_zps0dlu73jx.jpg
Click to expand...

John,

I've found something interesting. I'm looking at online photos of a used New Model .30 Carbine Blackhawk that's in a local gun shop. It has the silver eagles with the black background on the grips, they state it has a transfer bar, and it's a two screw model-definitely a New Model. Their photos show a short front sight and no gap between the recoil shield and cylinder. From what I can tell the serial number starts with "51-". Hmmm.

Bll
 
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What exactly is the purpose of these? As in, what type game are they really good for?
 
Interesting thread, I recall seeing a few on the used market in the past 35 years but never took interest.
I did squirrel away one of those .30 carbine Enforcer pistols years ago but never fired it.
Maybe need to fire a few rounds next range visit to see how it compares to the .357 Magnum and Tokarov noise wise.
 
CA Escapee said:
John,

I've found something interesting. I'm looking at online photos of a used New Model .30 Carbine Blackhawk that's in a local gun shop. It has the silver eagles with the black background on the grips, they state it has a transfer bar, and it's a two screw model-definitely a New Model. Their photos show a short front sight and no gap between the recoil shield and cylinder. From what I can tell the serial number starts with "51-". Hmmm.

Bll
Click to expand...

I can only guess that these are transitional guns that reflected some of the features of the old models in the first 2-screw configurations. Things changed to the current configuration along the way.

John
 
PALADIN85020 said:
I can only guess that these are transitional guns that reflected some of the features of the old models in the first 2-screw configurations. Things changed to the current configuration along the way.

John
Click to expand...

John,

I hadn't looked on the Ruger website to find out when the gun was made, but those were my thoughts exactly.

Bill
 
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