An Early Cut

If you shoot, have you ever wondered why no two guns seem to shoot alike?  You can buy two guns made by the same manufacturer, same model and barrel lengths......even CONSECUTIVE SERIAL NUMBERS, and they won't shoot quite the same.

At the great factories, they use a special cutting die to cut the lands & grooves inside the barrel (that "spiral staircase" in the bore that puts the spin on the bullet).  They've determined that they can get about a dozen cuts out of each die before enough edge has been taken off the die itself, to where the bore cut isn't crisp enough to produce acceptable accuracy.  After about a dozen barrels, they toss the old cutting die and replace it with a new one.

To use a fresh cutting die for each barrel would add expense to the gun, as well as be time consuming, although when you have a special weapon "custom-built", you always get a "first cut barrel", because that's part of what you're paying for.

Handguns are weapons of self defense, and not expected to deliver long range accuracy from short barrels, so the goal of the major manufacturers is to keep the groups somewhere in that 8" 'circle at 25 yards.  Someone determined several years ago that a pistol barrel cut for the 12th time with the same die, would still give acceptable accuracy , but twelve barrels with the same die would be the limit.

Every great now and then, you'll buy a pistol that shoots almost like it's "radar-guided"  I have a Smith & Wesson 357 Magnum that I bought in 1976, that will hit  just about anything you want to hit.  You can filled the cylinders with a different bullet weight and powder charge in each chamber, and ALL SIX will still find their way "into the black."

This gun has what some of us refer to as "more than likely a first cut barrel".  On a calm day from a bench rest , with the sights already adjusted for a particular cartridge load,  The gun will consistently shoot "10's & "x"s all day long.  The gun built just BEFORE this one might have been the "12th gun before the die change" and thrown bullets all over the paper------still in the black somewhere, but not the real tight groups that would win any pistol matches.  Good enough for defense though, when you consider the size of an intruder's chest.

So a good quality handgun will usually shoot just fine for what you bought it for (as long as you do YOUR part behind the trigger).  Unfortunately, when you're examining a new pistol before buying it, you can look down that bore until you get eye strain and there's no way to tell if it's a "first-cut......twelfth cut" or whatever number in-between..  All new "spirals" look the same to the naked eye.

Now, this has never really been a major concern to me.  I don't keep a pistol on my hip, in my car or on the nightstand for recreational purposes.  FBI says 21 feet, and all my short-guns are "dialed-in" at 25 yards.  There's nobody I can't hit, with whatever I'm carrying.  If a particular gun just happens to shoot really TIGHT at the range.........to me, that's just a bonus..........a Ruger, Smith or whatever......with a first-cut barrel, a 6th-cut barrel or a twelfth-cut barrel...........all cost the SAME when you buy 'em new.

So when I get a tight one, I just feel like I "really got my money's worth this time."

About 2 weeks ago, I think I bought a gun with at LEAST a 3rd cut barrel, maybe a 2nd.  I had a Ruger  Vaquero, in 45 Colt caliber, that at BEST was probably a number 6 or 7 at 25 yards, and its beautiful chrome-satin finish was not easy to keep clean, so I didn't shoot it much anyway.

I'd been looking for a Blackhawk to replace it with, in the same caliber.  I've of course, known about that one-to-twelve barrel-die for years now, and knew that when I DID find a 45 Blackhawk, there was no guarantee that IT would shoot any tighter, better or worse.  But I've always preferred the Blackhawk frame to anything else, so the "hunt was on for a 45."  Not as easy as you might think. 

Revolver shooters today prefer magnum calibers more than anything else.  357's & 44's sell like pancakes next to a lot of the other calibers.  but the Colt 45 was an old-west cartridge, and guns are still being made for it, but not in great numbers---because they don't SELL in great numbers.  So I asked our gunshop here in town to keep an eye out for one as one might come in, or when they re-order.

357's, like this Ruger Blackhawk, and 44's such as this Super Blackhawk are pretty "commonplace".  That "357" target was shot at 25 yards, and is well within the parameters of a man's chest, especially at the much shorter distances you would actually USE the gun.  But if I had to guess, I'd call that at least a "4th cut" barrel.  Even after the rear sight  adjustments , most shots were still hanging around the edges of the "8 and 9" rings.  (MORE than good enough to get the job done, though).

Well, that was sometime back, and 2 weeks ago, one came in for their stock.  I took my "purty" chrome Vaquero and an old 22 magnum I never shoot anymore, went down there and did a little "horse-tradin,'" and walked out with a new Ruger Blackhawk, that looks pretty much like my other Blackhawks, except on the frame under the cylinder, where it's etched.....45  caliber.

I never waste good hollowpoints for "sight-in", so these 250-grain flatnose slugs were good enough for sight-adjustments.  (all guns are PROOF-FIRED) at the factory, but they are not "sighted-in).  They just set the sights "close enough" to get you "on the paper").

It was a nice morning this past Wednesday, not a breeze in the air.  Perfect for a "sight-in".  Left hand still a bit tender from the surgery, so I wore a padded glove on it and went out.

I only had to use up one cylinder load of six, to do the job with this one.  Factory set-up was close enough to hit the 9-ring high and a bit left with the first one.  I adjusted the elevation DOWN, but a bit too far with the 2nd shot.  adjusted it back UP a bit and a touch to the right.  Shots 3 & 4 are the two that are touching each other.  2 clicks FURTHER to the right and number 5 was still in the "ten" ring but to the right of the "orange."  ONE click back to the left, and THERE IT WAS as number six went right through the middle.

At this point, I saw no need to reload the gun.  It shoots right where it needs to, so I just came home, got a cup of coffee and cleaned it.......

Great barrel.......an "early cut."