Ruger Blackhawk 45lc for Bear Defense Review Forums

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With some practise, would this make a decent self defence force gun in the woods? I'd demand information technology against Mtn. Lions or Black bear. No grizzlies here.
I effigy you can dispense the hammer pretty fast if you need to and with practice, plus the .45LC ruger has the convertible .45ACP.
With some of the warmer loads for .45Colt out there, the Ruger SA will do its part when you do your part against big Cats & small bears.
Ever seen a Cowboy Activity shoot? some of those guys-n-gals are dang most as fast as a lot of folks with DA revolvers.

My next SA revolver is gonna be a v-1/2" butt Convertable Ruger Blackhawk in .45Colt/.45ACP
I take black bears on my property, and have seen a mount panthera leo not a mile from where I am now.
I usually carry a Colt Woodsman (.22 LR) in the woods.
Absolutely. My brother killed a black conduct with standard pressure (not cowboy) loads in his Vaquero terminal year. In a Blackhawk you can shoot some pretty hot loads if y'all desire to.
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Exactly the cycle gun I deport in the wood up north (blackness deport country).
Should practice merely fine if you dont heed the weight. I think I would stick with a warmer load though. A feller virtually here tryed to shoot a behave with a .45 motorcar last week and was in the middle of being the bears dinner till his buddy popped it with a .44 mag backside the ear.
Interesting story. I am thinking the guy has a .45 Auto:
x:17 AM PDT on Thursday, June 12, 2008
Associated Press

GLIDE, Ore. - Aaron Wyckoff didn't start to panic until his .45-caliber pistol quit firing, and the bear kept chewing on his arm.

So, he recalls, he tried to pull the comport's jaws apart. And then he tried to roll down the ridge where he and the carry were wrestling. But the deport grabbed his calf, pulled him dorsum and went for his groin.

Wyckoff said he countered by shoving his pistol and his hand into the bear'south oral cavity. But by then, the struggle in the Cascade Range in Southern Oregon attracted the attention of Wyckoff's political party, and other hunters rushed over.

Justin Norton fired a round from his .44-caliber pistol into the black conduct's tum, to no avail. He approached the bear, put the gun behind its ear and fired again. It finally rolled away.

"I walked right up to his head, and he didn't even look at me," said Norton, 26.

With the dying bear withal struggling, a final round finished him off.

"He was expressionless. He just didn't know it," Wyckoff said. "It was but all adrenaline."

Wyckoff was helping friends track a wounded bear May 31 on the last day of the hunting flavor.

Fifteen-year-erstwhile Chris Moen of Glide, who had fatigued the tag, hit the animal in the shoulder with a .338-caliber rifle round, but he and his father couldn't pick upwardly a trail of claret.

They chosen on Wyckoff and friends to help track information technology. A few hours afterward, Wyckoff went up a hill for a view.

He heard a rustling in the bushes behind him, then a grunt. The comport had manifestly circled effectually the group.

"We never fifty-fifty heard him," said Wyckoff.

Wyckoff said he fired a round into the carry'due south forehead, but the animate being kept coming and climbed on summit of him. From beneath, Wyckoff said, he got off three more than rounds.

And so he tucked the gun below the bear's mentum. But it quit. Wyckoff, left-handed, said he had accidentally released the ammunition clip.

http://www.nwcn.com/statenews/oregon/stories/NW_061208ORN_man_bear_attack_LJ.25b09ec4.html
+ yard for the Blackhawk with a 300g bullet at grand fps. it will
ruin the solar day of nigh predators two or 4 legged
The Blackhawk 45LCs congenital 1973-forward tin all handle the "45LC+P" ammo, some of which meets or exceeds 44Magnum horsepower. Buffalo Bore has the absolute hottest variant, but the lesser Cor-Bon 45LC+Ps should have enough power on tap for black bear and cougar.
(Really, cougar are fairly thin-skinned. Good 38+P can kill 'em in a pinch.)

The cracking affair virtually a Blackhawk for this function is that it's lightweight for the power offered, fast to become into action for the first shot with some exercise, and tough as nails. Superb back-land gun.
Ruger Blackhawk in 45Colt aka long filly.
Cracking gun!

Triple K leather cowboy belt and holster.

Ammunition? Take your pick.

I use manus loads and other manufacturing plant loads. Correct at present, I am using upward some Magtech 45Colt in 250Grain, Lead Flat Nose. I have some manus loads for the the 'wood' and have had other factory ammunition in the past that was the aforementioned as the manus loads. I am not certain of the 'load' since I do non reload. My husband loads them for me.

Best wishes.

Catherine
Just want to add that loaded to the gills with hardcast, the 357Mag isn't totally useless in this part. Buffalo Bore, Doubletap and Grizzly accept loads that run up to 800ft/lbs from a 5" tube.
My Ruger SA is a NewVaq 357 with mods to the sights, SuperBlackhawk hammer, etc. Very packable and a decent choice for this grade of duty.

Loaded hot, the 357 exceeds the 45LC in horsepower. Only in one case you get into 45LC+P does it have over in terms of raw energy, and that'south not available in a gun close in size/heft to the Colt SAA. The Blackhawk is slightly "oversize" in every direction and is built on a "44Magnum-form frame.

Is the hot 357 optimal for wood duty in the lower 48 (read: out of Griz state)? No. Merely it can work, and it gives you lot cheaper practice and lower-powered flexibility in a slightly smaller, handier gun.
It is the perfect factory gun for such employ especially considering the price. The OM guns shoot the heavy loads just fine too.

If you want to spend a few more bucks you can accept the same +P 45 Filly power in a sixgun smaller than Colt SAA, the Freedom Arms M97. This i easily throws 300 grs at 1300 fps.
I thing for certain, I've never heard of the "clip" accidently falling out of a sixgun
My "grizzly state" (where I rarely go anymore) sidearm is a .45 Vaquero. I bought some hot 300gr JSP loads for that purpose.

My standard handload is 250gr hardcast in front of 10gr of Unique. Non a actually "hot" load simply warmer than the original.

Also, I load 5gr into my .357 target rounds, so powder measure setting is the same: ane pull for .357, 2 pulls for .45
I prefer a lighter medium frame .357 to hike with, but I'm not allowed to carrying this, especially out west (that'd be West Texas, New United mexican states).
http://thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=43871&d=1156426444

Click on pic for close up.
Tracking a wounded bear. In the nighttime. Carrying nothing only a pistol. Dispersed. Without fifty-fifty bringing acquit dogs to distract the animal.
Lessee. I make that v strikes.

My dad did something virtually that dumb - once - but at least the bear wasn't wounded and he had dogs to continue the bear decorated!

-And yeah, a .38 or .357 will do the job on a California black acquit with good shot placement (as he found out.)
Overnice pictures.
Is that one a Freedom Arms?

My husband has a Freedom Arms and likes it very much!

Catherine
The Ruger Blackhawk in .45 Colt will practice anything Joe Average will always need to to exercise with a handgun.
Go one, learn to shoot it, and get forth in conviction.
The Black Hawks are pretty dainty single actions. I have one in 41 magnum that I like. If you have not purchased the gun all the same, the 357 is probably sufficient for your needs, but the 45 Filly is a good caliber for six-shooters.
One of the things I similar about Rugers is that there is no hesitation on my office to behave the gun in a holster and shoot information technology. I tend to have those qualms when I buy nice clean Colts and some of the Smiths.
Classic semi-motorcar failureGood thing his buddies had revolvers to end the fight.
An all too common issue in physical struggles (with human or beast) involving a semi-automated handgun -- especially 1911 blazon handguns and guns with "drop complimentary" mags.

I sometimes inquire myself if human being could ever devise a more conceptually retarded and self-defeating piece of engineering in a combat firearm than the magazine disconnect "prophylactic" -- similar on the Hi-Power.

But just then I remember, "oh yeah, the 1911-mode mag release and drib free mags."

Well I suppose if the magazine falls out of a 1911 you yet have 1 circular, every bit opposed to the Hi-Power, which and then becomes a rock. But and then again the mags on a Hi-Power aren't designed to fall out.

I wonder just how many swigs John M. Browning had taken when he created a pistol specifically designed to fall apart in gainsay.

This kind of magazine release has now unfortunately become almost universal, even on European guns. I guess they effigy Americans are the gun experts so they ought to know. Merely there could hardly be a more astringent weakness congenital into a gun that is used in a physical confrontation.

Possibly the 1911 did work for the armed services. Simply similar the man in this story, most of us will not know we are in danger until nosotros are really under assault. That creates different requirements for a handgun than the army, where y'all go into a situation knowing you are going to kill -- where yous are the attacker. The noncombatant handgun must exist a "scuffle gun." It must be reliable in physical contact with the attacker and in less than "ideal" shooting grip and opinion.

The revolver, and in particular the snub-olfactory organ, beats the autoloader hands down in such situations.

I accept to confess my opinions are informed in no small role by The Snubby Revolver by Ed Lovette. In it, Lovette states several requirements for an "ECQ" (farthermost shut quarters) handgun. I thought I would proper noun some of them hither:

1) The handgun must be reliable...not but in terms of function but in terms of reducing the take chances for operator error, in terms of reducing the number of things that can go incorrect. In a word, simplicity. In a word, operator-proof.

2) Since a holster may not be available or desirable, the handgun must exist reliable if stored in not-holsters such as pockets, purses, and so forth.

iii) The handgun must be reliable when fired from unusual positions, through glaze pockets, and the like.

4) The handgun must exist reliable if the muzzle is jammed against your assaulter.

5) The handgun must be reliable if yous can't get the proper grip or lock your firing wrist.*

half-dozen) If y'all are forced to grapple with your assailant, the weapon must take stiff retentivity capabilities and however exist able to burn.

*Lovette relates a story here: "I know of 3 cases in which officers were forced to shoot someone who had grabbed them from backside...In two cases, the officers with revolvers (one used a 4-inch S&W, and the other had a Colt Detective Special) solved the problem. In the 3rd example, the officer was using a Colt 1911 and his hand position kept forcing his grip open to the point where he could not depress the grip safety and fire the gun. He solved his problem besides, just it took some doing."

When I carry, I frequently carry a hello-cap semi-auto (Glock 19) because I alive in an expanse where I believe I could confront multiple assailants. That's the big downside of the revolver, limited firepower. But I simply carry it considering I have tested it and am confident that the mag release is not particularly susceptible to beingness accidentally depressed. Simply I withal know it is possible and take to behave in mind the potential weaknesses of the gun I'm carrying.

The other one-half of the time I am carrying a snub. I don't like the capacity just at least I know it volition work in a struggle.

Needless to say when they come up out with a 16-shot concealable 9mm revolver I'll exist the first in line.

Last edited: Jun 15, 2008
I don't accept a "mod" .45LC single activeness. I accept a Uberti replica of a Filly 1873 SAA. What I can tell you lot is that with do, yous can indeed be very fast and accurate with a single action .45LC weapon.
I wouldn't deport mine for defense in the woods for a couple of reasons:

1. Even though it'due south a modernistic replica and not a real 1873, I still merely put cowboy loads through information technology. I'd want to shoot hotter loads for defense.

2. Existence a faithful 1873 replica, I only carry it with v loaded. Load one, skip i, load iv. That manner when I lower the hammer, it's on an empty chamber.

If yous're talking about carrying a more than mod Ruger single activity into the forest, these concerns don't touch yous. You can utilise hotter loads, and the Rugers have a transfer bar safety that makes it safe to load and carry half dozen.
Man used the 45 LC for a lot of applications for a lot of years. None of the adversaries have changed, man or animal, information technology is just that now we have faster calibers. Are they needed? Difficult question with no real easy answers, but I doubt they hurt either. I am certain in some cases they are superior but 99.nine% of the time the old 45 LC with a 900 or 1000 FPS with a 250 grain bullet volition become the job done for close work.
I would feel prophylactic with a New Vaquero in 45 with a broad meplate but would probably carry a 41 or 44 loaded hot with an expanding bullet if protection was a serious result
Yes people have used the old .45 load for years and years. They where also not then stupid to try to use that on pissed of bears also. Thats what they used thirty-30s 25-35s and .35 rems for if not a 38-56 or a thirty-06.
Before y'all start casting dispersions on JMB, delight consider that whatsoever design features similar these were mandated by whatever government bureau specified for the pistol.
Wow, it'southward turned into a JMB bashing thread. I never would have thought THAT!
I think it's a nice gun, and I think the .45 LC with hot ammo would be fine for those critters.
However, if a mount lion attacks you, the outset thing you will know is that there's a behemothic cat trying to break your neck. Y'all are not probable to run across information technology or otherwise be aware of information technology earlier it strikes. In that kind of state of affairs, I would much rather take something that shoots just past pulling the trigger, without a carve up cocking movement. I am not anti-single-action; I own 1, am probably getting some other, and would non have an issue carrying ane for bear defense given that yous will usually know virtually a conduct problem at least several seconds earlier it reaches you (the one story above notwithstanding). But for the large cats, I would prefer a DA revolver, or a semiauto (despite the other prepare of negative comments on those!).