I've been looking for a SRH 454 cylinder for about a year. I screwed up a bid on gunbroker last spring and missed one and haven't come across another one since.

Well, thanks to a guy on another forum I now have a 454 Cylinder for my Redhawk conversion, oh, it came in this like new SRH

I've been researching this for quite some time and wanted do the swap out myself and not have to have a smith do anything. The neutered SRH will find a home with someone wanting to do a 475 or 500 bigbore project. I'll probably keep the 45 Colt cylinder at least for a while until I'm satisfied.

Preliminary quick measurements showed headspace within .001 on the two guns. Cylinders are the same length and distance from frame to barrel is the same as well. After talking to guys who have done this conversion, timing is right on as is bore alignment. Evidently Ruger uses the same specs for bolt notches, timing, etc. on the cylinders.

A .452 boolit pushes through the 454 cylinder so it's good to go. I wonder if this is because it's a newer Ruger or if it's because it's a 454. I had to ream the throats on the 45 Colt to .4525. They were at about .4515, the Redhawk is a couple years old.

Cylinder/star extractor assemblies will come off the cranes, 454 Cylinder goes back on the Redhawk. Cranes will stay with the proper frames. The Redhawk has .003 cylinder gap, .005 endshake and that after it going back to Ruger last winter. The 454 was the same. Little less endshake.

This was a lot easier than I thought it would be. It was nothing more than a cylinder swap and all critical measurements are within spec. Wow... The 454 Redhawk lives!!

Step 1. Pull cylinder/crane from Redhawk and pull cylinder/extractor off of crane.



Step 2. Do the same to the SRH.



Step 3. Parts are ready for reassembly.



Step 4. 454 Cylinder is on the Redhawks Crane.



Step 5. Install the crane with the new cylinder and check cylinder gap, endshake, headspace, timing, cylinder/bore alignment. Everything is right on. B/C is .004, endshake is .004 and headspace is within spec which it should be since headspace is set by Ruger on the cylinder. It's the same as the 45 Colt cylinder. Maybe .001 tighter.



The chambers on the 454 Cylinder are tighter than the 45 Colt. I don't have a set of pin gauges but here is a pic with some non-resized brass from rounds fired in the Redhawk. This is all the farther the 45 Colt brass would go in the 454 Cylinder. It slips right in the 45 Colt cylinder as you can see. Neither of these two pieces of brass would go in the 454 cyl any farther. They are a pretty snug fit as is.



Timing. Here is a pic of the gun that shows timing. The cylinder/bolt is in full lockup in this pic. Just a little more pressure and the hammer falls. It's the same on all cylinders. I looked down the bore and went through all cylinders and the chambers line up with the bore no prob. I don't have any rods to measure this but it looks good and others have done this swap before me.



The 454 Redhawk is born!

I managed to find some time last night to prep some new starline brass and load up some rounds this morning for a quick trip to the range. All I can say is this thing shoots great. Boolit is a 355gr wfn that I cast from a custom LBT mold. 5/1 ww/lino water dropped . BHN is 28. Lubed with my homemade besswax/vasaline lube, sized to .452. My 45 Colt load is 21.5 gr H110. It's 1150 fps in the 4" 45 Colt Redhawk, 1200 in my 7.5" SBH Hunter. I used Hodgdon load data for the 360gr CP. This boolit acutally encroaches less in the case than the 360 though. Here's a pic of the 2. 355wfn on left, 360 cast performance on right.



For the 454 loads I used the Hodgdon data for the 360cp as a guide. I loaded 23, 24 and 25 gr. 24 is actually max load. The first thing I noticed was recoil, or lack of it compared to the 45 Colt load. I was expecting a noticeable difference but after shooting it's a non-issue. At least with these loads. More on that later.

I was shooting single action, 25yds, seated, resting on my forearms/wrists.

23 gr grouped at about 4-5 inches for 5 rounds with the 6th being a flyer.

25 grs was about the same as 23gr as far as group, 4-5 iinches. I shot them last.

Here's the 24gr load. I pulled one off the paper. I had setup my chrony and shot some 38's over it to test it and the stupid thing was'nt working. I may have a low battery or something. Maybe it didn't like 10 degree temperature. So unfortunately I don't have chrony numbers. Load data chart says 24gr is 1447 fps. The load data for my 45 Colt load says 1151 and I get that in my 4" barrel. I'm guessing 1400fps?? Who knows for sure. All I do know is this load shoots better than my 1150 45 Load.



After shooting these I then shot about 20 275gr over 11gr Unique I had loaded up for plinkin in the levergun. Accurate and fun. I then shot 6 of my 45 Colt 21.5gr H110, 355gr loads. I swear the recoil seemed more harsh than the 454 loads. Bottom line is I'd rather shoot the 24gr 454's than the 21.5gr 45 Colts and the 454 loads group closerto 2 inches whereas the 45 Colt loads group closer to 5 inches.

All these loads are sooty. I may try 26gr to see what happens. Plus, I have the "454 Snyd" in the works which is a shortened 454 case with these 355ers that will cycle in the levergun.

Anyway, I've got lots more work/fun to do loading and shooting this thing but my first impressions are very favorable. Time to cast some boolits and burn some powder!

Oh, and the donor gun (and 45 Colt cylinder) is for sale in the classifieds for anyone looking for a gun for a bigbore project.

I love the redhawk platform. Always thought a 454 redhawk would be the ultimate gun.

AWESOME!

MN

Looks familiar!

Very nice...

Looks great Perry!
Glad you ended up with what you wanted!
Stay warm :-)

Snyd,

IMHO this is one of the best technical posts ever here since I have been a member. Excellent photos and descriptions. Really enjoyed it; makes me want to do a similar conversion.

Good job!

Gregg

Like this? LOL! It is a great conversion, and Snyd did a great job!

WOW that is nice!!!

Great post!!

Have you thought about keeping your SRH as a 45 LC? Put a scope on it and you have a great hunting rig! (I am just thinking out loud so do what YOU want to do!!!)

It would make for a great hunting rig! I would love to buy it, and turn it into something big -- not sure what, though!

Thanks guys. Ya, it's kinda fun messing around with this stuff.

TCMan, Here's my hunting rig

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That's nice, Snyd!

As much as I love my FA in 454, I always thought that if I ever decided I needed to carry a 454 as serious critter defense, that it would have to be double action, and way less bulky than most factory offerings. I think you just made "in my minds eye". very nice.

Craig

I have always loved the look of the RH,I have a SRH in .454 ,which is my favorite deer gun but I think the SRH are just plain ugly.