GUNS & AMMO
Gun Review: Ruger Super
Blackhawk .44 Magnum
R
uger has staked their reputation on building
tough, reliable firearms at a reasonable price for
years now. Common descriptors of their guns
are “working-class”, “practical”, and perhaps most commonly, “overbuilt”. While I’m not sure the first two fit the
bill of the Super Blackhawk, the last one certainly does,
and I love it—this .44 Magnum big-bore revolver is so
tough handloading manuals include information for use
in them exclusively. You can’t get a much better endorsement on durability than yet, perhaps surprisingly,
the Super Blackhawk (SBH) isn’t just tough, it can also
be super fun to shoot!
Overview
The SBH is one of Ruger’s oldest designs. It’s a singleaction revolver with some modernizations based off the
Colt guns of yore and a variety of SBH models have
been available over the years. The most common SBH
I see is the .44 Magnum, and that’s what I’m reviewing
here. The example I’m reviewing is a big ol’ wheelgun,
tipping the scales at a hefty 2.7 pounds and measuring
up at 10.5” overall, with the downright stubby 4.6” barrel.
The gun comes out of a moulded plastic case with an
oversized padlock and instruction manual. It’s listed to
sell at $829 MSRP, but I purchased mine for $740. It’s
available in stainless and blued (and sometimes more
limited production runs with case hardening or other
variations), and with fluted or unfluted cylinders. For the
money, you are getting quite a hunk of gun. The SBH’s
heft is immediately noticeable though please don’t take
my meaning as in an awkward way. Yes, it’s a huge gun,
most noticeably the giant cylinder and barrel assembly,
but it does not feel silly or overwhelming to me, partly
because of the balance and partly because of the traditional cowboy grips that fit nicely in most hands. It balances freakishly well in a single-handed grip.Construction is, in a word, solid. The loading gate on the right side
of the gun opens and closes with a good authoritarian
“click” and is still comfortably snug on my example after
thousands of operations. The ejector rod runs the length
of the barrel with a plastic button at the head. This admittedly feels somewhat out of place on such a metal-heavy
firearm, but it’s adequately sturdy. My SBH has a utilitarian blued finish. It’s not a spectacular mirror sheen, but it
looks good enough for the price, and I think the contrast
with the very nice wood grips it came with makes for a
handsome (but still intimidating) revolver. The unfluted
cylinder isn’t for everyone, but you can get a more traditional fluted look if you’d like with