J word and enlarged throats

[Ghost101]

Now that I have enlarged the throats on some of my revolvers, will this have any effect on shooting "J" word bullets thru these throats? I know some say that they never shoot them. I have friends that give me ammo at different times to go have fun with. I'm not about to pass it up, plus all the great brass for reloading Boolits.
Great fun at the range today. I have just gotten a Ruger Blackhawk 7.5", Bisley in .45 Colt and a Ruger GP100.
The .45Colt was fed Lyman 347 gr RFN with a load of 16.1 and 17.1 grs. of 2400. The 16.1 was very good at 25 yards. Fairly stout but was good out to the 100yrd. steel also. The .357 will need some work to tighten up the groups. Lee TL 160gr.,SWC with H 110 with I think 16.0 grs. No matter had a lot of fun.



Ghost101

[cbrick]

Where in SoCal did you go shoot?

Dunno about them ugly brown things working or not but I would guess it will be fine unless you really, really opened up the throats. Well, as fine as shooting them can get. The H-110 load needs to be at or very near max book loads, the more it's reduced the worse the groups. Dunno about the 160 gr boolit with H-110, that's a lite for caliber boolit for almost all of my 357 loading.

Rick

[Ghost101]

I was at Angeles shooting range off the 210. I purchase a lot of reloading items from the store there an have become friends with Bob. Also buy supplies from Oak Tree Gun Range out here in Santa Clarita. Too pricey to shoot there, plus they don't have the yardage.
The 160 gr. mold I got for my .38 S&W mod. 60. I haven't sized the bore or run pin gauges thru the cylinders as of yet on the GP100. It just got out of jail. I enlarged the throats to .003 over bore size on a couple other revolvers.


Ghost101

[cbrick]

Angeles Ranges is the right answer but I have a biased opinion on that being I'm a part owner of the range.

.003" over groove diameter? How come?

Rick

[prs]

On my revolvers I like my cylinder throats to be equal to just over bore diameter. That is, a .454 boolit passes with light pressure through a .453 throat, and enters the .451 barrel. All being nice and close with a slight downward progression. I have zip experience with copper clads, but have been told that for some odd or black magical reason, they like a little restriction at the throat as compared to bullet diameter and barrel diameter. I never put any faith in that hoodoo. Does not make good sense to me, but a lot of things don't. On autoloaders, I just cast or size them to a thou over bore and don't sweat it.

prs

[duke76]

They will work fine but the velocity will probably be around 50 fps slower than if the cylinders were tighter, accuracy wise should be about the same if not better.

[Ghost101]

Hey Rick, ask any of the girls behind the counter about Ghost, or down at the reloading store. Great range that I go to 1 or 2 times a week. I enjoy the staff an they will always stop by to say hi. Great place to meet folks an sometimes help them out with their shooting.
Thanks for a fun place to go to.

Ghost101

[Piedmont]

Veral Smith wrote an article in Handloader or Rifle more than 20 years ago on revolver accuracy. He had a .357 Blackhawk that he used in the article and he opened all the throats up to .359 if I remember correctly. This improved his accuracy substantially with properly sized cast bullets. However, he lost accuracy with jacketed bullets until he bumped the same jacketed bullets up in a swage die and then they were tack drivers, too.

Dave Scovill has written of jacketed .45 bullets not shooting well in over sized cylinder throated .45 Colts. The reason is they tip. If they don't start out straight, they won't straighten up later.

The S&W revolvers made since they tightened up their throat dimensions sometime in the late 1980s were then reported to shoot jacketed ammo much more accurately. Even modern ones with too tight throats, think .428" in a .44 mag, are supposed to shoot very accurately with jacketed ammo. Again, the bullet can't tip, so it shoots well. A lot of jacketed bullets actually measure a bit smaller than the number listed on the little plastic or card board box.

[Ghost101]

Having a hard time visualizing a boolit tipping. If the rear of the boolit is still in the chamber throat of the cylinder as it passes into the throat of the barrel, where does this tipping happen? I just don't understand how this happens. Not saying it can't, but still trying to learn as much as I can. ???

Ghost101

[runfiverun]

it occurs as it comes out of the chamber where it is sitting on the bottom of the cylinder and rides the throat up towards the barrels throat.
for best accuracy you want things held in alignment from start to finish.

[felix]

Hard boolits don't get distorted as much and will shoot more accurately than softer projectiles. When alignment is perfect , i.e., 3500 dollar bench guns, about any load will shoot assuming the shooter doesn't kill the operation by using the wrong ammo (barrel vibes, etc.) or just himself not up to the task (sight error, recoil, etc.). ... felix

[Larry Gibson]

I've shot lots of jacketed bullets through revolvers with oversized throats; t no they don't shoot quite as accurately as with tighter throats but you've got to be a really, really good shot or be using a machine rest to see the difference at practical pistol ranges. .429/.430s shoot just fine in my Hawes .44 Mag with .433-.434 throats. Match 45 ACPs with .451 WCs shot superb from many M1917s and M25s with .453 - .454 throats as did most other .451 size J bullets. Shoot the J bullets and enjoy.

Larry Gibson

[Piedmont]

Having a hard time visualizing a boolit tipping. If the rear of the boolit is still in the chamber throat of the cylinder as it passes into the throat of the barrel, where does this tipping happen? I just don't understand how this happens. Not saying it can't, but still trying to learn as much as I can. ???

Ghost101
Let's say you have a .451" bullet and .456" cylinder throat. Can you visualize or imagine it NOT being tipped going into the forcing cone?

[Ghost101]

Thanks to each and everyone for your replies. My first concern was if there was any danger. then the tipping was brought up
and I was confused. now I'm straight.


Thanks - would like to say more but don't have the words

Ghost101