Vented Barrel

[ACC]

Can you shoot cast bullets in a revolver that has a vented barrel? Any danger with doing so?

ACC

[Evoken]

I have shot both 38 and 357 cast out of my wife's snub nose with a vented barrel. Other than being dirty, I have not seen a problem with it. Doesn't seem to affect accuracy in any way.

[zarrinvz24]

Yes. I'm not sure why that is a concern?

[Kraschenbirn]

I've put, literally, thousands upon thousands of cast boolits through 'race guns' fitted with compensators and a ported .41 Mag and, beyond cleaning out a bit of fouling, can recall no issues.

Bill

[gwpercle]

Can you shoot cast bullets in a revolver that has a vented barrel? Any danger with doing so?

ACC

If vented is the same as a "Ported " barrel then Yes you can . I have a Taurus model 455 45acp revolver and 99.9% of the loads shot through it are my cast 200 gr. SWC boolits .
Simple barrel cleaning takes care of everything and I have never noticed a build up of lead in or around the ports . These ports are 3 round holes , in a neat row on each side of the barrel . The porting came from the factory and seems to work ... it is the lightest recoiling 45 acp I own , when compared to the recoil of 3 different 1911's ... and the little jewel is extremely accurate !

Some times when some one refers to a vented barrel they might mean a barrel with a top rib that has slots (vents) in the rib , sometimes on skeet and trap shotguns ...which help with shooting long strings , the barrel getting hot and getting some heat waves off the barrel to obscure the target . Most famous vented handgun barrels would be the barrel of the Colt Python and Colt Anaconda ... they look good !

I'm going to assume you mean ported barrels , where the ports cut into the barrel and make holes or slots or trapazoids (Magnaporting) . I could be all wrong !
Gary

[Cherokee]

I had a Taurus 357 6' revolver with factory ported barrel 10 or so years, ago that shot jacketed bullets great but choked on any cast bullets. Had to clean ports.

[oley55]

If per chance "vented barrel" is in reference to certain vented Dan Wesson revolvers, the answer is absolutely not. The Dan Wesson vented barrel has a row of evenly spaced holes around the barrel which is encased in the barrel shroud. The vented gases are then expelled through two vent slots/ports on either side of the front sight blade of the shroud. The clearance space between the barrel and shroud is fairly close. Dan Wesson cautioned lead would build up between the barrel and shroud making future removal nigh-on-impossible.

All that said, in my case my DW 44mag HV, neither barrel (standard or vented) works with cast (or just barely). My vented barrel is perfectly sized in relation to throat diameters but unusable with cast, While my solid barrel is a bit too large for cast because it is prezactly the same size as the throats. But I continue trying to find a non-leading solution.