Spittin .500 Performance Center

[Ron60]

Both my friend and I have 7.5" barreled 500 S&W Performance Centers. ALL cast bullits occasionally - and painfully spit lead bits back at us. Safety glasses with big lenses are a must! But even then we get hit in the face and ears by bits spitting back from time to time. Always on the left side - we are both right handed shooters. It really messes with your concentration. I am convinced the bits are bouncing off the rearward faces of the slots in the compensators.
Has anyone else had this problem WITH THE PERFORMANCE CENTERS?
I am toying with the idea of carefully grinding an angle on the side of the compensator slot that faces the shooter. I have to clean lead off of these faces after every session.
I thought that if the angle were different it would be apt to cause the bits to angle away from my face. The angle would be to the front. Then I would give it a good polish. I know this may case some degredation in the function of the compensator but I'm not terribly concerned about it. The worst I might have to do is do the same on the other side to illiminate any imbalance in how the gun recoils from side to side.
Would love to know if anyone else is having this problem.
Would be nice to think that perhaps S&W has re-designed the Performanc Center compensator. There's no problem with jacketed bullets - but who wants to waste their money on those?

[oneokie]

Is the comp just shaving on the left side? If so, sounds like it is not properly aligned.

[jblee10]

How bad is your barrel leading? Are you sure it's lead? Do you have any kind of accuracy with that load? I would think if chunks of lead are coming off the base of the bullet that it wouldn't be worth shooting.

[smoked turkey]

I have a regular production 500 (not performance center). I have also noticed some lead shavings coming back on my face. I haven't shot it enough to arrive at the conclusion that you have but I will make it a point to check that out to see if that is where the spitting is coming from. For a gun of this price and quality it is totally unacceptable. I had wondered what action I should take with S&W. Thanks for bring this up.

[Ron60]

First; NO leading at all. I'm using a 500 grain truncated design I had made by Dan and Mountain Molds and size them .501 which is exactly groove to groove size. Also had Alpha Precision hone the cylinder throats to .501. The castings are nice and straight and size equally all the way round. It is a gas checked bullet and I use Rooster (red) lube.
Accuracy with 33 grains of H 110 is superb!
When I was cleaning the gun I noticed that lead adhered to all the slots in the compensator so I assume it spits 360 degrees. Due to being right handed we only catch it on the left side of our faces.
I do not let anyone stand in line with the muzzle or anywhere near it.
I'm thinking about shoot it in a cardboard tube to see if the spitting is in deed 360 degrees or mostly on one side or the other.
The fact that I don't get hit very often tells me I should also look to potential problem with my casting process.
I know my luber is not shearing any material and leaving it in the lube rings.
In view of the fact you can insert a loaded cartridge clear to the muzzle through the compensator, I'd say it would be pretty hard to get one mis-aligned enough to shear lead, but I suppose almost anything is possible.
Hope someone else has dealt with this. I'd love to know if anyone has found a fix.

[Lloyd Smale]

my first 500 linebaugh was doing it and i thought it was the gun. I sent it back to John and he checked it out and said everything was fine. Ended up being an out of round star die that was making my bullets oblong.

[44man]

Try making the boolits hard, harder and even harder! Sounds like they are expanding into the comp.

[Bass Ackward]

Make sure that the gun is unloaded and look at the gun from the muzzle paying attention to the line in the frame for fit of the crane. You can also remove the cylinder and shine a light through the window. If you can see light, then you are off. If that is good, and the brass mark on the recoil shield look uniform, then I doubt it's the gun.

One other test is to clean the cylinder face very well and measure the BC gap. It should be uniform on both sides. If it ain't dead nuts, then you are canted and it comes back to the crane alignment.

If canted and not corrected, the gun will shoot loose to compensate and wear the cone. There are other ways to check, but People generally can do these.

[44man]

Make sure that the gun is unloaded and look at the gun from the muzzle paying attention to the line in the frame for fit of the crane. You can also remove the cylinder and shine a light through the window. If you can see light, then you are off. If that is good, and the brass mark on the recoil shield look uniform, then I doubt it's the gun.

One other test is to clean the cylinder face very well and measure the BC gap. It should be uniform on both sides. If it ain't dead nuts, then you are canted and it comes back to the crane alignment.

If canted and not corrected, the gun will shoot loose to compensate and wear the cone. There are other ways to check, but People generally can do these.

Sounds like he is saying the spitting is from the comp, not the gap.

[bhn22]

Are you sure it's lead? Unburned powder granules achieve amazing velocity & hurt like the dickens when they hit you. I've been 10+ feet away from guys shooting hot 38 Supers & have gotten seriously stung by powder granules. I've had the same encounters with magnum revolvers. Slow ball powders seen to be the worst offenders. If you're shaving lead somehow, I'd expect accuracy to be suffering too.

[Ron60]

I'm sure it's both lead and powder. I would not doubt also that it may be dirt and other 'stuff' that gets into the lube when handling the bullets both before and after they are sized and lubed. I'll be getting more careful about that.
Something that tends to make me think it's part of the compensators design or something about the bullets is that BOTH my friends gun and mine to the very same thing. Mine is # 0290 and his is brand new with a much higher serial number.
Now, the fact that three different bullet weights and three styles do the same thing, points my litte BB brain back to the compensator.
Because of the accuracy we are getting I'm wondering how they could shoot so well and obturate so much upon leaving the muzzle so as to deposit lead on the compensator which is significantly larger diameter than the bullet.
Going to try that shooting through a tube thing tomorrow if the weather allows. Will get back with results.
Thanks for the replies.
PS: I'm using straight wheel weight, well fluxed and dropped on to several layers of shop towels very carefully to avoid 'bending' the castings. Again; I'm getting zero leading.

[Ron60]

It's mostly lube - - -
Just came in from the range. Took my glasses off to clean them and noted that the left lense had specs all over it - none on the right. Got some magnifiers out and found that the specs were bullet lube - could even make out the red color. An asside is my friend and I took a few video clip of these things being shot single hand hold. The torque to the left is very evident!
Anyway we now know that much of what's coming back at us is the lube. I also shot with the muzzle enclosed in a box to get an idea of how much stuff is squirting out the compensator (to the sides). It's lots! And it's mostly lube and a little powder residue. Did not find any lead bits - but again there is some stuck to the inside of the slots on the compensator.
Emailed Smith $ Wesson and will wait on what they have to say before I do any modifications to the compensator.
Other than that these things are just an absolute hoot to shoot! Never had a wheel gun I like and enjoy as much as this beast. Best of all it's a plumb center shooter with the 500 grain bullets.

[smoked turkey]

Thanks for the info. Since I have experienced the same problem I will be interested in what Smith & Wesson has to say.

[Ron60]

Does anyone know how to simply remove the muzzle break / compensator? I have some ideas but this is one project I wouldn't really care to screw up. I have a lathe and do lots of traditional muzzle loading gun making but that's a whole different world. Still if I could get the thing off I think I could toy aroun with making something myself.

[Lloyd Smale]

i thought when the 500s first came out that there was an optional compensator you could buy that was specificaly made for cast bullet shooting.

[milltownhunter]

i had the same out of a 10.5 '' and not out of my 4'' i have had no problems with jacket bullets out of the 10.5''

[69daytona]

I have a 4", 6.5" and 10.5" and have never had a problem with any spitting. I use BAC white label lube on allow my cast Boolits and size them to ..501. Maybe try a softer lube.

[Bass Ackward]

Yep, missed it about the break having been identified. That's the beautiful thing about this site, you can pass right on over stuff that you know ( I wrote) to be wrong.

[pdawg_shooter]

my first 500 linebaugh was doing it and i thought it was the gun. I sent it back to John and he checked it out and said everything was fine. Ended up being an out of round star die that was making my bullets oblong.

If the spitting was at the barrel cylinder gap then out of round bullets may have been the problem. However if it is at the comp, I cannot see how the bullet could be out of round after being shoved down a round barrel with thousands of pounds of pressure behind it. If the bullet upsets in the cylinder throat and the throat is round I would guess the bullet will be round when it enters the barrel.

[bdutro]

Softer lube?