Getting every thing ready to start shooting my 25-5 45 Colt. The cylinder throats measures 0.4565 with pin gauges and the barrel measures 0.4525 . I ordered a mold from Tom at accurate arms to drop @ 0.457 what do you guys recommend. Have I gone to big? I have never had this big of difference in throats and barrel. I have always had it in reverse
Kirb
I probably would have told him .001 smaller because he often makes them a bit oversize but none undersized (that is on his website too, not just me saying it). Now you need to get Buckshot busy making you a .456 or .457" lubrisizer die, then you might be ahead finding a set of steel loading dies. You will have to lube your cases but you can back the die out a bit and not overwork your cases. Carbide dies will size them full length small enough for .452" bullets which may lead to short brass life and will definitely lead to building arm muscles when you reload.
Your big bullet will do fine in your .4525" barrel.
Rule 303
Many years back when they first released the 25-5's I bought a 4" blued gun. I was SO excited. A .45 Colt four inch! Exactly what I had wanted for so many years.
Mine shot so poorly I gave up on it. I do recall a .455" lead slug EASILY made it through the cyl throats. Yet the barrel was .451 to .452 as best I could slug it.
Sold it to a guy who later found a M-57 or M-27 cylinder....sent it off to a Smith in Westrn MT who bored the cylinder out, TO PROPER DIMENSIONS , fitted it, etc. The gun was an absolute LASER with cast slugs.
HOW in the world the S&W Engineers could have let those guns get out that way!
Kirb...best of luck with yours.
FN in MT
man I don't know that is pretty darn big .oo5 over
not even Tom in his greatness can fix a problem like that
not sure I would even order a mold for it
Hit em'hard
hit em'often
Yup, mine too, .457 throats and a .452 bore.
I purchased the gun while on duty at Ft Sill, OK, and was casting my boolits expediently behind the BOQ, but didn't have a sizer, so I loaded as cast and they shot pretty well. When I got back home, I ran the boolits through a .452 lubrisizer, and they didn't shoot well at all. I didn't know what the problem was back then.
Years later, when I measured the thoats, I understood. I would have thought Smith would have cut these closer to the bore diameter. Maybe they were still using tooling from when .45LC was .454.
Originally Posted by kirb
With a good lube your bullet at.457 will be accurate. You will be pleased
You should be OK with .457 bullets. Smith and Wesson really blew it with the oversize cylinder thoats. I think they just copied the gargantuan Colt SA specs, that were designed for a soft HB bullet and black powder.
The Colt New Service in 45 Colt, kept the .452 throats of the 1917 and would shoot rings around their single action cousins.
When these pistols were made, we could not get custom molds large enough to fit those throats, so they were pretty sorry shooters.
When the 25-7 came along, Smith had broken the code and dropped the cylinder throats to .453. Those pistols shoot like a house-a-fire.
Disclaimer: The above is not holy writ. It is just my opinion based on my experience and knowledge. Your mileage may vary.
I was lucky, my 25-5 has .4545" throats. I had BuckShot make me a .455" sizing die, and life is good.
Don
Mine has .455 throats and I shoot a .456 down a .451 bore. Your's should work fine.
Cat
Cogito, ergo armatum sum.
(I think, therefore I'm armed.)
I don't know the internal dimensions of a sized 45 Colt case but a boolit .457" seems to me it would be a bit large to seat without some visible signs of the base showing outside the case.
NRA Patron Member
Kids Are For People That Can't Have Dogs
Thats called excellent neck tension
I must have lucked out. I have a 25-6 625 Mountain Gun in .45 Colt and a .452 sized Lee 300 grain RNFP will not drop through the cylinder. I also have the same model in .45 ACP and the fit is just as tight (no, I'm not shooting the 300 grainers through the ACP, just the 255s). I must have been doubly blessed. GF
My Paradox revolver shots a .454 260 grain SWC down a .429 barrel, so .457 to .452 is no problem.
Toby
I've never heard of a "Paradox" revolver. H&H use to make shotguns with that name but I have to admit I've never seen a revolver as such...care to post a pic?
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Kids Are For People That Can't Have Dogs
It started life as a Ruger 44 Mag. I removed the barrel and had it back bored to .452. This process left about .75" of rifling in the front of the barrel with about a 1" long tapered section up to .452. I then linebored the cylinder and opened up the cylinder to .480 straight through. I use 460 S&W brass cut to be flush with the end of the cylinder. shot loads are loaded like brass shotgun shells and bullet loads are loaded like slugs with the bullet being completely in the case. The .429 section of barrel acts like a choke tube for the shot. and still stabilizes the bullets.
Here are some pics of the building process.
Toby
Thanks for the information guys will get in the shop to day and make a sizer die. give it a whirl it will be fun trying
Kirb
Wow-That was some project...something I wouldn't have undertaken. I think I would have just bought a 480 Ruger.
NRA Patron Member
Kids Are For People That Can't Have Dogs
By the time your -6 came out...the offending S&W engineers had been sent to the Russian Front...and new ones were in their place. Those guys saw that all the .45 Colt from then on...were RIGHT.
I've got a 25-7 thats Freedom Arms accurate. Same for my 625 Lt Wt Hunter PC gun.
FN in MT
It seems that the 25-5 was the model when S n W got it right. The early models with the pinned barrels still had the over sized throats.
The ones made without the pinned barrels are usually correct, where a .452 sized projectile will just push thru the cylinder.
I have a non pinned barrel 25-5 and it shoots like gang busters.
Last edited by nascarkent; 08-20-2011 at 08:05 PM.
Mine has the pinned barrel hope I can get it to shoot.
Kirb
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