Uh oh..........

[boomboy]

So last night I was slugging the cyl. on my old flattop in preperation for working up some mid range loads and discovered a horrable thing.
One of the throats is egg shaped.
I have never put any hot loads through it, just factory and some light cast reloads.
Looked around and found new cyl. at brownells, and have some machining skills along with a good friend who is a wiz with a mill, but I have never attempted any thing like this.
Any one got any advise/ done this?

[9.3X62AL]

So last night I was slugging the cyl. on my old flattop in preperation for working up some mid range loads and discovered a horrable thing.
One of the throats is egg shaped.
I have never put any hot loads through it, just factory and some light cast reloads.
Looked around and found new cyl. at brownells, and have some machining skills along with a good friend who is a wiz with a mill, but I have never attempted any thing like this.
Any one got any advise/ done this?

My thoughts......if it's a non-transfer bar action, put a red plastic snap cap in the hole with the eggy throat and leave it there. Call it the Built-In Safety Carry System. You've not yet lost a thing in terms of safe, useful service as-is--or lost money on basically needless repairs.

[Dale53]

Al;
Now THAT sounds extremely practical. As usual, excellent advice.

Dale53

[boomboy]

Thats probably what will happen Cuz i don't want to spend the 300 bucks foe a new cyl and the tooling. Might be a project for a later time.

I am a little worried about the strength of the two adjoining chambers.

[MT Gianni]

Just to confirm, the large end of the egg is how much larger than the bore? If it is an oval .357x.359 you could try to ream the entire throat to .359. If it is .357x.363 Al has the best solution.

[boomboy]

Well it's a 44mag but the egg part measures .445 towards the out side. with a dial caliper, I know not the most accurate, and .440 the other way. othe throats measure .435 with the same calipers.

[boomboy]

Bore is .429 as slugged.
and the throats are .432 as slugged,
The egg throat measures the same and round but I slugged from the front(egged side)
I just did it.
This leads me to belive the throat is only egged at the end.
does this make sence, and why would this be the case?

[missionary5155]

Good morning
Any possibility someone already tried to ream the throats ? Sounds like an unsupported reamer starting the journey down the cylinder throat .

[leftiye]

Ruger precision?

[Charlie Two Tracks]

I would call Ruger and see what they have to say. I had a revolver that they replaced the crane, cylinder and barrel and the cost was just the shipping.

[Bret4207]

Uh, how does it shoot? I mean, no offense, but aren't you getting the cart before the horse? That hole may open your groups badly or it may just turn a 2" group at 50 yards into a 2 1/4" group. You won't know until you put some trigger time in. Stranger things have happened, believe me. I own a couple guns that shouldn't shoot for beans that do very, very well. Try it before making any decisions.

[btroj]

Bret is right. Who cares what they measure if it shoots. Not me.
Try it and see what it will do. You might find it works just fine for your purposes. I think we sometimes get too hung up on having everything just so and don't stop to realize that less than perfect can still be extremely functional.

[boomboy]

Morning.
It shoots pretty well, I have about a hundred rounds through it. What I am worried about is the strength of the cyl wall.
If it was an over pressure I would think that the steel would be significantly weakened.

Charlie, I dont really want to send it back to ruger because They will install a transfer bar and stamp the frame with a "R" to show the work was done. I will call them however and check on a new cyl. Maybe they have one already chambered.

[tek4260]

Measure your cylinder and place a WTB ad over on rugerforum.com. Someone will have one for sale I bet.

[Mk42gunner]

Since it shoots okay, and you don't want to get the tranfer bar modification done; I would do as Al suggested. The cheap way would be to mark it with paint so you don't load it.

If you send it back to Ruger for a cylinder replacement they will do the mod, and you can't really blame them.

On the other hand, if you are worried about the safety of the cylinder, send it in to get fixed; an unmodified gun is not worth a Kaboom.

Robert

[tek4260]

If they fix it, you will lose the recessed case heads too :(

[Dan Cash]

If the outer dimention of the cylinder is not increased over the egg shaped chamber throat, the faulty throat is most probably due to crummy machining. If there is no bulge of the cylinder, I would shoot it and fergeddaboudit or sell it.

[geargnasher]

Ruger precision?

Probably so.

Great guns except they drop the ball right before the goal line by not ensuring that their cylinders are consistent and accurately machined or that they don't ruin the barrels with thread choke, front sight choke, or from the encyclopedea they roll-engrave into the side of the barrel.

Gear

[exile]

Not to be the nay-sayer in the group, but if I had an old flattop that I was unsure about, I would spend the money for a new .44 to shoot and retire the old one. Man I love those flattops!

exile

[boomboy]

exile, I agree the flattop is awsome. But this gun has no sentimental value and I don't need another safe queen........wana buy a flattop?.....:kidding:

I called ruger and they said that I would have to send the gun in to see if they would even fit a new cyl. Also they would Install the transfer bar and stamp the frame, to show the work was done. Not an option.

[klcarroll]

.......It shoots pretty well, I have about a hundred rounds through it. What I am worried about is the strength of the cyl wall.......


Your .445" Dim is really only .005" per side larger than your nominal .435" dimension. Unless there is some other related damage, that loss of wall thickness simply isn't enough to compromise safety. (Measure the web thickness between that hole and the adjacent chamber, .....and you will see that you still have a greater wall thickness than many other brands of .44!)

I think that your only issue here is the question as to whether or not this eccentricity has an effect on accuracy.

Kent

[MT Gianni]

Mark the cylinder with a mark you can erase and shoot a 5 shot grop from each cylinder. Tat is a quick way to check accuracy.

[leftiye]

Search Ruger cylinders on gunbroker. Or call gun parts corp (Numrich) West Hurley N.Y..