improvements to my Ruger

[greywuuf]

Not sure if this should go here or in the gunsmith section, but I am going to start here.

got around to measureing my "old" model Ruger Vaquero in 45 colt. As expected it has very large chambers and very tight throats and a very steep forcing cone. the throats are tight enough that I have to be very careful about brass trim length and bullet seating depth to even use my Veral Smith LBT 300 grain WFN bullets in it.

I know I want to go about "reaming" the cylinder throats but I am curious how others have gone about it? Measured with a Dial Caliper there are mostly .450 with one or two .451 the other end of the chamber measures about .480 that will be adressed with reloading tecnique and some cut down 45-70 dies

So those of you that have reamed cylinder throats... "how" are we talking piloted reamers, straight reamers and carefull set up in a lathe or mill, Line honing ? also for an 11 degree forcing cone I assume a pull through piloted ream ? I know dave manson has a revolver tuneup set of cutters.. but I only have the one ( and I am doing it myself, please no metions of sending it to who ever) So i dont think I want to invest in that much tooling, looking for accurate set up methods using either a vertical mill or a lathe or common pilot methods using standard reamers.

Thanks
Dan

[white eagle]

I opened up my cylinder throats with
a reamer and a drill press don't need to be all that fancy
just very careful
once you have it set up its a breeze
my reamer was a step reamer so it was sort of
like a piloted reamer
never done a forcing cone

[greywuuf]

Thank you! That is indeed good news. I may have to cruise through some catalogs tonight and see if I can find a suitable cutting implement.

Sent from my Inspire 4G using Tapatalk

[x101airborne]

For the forcing cone, contact Brownells BY PHONE!! They make a forcing cone cutter that has helped me on EVERY revolver I have used it on. Mine is so old that it has a gunsmith only number on it. I used it on a buddy's model 19 and took it from a 1 inch at 25 yards to one ragged hole at 25 for the same load. When you try to look it up over the internet, they call it something different and it can make you pull out your hair looking for it. Be sure to get the "kit" with the depth gauge, reamer, and brass polishing lap. You will need them to make it work.

[greywuuf]

Thank you for the heads up, I spent some time on the web site last night and yeah it was not easy to find, but I think I got it all.

Sent from my Inspire 4G using Tapatalk

[greywuuf]

White Eagle, any idea how much I should open the cylinders up? the one 'purpose built" reamer i located is only .452... seems a little tight if you intend to run cast bullets, hmm then again I dont recall the slugged bore diameter , guess I should check that too......

Thanks
Dan

[rkrcpa]

Go here and all of your questions will be answered:

http://www.cylindersmith.com/

[MtGun44]

A warning. Measuring throats with a caliper will almost certainly give you smaller than correct
dimension. Also, calipers are accurate to +/-.001 and you need better accuracy for this kind
of measurement. You should use gage pins to measure the throats or dismount the
cyl and drive soft slugs through the throats and measure with a .0001" reading micrometer.

This is pretty precise work and 'kinda sorta' measuring can get you into trouble. Now, for all
I know you are a tool and die maker with 40 yrs of measuring experience and really have
done a proper job measuring. If so - ignore. But if not, think carefully about doing mods
without really accurate measurement of what you have. You don't want to regret it after
the metal is gone.

Bill

[greywuuf]

Point taken,
much easier to cut twice than to replace once.

I think what I am going to do is :

Start a fresh round of testing, Like it is a brand new gun. develop a load shoot it off a bag and record all my results. play with sizing of bullets and two bullet molds.

once I have done that, i will know more what bullet/loads I like and then i will make some "corrections" most likely throats first, then on to forcing cone ( if it seems like and issue) THEN another round of testing, and this time i will correct the front Sight. ( silly Vaquero grooved top strap fixed front) then after I am happy with that, i will extend the range and mark the front site for hold over... when it is right I am going to inlay some brass.....

At that point it will either be worn out or broke in and I can go about trying to wear it out on hunting/fishing/trapping trips and can move on to one of the myriad of other projects I have.

thank you all for the help !

[Silverboolit]

I did my rather tight ,.450 throated .45 Blackhawk with a split dowel and sandpaper. Started out with 320 and finished up with 600.
Take it easy and measure often. They mike right at .4525 after and the old Blackhawk is as accutate as ever.

[Dale53]

In my humble opinion, the only way to properly open up the cylinder throats is with a piloted reamer. Brownell's makes a kit with several pilots of differing diameters. You can easily screw up the cylinder with make shift efforts.

With the proper tools, it is a relatively easy process. I have done several with excellent results.

FWIW
Dale53

[tek4260]

In my humble opinion, the only way to properly open up the cylinder throats is with a piloted reamer. Brownell's makes a kit with several pilots of differing diameters. You can easily screw up the cylinder with make shift efforts.

With the proper tools, it is a relatively easy process. I have done several with excellent results.

FWIW
Dale53


perzactly