Firelapping my Bisley

[subsonic]

This will be the second revolver I have firelapped.
I learned a few things on the 686. With it, I used some mystery ball powder and had problems in two areas. First, I had more stuck boolits than I wanted. That mystery ball powder was some sort of fast shotgun powder made by winchester (St. Marks). It had problems when I tipped the muzzle down to shoot into my bucket of sand. I chose to use up some magnum primers and I think they contributed to my stuck boolit greif. I also had trouble with boolits pulling when seated into fired cases. If I seated them deep into the taper of the case wall to hold them, then the cases bulged and wouldn't fit in the chamber. I definitely learned some stuff...

I made up 6 for the .45 colt and shot them to test for sticking using the load tek4260 was using on his brass framed parts gun. 3gr of trailboss (.7 lee dipper) behind a lee 452-255rf seated nose down, flush with the case, that I cast from ACWW and did not size. Which brings me to another thing I just learned. When rolling the boolits between two plates to "charge" them with lapping compound, don't push too hard or roll for too long or you can crush the boolits. I mashed one until the crimp groove was gone! That was my "clue" that I was doing something wrong. I settled on 30 rolls back and forth between the plates, pushing down only with my fingertips, not my palms. I am not sure I'm getting enough lap compound imbedded in the boolits, but if I crush them undersized, they won't cut at all.

[WARD O]

When applying the lapping compound, I have always done at least four and sometimes six boolits at the same time. I push down hard with both hands and only do 6-10 back and forths. I think you can feel the lapping compound with your fingers to tell if you are getting enough cutting compound into the boolit.

Ward

[sixshot]

If you haven't already done it, check out Fermin Garza's post on firelapping, its over on Gunblast.Com.

Dick

[markinalpine]

If you haven't already done it, check out Fermin Garza's post on firelapping, its over on Gunblast.Com.

Dick

http://www.gunblast.com/FerminGarza-Firelapping.htm

Here's the link,

Mr. Garza posts on this board as 2 dogs


Mark :coffee:

[Iron Mike Golf]

When I did my stainless RH, I did 4-6 at a time. I did both hard rolling (leaning down as hard as I could, 2 minutes rolling) and moderate pressure (as hard as I dould using only my fingers for pressure, back and forth 5 cycles). With the lighter pressure, I made sure the lube groove was packed with compound.

I honestly could not tell (using pin gauges) any difference in cutting rate between the two methods.

[subsonic]

48 rds in with the 280 grit clover and the constriction is almost gone. The first 30 were nose down, the last 18 were nose up. The nose up loads were booting the primers out and makong the cylinder bind up. I'm switching back to nose down fore a little more pressure to re-seat the primers when the case moves back. This might not happen if I wasn't shooting down into a bucket of sand.

I'm doing 12 more with 280 and then going to check it again with a muzzleloader ball.

I keep reading to clean the bore often, like every six rds for fastest cutting, but it seems to cut faster when I don't clean.

After I get the constriction out, i'm switching to the 320 and doing a 18 to put a finer finish on things.

[Iron Mike Golf]

It's gonna keep removing metal at 320, so don't wait until it's gone before changing to 320. You might consider going to 600 when the constriction is almost almost gone.

[subsonic]

It's a stainless ruger, it's hard stuff. On my Stainless smith @ wesson it took 122 rds - 12 280 grit, the rest were LBTs stuff. Big difference in cutting rate. I'm up to 60 with 280 grit on the Bisley. I want a tapered bore anyway. Bigger at the rear than at the front. Right now a muzzleloader ball that I've driven into the bore is a tight fit at the muzzle, falls to within an inch of the frame, then has to be tapped through at the frame. I'll stop with the 280 when the slug falls almost all the way through, but stops at the frame and requires light pressure to go through. I'll stop with the 320 when the slug free-falls after being started at the muzzle.

[2 dogs]

Take a minute and stop. Clean the sixgun. Try the loads you want to shoot accurately on paper. You are very close at this point, but the most important thing is to see how well the gun shoots the loads you are trying to be successful with. In other words, how the gun shoots should be your gauge. If you get it shooting well, with NO leading, you are there. I would go to the finest grit when I started seeing the groups I want. You dont mention seeing a "star" of lube on the muzzle. Dont forget to check for that very important sign!!!

[subsonic]

Well, going against advice (I know I'm on my own here) I fired 12 more with 280 grit, for a total of 72. Then 18 with the 320. The constriction is still about the same as my last post. These Rugers are HARD!

I'm switching back to 280 for a few more.

I slugged the bore and used pin gauges and the bore is now .450" at the muzzle, .451 in the middle, and slightly tighter than .450 at the frame.