Lipseys Ruger Convertible

[GSaltzman]

Measuring the cylinder throats on both the 45 colt and 45 acp revealed tight throats. The acp measured .450 on all holes. The 45 colt has 4 at .450 and 2 at .451. I have not slugged the barrel yet. Will opening both cylinders to .4525 be the way to go? Figure shooting as is Will only lead the barrel as cast is what I intend to shoot. This one is a 5.5" stainless.

[stephenj]

Slug the barrel see what it is .
Then shoot it .... it may or may not suprise you
Dont fix something you arent sure is broke .

[oscarflytyer]

I just shot mine. No pro so far!

[GSaltzman]

I usually shoot first always. Just did not expect such tight throats. Will slug tomorrow.

[DougGuy]

If you shoot cast, can figure on reaming a half thou over boolit diameter. Most are happy with cylinder throats @ .4525" for .452" boolits in both cylinders. Barrel diameter will be smaller than .452, Rugers have been very consistent on .451" barrels, and you can check if you have a thread constriction where the barrel threads into the frame with a cleaning jag.

With a clean barrel, patch a plastic or brass cleaning jag tightly into the bore, push it down the bore and if it gets hard to push where the barrel meets the frame, you might have a constriction. If it is very difficult to push through this area after going down the bore, the constriction is severe and if this is the case, it won't matter what your cylinder throats are sized to, the constriction is going to swage all your boolits down to smaller than bore diameter, which will pretty much guarantee poor groups and leading in the bore. Using the jag like this is a pretty good way to "feel" the bore, it works good enough that you can feel the lumps on the inside of the bore behind the roll marked warning stamped into the outside of the barrel. What you would want, is to be able to push the jag down the bore and out the forcing cone with no change in the tension required to keep it moving, if it will do this, it will shoot good once cylinder throats are "dimensionally corrected" and you develop some good loads. If you don't have access to the reamer, or find them too expensive to purchase, I have one.

[C. Latch]

My .45 was similar, I sent it to cylindersmith.com to ream them to .4525 before ever firing a shot. I don't regret that and would do it again.

[PS Paul]

I have that same gun and had the same issues. It shot pretty good out of the box with my cast boolits sized .452, but I could not fit boolits over 270 gr or so in the colt cylinder.
I reamed the cylinder to .452 and the result with a 452389 over 20 gr 4227 at 50' is my avatar.

Before I reamed the throats, accuracy was still pretty good with little to no leading, just mo' betta now, that's all.
I would definitely shoot it a bit first before presuming you have a problem though.

[robertbank]

Tight cylinder throats and Rugers go hand in hand. My Lypsey was no different than others reported here. I reamed them out to .452 and have never looked back. I get some leading in the first eith inch of the rifling due I think ti barrel constriction. I am living with it now but may fire lap in the future to clean it up.

Take Care

Bob

[Vulcan Bob]

I also have the Lipseys flat top convertible in .45 Colt/ACP. I do not have a gauge pin set yet but dropping a .452" cast boolit into both cylinders charge holes they do seem to be a bit tight. However it shoots just fine in both calibers with cast .452" boolits with no leading in cylinders or bore. For the moment I'm just going to just enjoy it as is. I suppose one of these days just fer grins I'm going to see how it shoots with jacketed bullets.

[Whiterabbit]

My .45 was similar, I sent it to cylindersmith.com to ream them to .4525 before ever firing a shot. I don't regret that and would do it again.

This guy doesn't have a website, does he? Does it open up cylinders too? ream to change timing? etc? or does he just have a large collection of piloted reamers, only works with cylinders outside the gun, and do fine work?

[rintinglen]

Shoot first, ask questions later.
Before assuming a problem, try the gun out. Run a couple of boxes of shells down the barrel before you start spending time and money fixing what ain't broke.

[Char-Gar]

I have one of the Lipsey's 45 Flatop 45 Colt/45 ACP and know about a half dozen more folks who have them. Mine and all others have .452 cylinder throats in both cylinders. The charge holes/chambers are reamed to minimum dimensions making these very accurate sixguns, the best I have ever seen from Ruger.

It is not my intention to be critical of how folks measure such things, but I would suspect throat measurements of .450 to be incorrect. Lipsey's really held Ruger's feet to the fire on this run of handguns and they have proven to be remarkably uniform in specs. Folks tend to think these are like other Ruger's in 45 Colt with tight cylinder throats and hog wallow chambers, but this is not the case. The Lipsey's 45 FTs are a different breed of cat altogether.

I measure cylinder throats with a Starrett adjustable machinist hole gauge and a good Starrett micrometer. Calipers even of high quality don't give good measurement on the inside diameter of holes. Pin gauges are all the rage now, after Brian Pierce said that was the way to go, but these are not always the best way to go either. To add to the problem it doesn't take much oil, grease, power fouling or lead in the throats to throw the measurements off also.

Throw in a little micro-burr on the front edge of the cylinder charge hole and pin gages are worthless. Micro-burrs on these edges are quite common. If you insert an adjustable hole gauge into the cylinder from the front, expand it to a friction it and remove it you will feel these burrs very easily as the gauge exits the cylinder. If you contract the gauge to be a friction fit at the chamber mouth (front) they will just wallow around the throat proper. Insert the adjustable into the rear of the charge hole, expand it to a friction fit, withdraw and measure and you will get the true diameter of the charge hole minus the micro burrs at the front end. Bottom line is pin gages inserted into the front often encounter micro-burrs which prevent the correct in gauge from entering.

I have been measuring these cylinder throats for many years and have found a slight constriction at the front end of the cylinder throats cause by these tiny burrs to be common. They will come off after the handgun is shot a number of times. How many shots this require varies from bullet to bullet and cylinder to cylinder. If the number I get from measuring through the rear of the cylinder is larger than the number I get measuring from the front, I discount the smaller number and go shooting, knowing those little burrs will go by-by in due time.

I would encourage the OP to shoot the sixgun before he does anything else. It is most likely the cylinder throats are larger than he stated measurements. There are lots of cylinder reaming taking place that was not necessary to begin with due to these micro-burrs. You can't see the little boogers, but can measure them with the right precision tools. I suppose a fellow could lap these little guys out, but shooting is far more fun.

Here is a pic of my Lipsey's Flatop, the best sixgun in 45 Colt I have ever owned. I added some mesquite grips and a Super Blackhawk hammer to make it easier to cock with my arthritic thumb.

[DougGuy]

This guy doesn't have a website, does he? Does it open up cylinders too? ream to change timing? etc? or does he just have a large collection of piloted reamers, only works with cylinders outside the gun, and do fine work?

I think he just has a collection of reamers, and only does cylinders outside of the gun, but he is getting out of doing cylinders from what I have heard, he may have already retired. He was only taking on .45 cylinders.

I have the reamers and hones necessary for .44 and .45 cylinders and take them on as requested. I an not a vendor on this site so I cannot officially "advertise" but if you shoot me a PM....

I also have the forcing cone cutters for .44 and .45 caliber, and a Taylor Throating reamer for .45 caliber... For those pistols with a severe thread constriction wanting relief without a trip back to Ruger, this is about the only way to fix one that is too constricted to fire lap.