Radarsonwheels
12-23-2015, 01:28 AM
I recently got my hands on a beautiful mold that uses most of the S&W 500 X-frame cylinder's length. I cast some up, loaded testers, and the dang boolits won't let me chamber the cartridges.
I size at .500 and never had a problem before. I also never tried to load such a long boolit before! So I eventually slugged my barrel and throats.
My barrel was easy to measure with 6 grooves that come in at .498"
My throats are all just under .500" more like .4995"
This explains both why my x-frames are accurate and don't lead since the throats are hardly doing any sizing and why the .500" boolits aren't chambering.
I'd love to size at .499 to avoid whittling on $1000+ revolvers but I think a little polishing of the throats would get me where I need to be- just enough to push a .500" jacketed sierra bullet through with a finger. Right now they need a little tap tap with a dowel but not hard smacks.
What's the consensus here? Any thoughts? I have a 4" 500 that I'm not afraid to put to the knife in the garage and a 10.5 performance center that makes me a little nervous messing with it.
Radar
I size at .500 and never had a problem before. I also never tried to load such a long boolit before! So I eventually slugged my barrel and throats.
My barrel was easy to measure with 6 grooves that come in at .498"
My throats are all just under .500" more like .4995"
This explains both why my x-frames are accurate and don't lead since the throats are hardly doing any sizing and why the .500" boolits aren't chambering.
I'd love to size at .499 to avoid whittling on $1000+ revolvers but I think a little polishing of the throats would get me where I need to be- just enough to push a .500" jacketed sierra bullet through with a finger. Right now they need a little tap tap with a dowel but not hard smacks.
What's the consensus here? Any thoughts? I have a 4" 500 that I'm not afraid to put to the knife in the garage and a 10.5 performance center that makes me a little nervous messing with it.
Radar