Fire Lapping a 22

[B R Shooter]

Can a 22 rimfire firelap a barrel? I have a Ruger Single Six that while cleaning it, the forcing cone sure feels tighter than the rest of the barrel. I have a NECO kit from long ago, so I have the compounds.

[DougGuy]

If it's blued you may stand a chance at it. If it's stainless whole nother animal, takes 6x the work as blued.

[Bent Ramrod]

Yes. Simply dip the bullets in the lapping compound so the nose and bearing surface is lightly covered. In this case, rolling the compound in between steel plates is impractical.

Clean after every cylinderful (or partial one, if you only want to bring some cylinder throats up to the same size as the others), watch for leading around the tight spot in the forcing cone, and check by shooting your regular ammo every 20-30 lapping shots or so. I'd shoot 12 or 18 shots of regular ammo in three groups since the first group will be affected by the abrasive that remains in the bore, even after cleaning. The first five or so regular rounds will heat up the barrel like the fire lap rounds, and then the temperature will go back to normal with the rest of them, indicating that the abrasive has been swept out.

Make sure the abrasive is absolutely out of every crevice (cylinder pin, bushing, recoil plate, ejector; it will get everywhere) and the barrel and throats are absolutely free of lead before the next series of lapping shots.

The only revolver I ever did was a .44-40 EMF 1890 replica, to get the cylinder throats all the same size, but it worked well. I have done .22 rim fire rifles, and it helped there, too.

[B R Shooter]

So why wouldn't you embed the compound in the bullet?

[Mk42gunner]

Hard to do without getting anything on the case.

When fire lapping was the rage about fifteen years ago, I remember reading a tutorial of how to do .22's; but I don't remember where I read it, one of the lapping supply companies I think.

Anyway, it said to just dip the tip of the bullet in the grit, it would flow back to where it needed to be.

I have never fire lapped a barrel, but have read a good bit about it.

Robert