500 S&W tight cylinder throat

[molar]

I cast some bullets, coated them, and sized them to .501".

The avg. cylinder throat in my revolver measures .498". This can't be good for a lead load.

Looks like it will size the bullet down further, resulting in leading and poor accuracy. Those issues aside, is it safe to fire .501" boolits through it? Will it dramatically raise chamber pressures?

[DougGuy]

If you are at max loadings, and use a fairly hard boolit, you could see pressure increases in excess of 5000psi. A difference of .003" is a LOT for a hard alloy to squeeze down. The softer the alloy, obviously the lesser resistance, and the lesser rise in pressure.

I -do- have a mandrel for the Sunnen hone that would take care of your cylinder and size the throats half thousandth greater than your chosen boolit diameter.

[molar]

I'm using 18 brinnell alloy, so fairly hard.

The loads are reduced loads though, using Accurate 5744. I will stay 8-10 grains below max or more.

The guy I got it from only shot factory Hornady 350 gr XTP loads through it and they are hot. I have the fired brass and don't see any indication of excessive pressure. Looks like it would be much more difficult to size a copper jacketed bullet down a couple thousandths than it would a lead bullet.

[lawdog941]

If you are at max loadings, and use a fairly hard boolit, you could see pressure increases in excess of 5000psi. A difference of .003" is a LOT for a hard alloy to squeeze down. The softer the alloy, obviously the lesser resistance, and the lesser rise in pressure.

I -do- have a mandrel for the Sunnen hone that would take care of your cylinder and size the throats half thousandth greater than your chosen boolit diameter.

I'd go with DougGuy. He is top notch with revolver cylinder and throat jobs, no pun intended! If he can't fix it, I doubt not too many people could.

[tygar]

Mines even worse .492-.493. L&G .494/.498

Called S&W & pitched a fit. That could wind up hurting me.

They sent me a shipping label to send it back. Try that first (if you trust them).

Now I really like S&W revolvers (old ones primarily), but I have had 2 500s, & a 460, 2 custom shop guns & have had to send 2 out of 3 back for fixing.

Somethings up with the X frames that I have bought & it isn't quality.

[DougGuy]

I'm using 18 brinnell alloy, so fairly hard.

The loads are reduced loads though, using Accurate 5744. I will stay 8-10 grains below max or more.

The guy I got it from only shot factory Hornady 350 gr XTP loads through it and they are hot. I have the fired brass and don't see any indication of excessive pressure. Looks like it would be much more difficult to size a copper jacketed bullet down a couple thousandths than it would a lead bullet.

Good, good.. Actually the j-words are the easiest to swage down, the jacket has virtually zero strength on it's own and the core is (usually) swaged soft lead. Those will swage down and go through a thread choke and are soft enough to bump back up and seal in the bore again with Ruger Only loads in .45 Colt, which is capped at 30,000psi, but your 500 is capped at double that pressure, 60kpsi..

[ole 5 hole group]

My JR model came with those same sized throats - not a problem shooting 0.501/0.502 cast bullets.

I had the throats opened mainly for peace of mind thinking accuracy would increase - I doubt it made much of a difference.

My cylinder gap was real tight and that's suppose to assist in velocity and accuracy - well, the carbon build-up messed with the cylinder rotation and at times stopped it from fully rotating - sent it back to S&W and they opened the gap, unevenly, which didn't sit very well with me - sent it back again and it returned with even a slightly larger, uneven cylinder gap. I decided to just leave it be, as it shoots just fine inspite of S&W's best efforts.

[44man]

I would get Doug to fix it and would sure want to know groove size in any case too.
Very-very highly over priced gun with the same old internals. Seen them unlock, spin the cylinder backwards and double if the first chamber had a round in it. Too much recoil for the springs.
That said my friend has one that I did not measure and we shoot my .501" boolit decent. Some day I will see what it measures. My 440 gr is 20-22 BHN.
The gun is VERY strong and I can fix the unlocking. Even some 29's had the problem and to go to a .500 without fixing it is strange.

[243winxb]

Were pin gauges used to measure the cylinder throats?

[Art in Colorado]

I am afraid that S&W has lost its way with revolvers. Took a chance with a new 629 and was not very happy versus the older models. Those new models with I believe are are called EDM rifled barrels are awful. They are too involved with their plastic semi autos. What a shame for such an iconic company to go down this road.

[Radarsonwheels]

I have the 4" and the funky looking performance center 10" model 500s. They both have tight throats and they both shoot jacketed and .500" sized handcast really well. I contacted dougguy last year about throating them for me and he was waiting on mandrils or something at the time? I have a bunch of molds and my 385 miha penta hollow shoots pie plate size groups offhand from 100 yards over 10g of trailboss! I have a hollow pointed kieth bullet mold that looks amazing and shoots terrible over the same charge. Maybe I gotta spin it up much harder. I shoot specials and full power out of both guns.

I also have a 600 grain hollow point that sticks way out of the case and that was what made me notice the tight throats at first- after sizing to .500" they still wouldn't chamber! It turns out that even the .500" was getting squeezed in the throats, but at least had a little jump into them.

Dougguy I'll have to get back to you soon!

radar

[DougGuy]

I am tooled up for the 500 now and can take care of the issue.

[mozeppa]

doug did 11 cylinders for me......worth it.[smilie=w:

[Radarsonwheels]

haha just PMd you Dougguy then came back and found these posts