Smith & Wesson 625 45 ACP Leading

[silhouette_shooter]

About a year and a half ago I bought a new "JM" 625 revolver. Had wanted a 45 acp revolver for quite some time. Loaded some cast bullets and got all sorts of lead in the barrel. Sent gun to S&W for repair. Got gun back. Forcing cone had been opened up to the point that a 45 caliber bore brush would not make contact with it. Plus, the leading problem was still there, (that's when I noticed the bore brush wasn't making contact). Sold gun for a substantial loss. Question: Has anyone else had this problem? The good thing is that My K frame and L frame guns shoot cast bullets flawlessly. Forgot to mention I ended up getting a Ruger Bisley Convertible and after having the throats for the acp cylinder opened up by Bowen Classic Arms, I have a very accurate gun.

[OBXPilgrim]

Yes. I think it's due to long boolit jump, free-bore, length of cylinder vs length of cartridge, whatever you want to call it. Found some fired boolits that showed very wide rifling marks - much wider than the rifling in the barrel. The boolits were skidding in the shallow rifling, or so I found out after talking to some folks here.

Fix was to cast harder boolits and all the leading stopped. And, make sure you are above groove diameter

[35remington]

I would also suggest a proper lubricant of soft consistency and good reputation. While bullet fit is the most important factor IMO, I find a good lube more important than it usually is in this application. The 625 series tend to have correctly sized cylinder throats that run on the near perfect to usually not excessively tight side...like the .4515” vicinity to no more than .452.” Of course measurement is the only way to know. Ensure your cast runs no more than .452.”

Lighter weight target type SWC’s of long bearing surface like the discontinued Lee 190 and H and G 130/Lyman 452488 show substantially less skidding and may shoot cleaner, probably due to more surface contact to grip proportional to weight and less inertia to override rifling. Any bullet meeting these criteria is the pick for high volume shooting for savings in lead, reduced leading over long strings of fire, and accuracy.

The long jump to barrel of the stubby cartridge may result in a higher velocity at rifling engagement than some other cartridges that run at similar pressure at longer overall lengths. Combine this with the potential to use substantially heavier bullets along with shallow rifling and some skidding tendency does exist. If it is found to be a problem in some way it still should be addressable with judicious loading.

[Plate plinker]

Bummer you should have changed your boolits diameter or hardness. The 625 is fun to shoot.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

I've got a pair of 625 Mountain Guns I bought around 2005 and haven't experienced any problems with leading. I think Plate plinker is correct.

[Dale53]

I had a 625-6 with 5” barrel (recently gifted it to my youngest son), and shoot my 625-8 JM Special with 4” barrel. I have shot both THOUSANDS of times with my home cast bullets. Either of them will shoot under an inch at 25 yards off a rest. Really, two of my most satisfying revolvers, EVER!

My most shot load is a Mihec version of the H&G #68, cast of WW’s+2% tin, sized at .452” ahead of 4.0 grs. Of Bullseye or equivalent. I have also driven that bullet at 1000 fps. with out issue. The Lee 230 gr. TC with normal lube groove is my speed loading bullet with moonclips at full charge. My heavy bullet is an NOE version of the Lyman 452424 (250 gr. Keith). I use White Label Carnauba Red as my lube. No leading with any of the described loads, NONE!

I have friends with the 625-8 and their experience mirrors mine.

FWIW,
Dale53

[JSH]

My 625JM was also some what of a disappointment. I won't go into to details. I am pretty sure Dale helped me through some my issues.
It has taken me a fair bit of time and expanding my vocabulary some what to get it to shoot as I expected it too.
I had thought the PC gun should have been more in line because of the shorter cylinder and not having so much excess travel in the cylinder. I think maybe Fermin had a PC that never did shoot as it should have?
I have mine shooting fair, I am not 100 percent happy with it still. But darn it, it is a favorite gun but some what of a love hate relationship. I did change the grips which seems to have helped. I will know more after this summer.
Jeff

[Plate plinker]

I like the 625 for practicing discipline. Six shots six plates have to make them count. My shooting really improves when I do more sessions with that gun.

[jmsj]

A friend of mine got a 625JM to shoot revolver class in Bullseye. He brought to me to checkout because it was leading so badly (he shoots H&G 68's). He said when the barrel is clean he could 9's and 10's with it but once it started to lead it just fell apart. I asked him how many rounds did it take for the groups to go bad and he said less than 200 rounds. Then he was faced with getting all the lead out and it was taking longer and more work than he wanted.
The forcing cone looked like it was cut with a horseshoeing rasp and the cylinder throats were undersized for cast. I checked them and they were a uniform .450". I told him to send it back to Smith & Wesson but he said he would just shoot something else.
I told him the only way to help it out was to ream the cylinder throats out to .4525" and to recut/polish out the forcing cone. I had the reamer for the throats but at the time I didn't have the frame wrench to remove the barrel to work on the forcing cone. A little time goes by and he shows up w/ a S&W 625 model of 1988 (I think) and it was a lot better in all aspects.