Forcing cone reamer rental.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

Should arrive today for my Flat Top Bisley .44 special. I plan to use it very judiciously to remove some thread crush. Going to use a marker to color the opening so I don't enlarge that. I imagine it won't take much. Going to have to use regular oil since I don't have any cutting oil. Wish me luck!!!

[DougGuy]

Have you watched the video of this? A couple of things.. There is a brass pilot to go in the bore right ahead of the cutter, and a cone that centers the rod at the muzzle, this holds the cutter concentric with the bore and is very important to keep the cone snug to the muzzle.

Regular oil is ehh ok I guess, sewing machine oil would be better.

When you start, it will feel like you are ripping the barrel out of the frame, then it will smooth out. Once it smooths out, then you can look and see what it's doing. You want the new cut to go to the top of the lands. It's best not to make it any bigger at the fire ring (the face of the barrel) but a tad bit bigger won't really hurt anything.

I don't use the lapping compound as all this does is embed into the brass lap and start cutting grooves, I use a piece of worn out fine Scotchbrite, cut a 1" x 3/4" piece and put a hole in the center, put this on the rod and tighten the lap to it, push it all into the new forcing cone and twist it a time or two, won't take much at all.

Edit: Recutting the forcing cone is likely not to have any effect at all on thread crush, since the cutter will barely reach to the rear of the frame before it's time to stop. Thread crush is farther forward than the forcing cone. Also if you have thread crush and it won't allow the pilot bushing to go all the way down to the cutter, STOP! You will need to order a pilot bushing from Manson that will fit in the bore where the crush is. It is critical that the pilot bushing be snug in the bore, and directly at the nose of the cutter.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

Thanks Doug. I had a feeling there was more to it than I thought. If the restriction is ahead of the forcing cone a forcing cone reamer is not going to fix it. Back in the day when we were building FALs from parts kits we learned early on that the key to a good build was getting the hand timing of the barrel right. That way it didn't take excessive force to get the front sight to top dead center. This thread crush restriction is not a minor problem.

[DougGuy]

No it is not a minor problem and Ruger stainless is some TOUGH stuff, you will be firelapping forever if the choke is very much. Hint... I betcha if you somehow drop the gun while in the woods and it just somehow happens to get the front sight broken off, Ruger will likely put another barrel on it for you, they won't solder a front sight on. You can ASK them to please make sure there is no thread choke. This is about as sure fire to get rid of the choke as you can get.