Tight throats on a 629-5

[Cosmic_Charlie]

A good friend lent me his 4" 629 to shoot for the winter while he is down South. Throats won't take a .430" boolit which is the smallest sizer I have in .44. Smith seems to make their throats close to groove diameter which is not a bad thing. I have two .357's that I size to .357" for and they shoot great. And a smaller boolit is easier to seat. I ordered a .429" lube sizer die, probably should have slugged the barrel first. Gun shoots .430" without trouble but I don't like boolits larger than the throats.

[gunther]

S&W 38 throats have been .357-8 since at least the 1970's. Their 44 throats have been reduced from .433-4 to what you have about the 629-4 or 629-5. A lot of 25's have .454-5 throats. The 45 throats were reduced to .452 with the 625 1988 model.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

TY for that info.

[Shuz]

My 629-3's have .4285 throats

[Cosmic_Charlie]

My 629-3's have .4285 throats

What is the groove?

[Cosmic_Charlie]

They optimized their geometry for j-words. But we can still make that work.

[Rodfac]

Just reviewed my loading sheet for my 629-6 with 5" full lug bbl. Throats run 0.4305" and groove runs the same. I size to a measured 0.4305" with a 0.431 labeled H&I die on my Lyman 450 sizer. These are ACWW bullets (Lyman 429421, Lyman 429215gc, 429244gc, & MP 432431). Negligible leading in forcing cone or bbl.

Sizing to the 0.431+" dia. has given me marginally better accuracy (<1/2" at 25 yds), but it's hard to say as the groups shot over open sights with 75 yo eyes are less than 1-1/2"...& depend heavily on the day's lighting &/or how much KY fruit juice I'd consumed the night before. Results can vary, Amigos.

I routinely size to 0.430" for several Ruger .44 spl's and Mags with great results, BTW and realistically speaking, measurable differences are minimal. Negligible leading in forcing cone or bb. with this sizing as well.

HTH's Rod

[Mal Paso]

My 629 had .428" throats until I reamed them .431". Tight throats were intended to improve jacketed performance but the last new one I handled had .430+ throats.

[Hickok]

My 629 also had .428" cylinder throats.

I sent it to "Doug" a member here, and he reamed and polished the throats out to .4315", (If I remember correctly) and it shoots great, and no leading in the forcing cone or throat. I size to .431" for this revolver.

"Doug" does excellent work.

[murf205]

Ditto for my 629, it had .4285 and s couple of .429 throats as well. The accuracy was only so-so and it would lead after a bit of shooting. Before I knew about Doug, I bought a Manson reamer and reamed it to .431and then sold it on the S&W web site. Accuracy perked up and the leading went away. Charlie, that's a mighty good friend to let you keep his 629.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

Yes, he is a good friend. I will probably make a 100 rounds up for the gun when I give it back in March. Unless I run out of LPP before then.

[murf205]

Yes, he is a good friend. I will probably make a 100 rounds up for the gun when I give it back in March. Unless I run out of LPP before then.

My LGS got a big shipment of ammo and a fair amount of powder and Hornady,Sierra, and Nosler bullets but when I asked my friend who works there if they got any primers(of any kind), he laughed and said no.

[gunther]

A 629-3 of my experience has .434 throats and a 29-2 has about the same. Wonder which iteration of 629's you guys have that came with .428 throats? As far as leading, neither of mine have a problem with .431-.432 lead bullets, if they are flat base. I've got a bunch of commercial .429 bevel base swc's (ACWW) that lead like the dickens in the 629-3.

[Hickok]

Gunther, I have a 29-3 that has .433" throats.

Seems S&W 44 magnums have a lot of variation as to cylinder throats over the years. I guess the + or - of manufacturing specs.

[murf205]

A 629-3 of my experience has .434 throats and a 29-2 has about the same. Wonder which iteration of 629's you guys have that came with .428 throats? As far as leading, neither of mine have a problem with .431-.432 lead bullets, if they are flat base. I've got a bunch of commercial .429 bevel base swc's (ACWW) that lead like the dickens in the 629-3.

My 629 is a -6 and my model 24 is also a -6. Both had .428 throats mixed with some .429's. In my personal experience, bevel base boolits have been the worst leading of them all.

[45DUDE]

Gunther, I have a 29-3 that has .433" throats.

Seems S&W 44 magnums have a lot of variation as to cylinder throats over the years. I guess the + or - of manufacturing specs.
My 29-2 had .433 throats. I could never get a lead boolit to group like I though it should. It was ok with a jacketed bullet. I sold it for a decent price and bought a Ruger S.R.H. I am not in love with it but it groups a lot better.

[DougGuy]

Had a guy send me one M29 cylinder a while back, throats were sorta .4335" and I evened up the tighter ones a few tenths, and didn't go over .4335" I advised him to size to .433" good while later he got another M29 with .433" ish throats, some tighter than others so I honed that one to a consistent .4335" and offered the same advice to use .433" boolits. He has a bunch of hard cast already that are not .433" and his mold is dropping almost .433" with one side beagled but they are egged of course.

I told him that he might want to look at getting a different mold, that many of the group buys here have the choice of .433" or .434" and that he would probably have best luck with them melted down and add a bit of pure lead, size cast boolits to .433" for either gun.

We will see what the range reports come back saying...

[gunther]

Wonder if the .433-.434 throats in the older 29's were what influenced Elmer Keith to recommend 1-16 lead and lots of 2400? His ;oad might slug up to fit anything.

[black mamba]

My 1979 built 29-2 has throats that measure between .4340 and .4345.
https://i.imgur.com/peEfpAk.jpg
It has very good accuracy (1.5" 10-shot groups @ 15 yds) with many .430" bullets, even down to 800 fps loads.

My 1997 built 629-4 has throats that all measure .4285.
https://i.imgur.com/eTf0r5z.jpg
It has excellent accuracy (sub 1" ten-shot groups @ 15 yds) with nearly every load using .429 and.430" bullets.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

A 629-3 of my experience has .434 throats and a 29-2 has about the same. Wonder which iteration of 629's you guys have that came with .428 throats? As far as leading, neither of mine have a problem with .431-.432 lead bullets, if they are flat base. I've got a bunch of commercial .429 bevel base swc's (ACWW) that lead like the dickens in the 629-3.

I got that .429" lube sizer die. Boolits come out at .4285" and still won't pass through the throats. Were this my revolver, I would slug the barrel and perhaps send it off to Doug to have the throats opened a smidge.

[DougGuy]

Aside from a very collectible revolver where original throats would be desired even if they are smaller, I can't think of any situation where throats smaller than groove would be an advantage. At that point the cylinder is merely a multi-port sizing die. Of course a softer alloy over a decent enough powder charge would bump up to fill the bore once clear of the cylinder throats. J words almost always bump up because they are for the most part a dead soft lead core swaged into a gilding metal jacket. This works for larger than groove diameter throats as well. It works for 44-40 as well, which has throats MUCH smaller than the average M29 or 629.

I have always maintained that in a perfect world, a revolver with boolits .001" ~ .002" greater than groove diameter, throats sized .0005" ~ .001" over boolit diameter will perform with great results and no leading. This arrangement works with every centerfire caliber, regardless of gun maker.

Fully 90% of the tight 44 cylinders I hone leave the shop at .4315" for use with .431" cast boolits. As described above, J words also work well in these cylinders because they will obturate and leave the cylinder at throat diameter.