Barrel Cylinder Ga p, What's the range?

[mtgrs737]

I was looking at the barrel cylinder ga p on a few of my revolvers and was wondering what the minimum and maximums might be. I have them in the range of .004" to .007" on the few that I checked but have heard of them being much larger. I know that too narrow of a gap the cylinder can bind and not turn smoothly, but what about too wide, is it just a loss of pressure and velocity or are there other concerns. What do you guys think?

[AZ-Stew]

Too large a gap can also create issues with lead and unburnt powder particle spitting. Usually doesn't affect the shooter, but your neighbors on the firing line might not appreciate it.

Regards,

Stew

[Glen]

I've had revolvers with gaps as small as .002" and as large as .020". If I recall correctly, the spec range for S&W is something like .004 to .010". I like cylinder gaps of .003"-.004", but anything smaller than about .007" seems to work just fine. As noted above, the larger gaps have problems with "spitting".

[missionary5155]

Good afternoon
I played with cylinder gap on my Dan Wessons. I started with a model 15-2 (357) with a 6 inch then a 10 inch. The 6" benefited in accuracy with a gap less than .003 and down to .001 made no more difference. The 10" shoots best at almost no gap call it .0005 .
My 41 mag 8 inch l¡shot the best with .0015.
My 375 super mag shoots best with just enough room for the barrel to just touch the cylinder. I have never installed the "Spare barrel" to see if it shoots the same.
Those tests cost about 100 rounds per barrel after finding the most accurate boolit/ powder combination. This is why I LIKE Dan Wesson revolvers.
To me accuracy is everything. I do not care to just launch boolits.
God Bless y'al Mike

[454PB]

I measured the gap on my .454's, and they are all .003" or a smidgen less. This kind of surprised me, because I've read that too small a gap can cause binding. I've had all three of them so warm from shooting that you couldn't touch the barrel for long, yet none have ever bound up.

[cbrick]

I've always thought the smaller the gap the better. How "tight" you can get away with depends completely on the tolerances and precision that your revolver was built with. The truer the cylinder rotates the smaller the gap can be right to near zero. The more "wobble" in the cylinder the wider the gap needs to be or it will bind.

S&W specs to .010" . . . Yikes

Rick

[skeet1]

I believe that you don't want to have too tight a gap because I have seen revolvers that when they get hot and everything expands they will freeze up because the end of the barreland the cylandar will start dragging. A person does need some gap.

Skeet1

[lathesmith]

+1 to what Glen said. .007 is about my limit, if any of my revolvers are wider than that I'll rework them to bring it down to around .004. I consider this the "ideal" setting for me.
lathesmith

[44man]

The early Dan Wesson's were great but I bought one in the midpoint of production after they were bought out. I would set the gap at .002" and the cylinder would not turn. I found the front of the cylinder was nothing but a big wobble from being faced off crooked.
The barrel was threaded in crooked and a part inside did not work.
I sent it back and all they did was face the cylinder. I fixed the part inside and sold it.
Just goes to show that CEO's and disgruntled workers are death to a product.

[KCSO]

On a DUTY/PPC revolver we always went with 7-9 thou to allow for expansion as in a match you don't want any binding at all. For a slowfire target gun or a hunting gun I go with 3-5 thou depending on material, stainless seems to expand a little quicker. For the first 6 shots you can get by with O and a number of SILENCED M10's were made that way in the late 60's for the military.

[missionary5155]

Good Afternoon
Anyone know what the Freedom Arms revolvers or other Top Line revolvers are barrel / cylinder gaped at ? They do produce a fine shooting revolver and some are used in Revolver Steel shooting where 80 rounds of Mag loads will heat things up.
Mike God Bless you...

[454PB]

The "smidgen less" I mentioned is on my FA 83 in .454 Casull. A .002" feeler gauge is a loose fit, a .003" is a very tight fit.

[JMax]

When I went through S&W armorers school (twice) the specification is .004" - .010".