Revolver questions. I searched, I swear I did

[adanymous]

Hey yall. I have an old anaconda I picked up at a gun show years ago. Never shot it much. Just some factory loads here and there. Got some .44 brass and cast boolits in my dads stuff after he passed and I have time to monkey with this stuff now so I thought Id see if I could put some powder between em and maybe shoot something this fall with it.

Dad lube sized those bullets for his contender, his dies are marked .429. I went to check the bore size on the revolver and did some reading here first and realized thats not the thing to do. I guess I need to measure cylinder throats. Well.........most folks I know would consider me a bit of a gun expert, I know a lot of stuff about a lot of gun stuff, but Im at a bit of a loss here. If Im right, the cylinder throat is the bit after the part of the chamber Im gonna call the case stop, I dont know the tech term. But its that line in the chamber that would prevent an over long case from seating on the cylinder face. If I measure 6 of those with cerro safe I imagine Ill get 6 different numbers. Do I size to the lowest number? Am I right about what a cyl throat is? Why am I not just sizing to the forcing cone or .001 over grooves?

Speaking of knowing too much about gun stuff, did yall know that both the main designer of the predecessor to the luger pistol, and the guy who invented box magazines worked for Sharpe's, THE single shot rifle company of their day. Weird

[MT Gianni]

Shoot 24 and see how they group. You can fall down a rabbit hole chasing accuracy but you need to build a base line first. Your understanding of the terms is correct.

[Wheelguns 1961]

Cylinder throats are also known as the chamber exit holes. This is where the bullet exits the cylinder. I have not had much luck posting pictures lately, but will try again. I think I got it. The holes you see are thecylinder throats.

[Larry Gibson]

I got my 44 magnum Anaconda back in the early/mid '90s. The groove diameter is .429 and all of the throats pin gauge at .429. It is one of the most accurate revolvers I have. I suggest you see if .429 sized bullets will drop through the throats by themselves or with a gentle push. Drop them in from the chamber end. If they pass this drop test they should shoot fine.

I size the cast bullets at .429 for my Anaconda.

316750

[adanymous]

They seem tight in all but 1 I could tap one through with a few sturdy palm taps. The rest stuck. I measured the boolits with a micrometer and get .430 and .429 So seems like maybe a tight throat. Still give em a whirl? Also, what is a pin gauge?

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

SNIP>>>

Got some .44 brass and cast boolits in my dads stuff after he passed and I have time to monkey with this stuff now
I bet Dad's boolits are old. Depending on the alloy, boolits can grow [get fatter] with age.
So, get that .429 size die out, and size six boolits and then measure each one carefully. Then try again, to push them through the cylinder for a better guess of size of the throats.

If you don't want to go to that trouble, I'd just follow Larry's lead and load Dad's boolits as they are, worst thing can happen is you'll be cleaning some lead fouling from the barrel, which is easy most of the time.

[adanymous]

I bet Dad's boolits are old. Depending on the alloy, boolits can grow [get fatter] with age.
So, get that .429 size die out, and size six boolits and then measure each one carefully. Then try again, to push them through the cylinder for a better guess of size of the throats.

If you don't want to go to that trouble, I'd just follow Larry's lead and load Dad's boolits as they are, worst thing can happen is you'll be cleaning some lead fouling from the barrel, which is easy most of the time.

Youre right. Theyre at the very least 8 years old. But id bet 13-15 is more accurate.

[chriskendziora]

I would load some with unique, 4227 my fav or 2400 and shoot them before going down the rabbit hole. I have 4 different wheel guns and all of them have one cylinder hole a little small.

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

[adanymous]

JonB you were right. I put that die in the old lube sizer and sized 6 got all of em through with a T handle allen wrench and one good whack of my hand. One barely needed a nudge, the rest were fairly firm. Guess Ill load em up. I got some of Dads old Unique he loved so much (gross) maybe I can find a load for it and use some of that dirty stuff up.

[Minerat]

7.0 gr unique will give you a mild load to start with.

[adanymous]

This must be pre ordained to work I think. Dad had like 220 pieces of brass. Precisely 200 bullets, and I had 200 CCI 350 in my stash.

[15meter]

Also, what is a pin gauge?

In the manufacturing world, a pin gauge is nothing more than a precision ground steel rod. Generally sold in sets. You try to insert pins in the hole you are checking until you get the perfect fit.


https://www.meyergage.com/products/class-z-sets-libraries/

[DougGuy]

Yes you're close on the description. In a revolver cylinder, the throats are the parallel smooth bore parts ahead of the chamber. Many rimmed revolver cylinders use a chamfer at the end of the chamber, I've heard it called the "ball seat" which it might be, in a percussion cylinder, but regardless, the chamfer is the transition between chamber and parallel freebore ahead of the chamfer, that's the throat.

[murf205]

Also, what is a pin gauge?
Actually you don't have to buy an entire set of pin gages. Meyer Gage co sell individual pins for around $4 each. When I bought them for 44's, I bought .427 .428, .429, .430, .431, and .432 pins. They are pretty handy for revolver tinkerers like us. They are good people to deal with.

[DougGuy]

Also, what is a pin gauge?
Actually you don't have to buy an entire set of pin gages. Meyer Gage co sell individual pins for around $4 each. When I bought them for 44's, I bought .427 .428, .429, .430, .431, and .432 pins. They are pretty handy for revolver tinkerers like us. They are good people to deal with.

DON'T overlook the .0005" half thousandth pins as .001" increments is too coarse for accurate cylinder work. .427" .4275" .428" .4285" etc...

+1 on Meyer Gauge Co. single pins, I ordered a few to expand existing sets, example .500" to .502" with .0005" increments to cover 500 S&W cylinders. Order ZZ Minus pins!

[MrWolf]

DON'T overlook the .0005" half thousandth pins as .001" increments is too coarse for accurate cylinder work. .427" .4275" .428" .4285" etc...

+1 on Meyer Gauge Co. single pins, I ordered a few to expand existing sets, example .500" to .502" with .0005" increments to cover 500 S&W cylinders. Order ZZ Minus pins!

What is the difference with the minus and plus pins? Curious

[mdatlanta]

What is the difference with the minus and plus pins? Curious

Color me curious about this as well. It’s very confusing (to me) which set one needs to measure revolver throats as well as the general knowledge of which type of pins are used in particular applications.

[15meter]

What is the difference with the minus and plus pins? Curious

https://www.meyergage.com/abcs-of-gages/

Nominal size down to stated tolerance of the class on minus, nominal size plus the state tolerance of the class.

A minus .5000 pin gauge can range in size from .4998 to .5000.

A plus .5000 pin gauge can range in size from .5000 all the way up to .5002 for ZZ class pins.

Those are guaranteed size ranges from a reputable company. And Meyer is a reputable gauge company. I sold a massive amount of their pin gauges in custom sizes over the years for production part checking.

And they will indeed sell a small range of pins for a specific application.

Always wanted to tour their factory. Made it to CMM mfg.(I built CMM's in a prior life), surface plates, optical comparators, glass scales, surface finish/ contracer mfg.

Surface plate manufacturing was cool. Cutting massive blocks of granite it to smaller blocks was impressive. The biggest blocks were cut with an endless steel cable and an abrasive slurry. Sloooowly.

Biggest block I ever supervised installation of weighed 56,000 Lbs.

just never made it to a pin gauge mfg.

Old guy rambling/thread:hijack:

[reddog81]

They seem tight in all but 1 I could tap one through with a few sturdy palm taps. The rest stuck. I measured the boolits with a micrometer and get .430 and .429 So seems like maybe a tight throat. Still give em a whirl? Also, what is a pin gauge?

If the bullets can be pressed through the throats with slight resistance you should be good to go. Buying pin gauges and taking all the measurements in the world aren't going to get a better answer than just doing the test you already did. If cast bullets just drop through the throats, that means the bullets are too small.

[gwpercle]

They seem tight in all but 1 I could tap one through with a few sturdy palm taps. The rest stuck. I measured the boolits with a micrometer and get .430 and .429 So seems like maybe a tight throat. Still give em a whirl? Also, what is a pin gauge?

Those numbers are sounding good ... Tight throats beat oversized throats Seven ways To Sunday .

Load some of the .429" and .430" boolits and test for accuracy .

Your revolver may prefer one size to the other or may shoot both equally well .

You will never know till you ... Choot Em' !
Gary

[Forrest r]

A cut-a-way of a cylinder.

You can see a "step" and then a slight angle in the chambers. That angle is the cylinder chambers throat.
https://i.imgur.com/Lcmp4hk.jpg

Seating the bullet long so it's out into the angle of the chamber improves accuracy.

Hate to say it but I've never used pin gages on any of the revolvers I have owned. Always let the target/groups tell me what's going on.

[Char-Gar]

Hey yall.

Speaking of knowing too much about gun stuff, did yall know that both the main designer of the predecessor to the luger pistol, and the guy who invented box magazines worked for Sharpe's, THE single shot rifle company of their day. Weird

Yes, I know that. His name was Hugo Borchardt. He was a German and designed the last Sharps action. It was hammerless and is called the Sharps-Borchardt. I have one and Colt brought out a version in the early 60s and it didn't sell well as it was quite expensive for the day. Sharps Rifle Company went belly up in 1881. The end of the buffalo hunting trade gutted their market. The Borchardt was their last gasp at staying in business.

He designed his semi-auto pistol in 1893 and Georg Luger refined in 1908 into what we know as the Luger Pistol.

[murf205]

To be clear, pin gages are not a cure for all diseases and marital problems but they will tell you the dimensions of a new to you revolver. I had success by blind luck when I first started down this rabbit hole and, thankfully, never looked back. I read an article my Mike Venturino about using them and figured what the heck. I have had success with them and without. What they have solved for me are problems of accuracy and leading....plus, I am a tool junkie and nortoriously cheap, so $25 for some pin gages was my "ah-ha" moment. It helps to have a decent micrometer to measure the boolit. Thankfully cheap as well!