Bass Ackward
09-26-2006, 10:08 AM
Well this has been my last .... my most recent, focus for experimentation. Spurred on by my bad forcing cone in my Redhawk, I decided to recut the crowns on that 7 1/2" Ruger along with a 4" Smith that I owned that looked like it was cut with a poket knife. Some interesting things came to light.
While I slug for bore measurements often, I rarely worry about rifling height in a wheeler because of the velocity ceilings involved. The Smith was never fire lapped and had plenty of slop with the .416 pilot of the cutter. So much so that I started to re-evaluate my decision to proceed. I went ahead and let the cutter follow what was already there until it cleaned up. The stainless cut like butter. So I have no idea if it is true with the bore or not, but it does pass the eye test now.
So I went to the Ruger with the .4305 bore. This has been lapped and relapped and finally lapped again. Surprise! I could just barely get the pilot in and only after liberal lubrication. The cut was fairly clean with the origional crown out so bad that I was sure it just had to improve. Only a hint of chatter from the hand powered reamer as the steel was slightly harder.
Results? Well there was no noticeable difference in the Ruger what so ever. Bummer. But it was shooting PB slightly better than the Smith before I did this anyway. The Smith was the surprise as it jumped way ahead in performance to about where the Ruger is now. At least with the level of accuracy loads I was using in this instance.
Conclusion? While I have seen crowns do dramatic improvement in rifles, there appear to be too many variables in a wheeler to "expect" improvement. I had high hopes for the Ruger seeing how much it was actually out and how well it shot origonally. Evidently, unless there is an actual problem caused by the crown which I don't believe either of these had, handgun pressures just don't make that much difference in longer barrels.
This is just FYI for those perfectionists out there that may look at their crown and be wondering. I would still watch my cleaning rods though, as I am sure there is a limit involved. :grin:
While I slug for bore measurements often, I rarely worry about rifling height in a wheeler because of the velocity ceilings involved. The Smith was never fire lapped and had plenty of slop with the .416 pilot of the cutter. So much so that I started to re-evaluate my decision to proceed. I went ahead and let the cutter follow what was already there until it cleaned up. The stainless cut like butter. So I have no idea if it is true with the bore or not, but it does pass the eye test now.
So I went to the Ruger with the .4305 bore. This has been lapped and relapped and finally lapped again. Surprise! I could just barely get the pilot in and only after liberal lubrication. The cut was fairly clean with the origional crown out so bad that I was sure it just had to improve. Only a hint of chatter from the hand powered reamer as the steel was slightly harder.
Results? Well there was no noticeable difference in the Ruger what so ever. Bummer. But it was shooting PB slightly better than the Smith before I did this anyway. The Smith was the surprise as it jumped way ahead in performance to about where the Ruger is now. At least with the level of accuracy loads I was using in this instance.
Conclusion? While I have seen crowns do dramatic improvement in rifles, there appear to be too many variables in a wheeler to "expect" improvement. I had high hopes for the Ruger seeing how much it was actually out and how well it shot origonally. Evidently, unless there is an actual problem caused by the crown which I don't believe either of these had, handgun pressures just don't make that much difference in longer barrels.
This is just FYI for those perfectionists out there that may look at their crown and be wondering. I would still watch my cleaning rods though, as I am sure there is a limit involved. :grin: