Honing C&B Revolver Chambers

[John Taylor]

Making sure the cylinder is lined up with the bore I have made up dummy barrels for the Remington and used it as a guide for the reamer. It's a little hard to do with the open top Colt.

[Soundguy]

Wooden dowel with emory cloth wrapped around it with plenty of oil.

I've bought a few parts guns/ gun parts in a box and made some put together revolvers..all Italian pieces..and yeah..paper on a dowel has cleaned up years of abuse pretty easily..

[45 Dragoon]

Making sure the cylinder is lined up with the bore I have made up dummy barrels for the Remington and used it as a guide for the reamer. It's a little hard to do with the open top Colt.

The open top should be as fine as the Howell type 6 shot conversion cyls for the Remington pattern revolvers. Even though the chambers are slightly angled to allow 6 cartridges, many folks consider that particular setup to be excellent and with (usually) amazing accuracy (me included). You may can get away with a dummy barrel setup that has a threaded (nut maybe) section that would allow a bolt to be screwed against the front end of the arbor, after the wedge has been inserted, to align the barrel/cylinder with zero clearance.

Mike

[Jniedbalski]

It would be cheaper to get a new replacement cyl. But then the chambers are still under size. I have seen .005 to .007 under on the Italian repos

[grter]

Doug how do you handle tapered chambers in cap and ball cylinders ?

I personally saw a current production Uberti percussion .44 New Model Army that had a slight non-visible taper (smaller towards the back) in the cylinder throats which defeated the use of the hand reamer guide attachment.

That cylinder currently has the guide piece wedged inside after a foolish attempt by yours truly to force it in further. Nothing I tried could get it out. Thankfully a new drop in replacement cylinder was handy.

I figure a .36 navy caliber 1858 New Model Navy cylinder would have plenty of wiggle room for reaming to bore size without much thinning of the cylinder walls but I would be hesitant to try because if it also has tapered chambers it won't work and the closest size to .36 cal cylinder reamers I see sold online are for cylinders that use .38 special/.357 cartridges (.357 bore) way too small.

I guess I would have to slug the bore and get a custom size reamer assuming the cylinder walls are not tapered.

I would love to be able to send it to someone who has the means and knowhow to do both the .44 and .36 percussion cylinders right.

[Outpost75]

Just doing one presents a problem. Reaming is the best way but you need some way to keep the reamer lined up. A drill press will work but you need a way to make sure the reamer is in line with the bore. I had a job a while back that involved re-chambering sever Ruger cylinders so I made up a fixture to keep everything lined up.

Attachment 280868

AND all three revolver owners are VERY happy and the 10x25mm Rugers drive nails like rifles!

Attachment 284481

[Nobade]

Doug how do you handle tapered chambers in cap and ball cylinders ?

I personally saw a current production Uberti percussion .44 New Model Army that had a slight non-visible taper (smaller towards the back) in the cylinder throats which defeated the use of the hand reamer guide attachment.

That cylinder currently has the guide piece wedged inside after a foolish attempt by yours truly to force it in further. Nothing I tried could get it out. Thankfully a new drop in replacement cylinder was handy.

I figure a .36 navy caliber 1858 New Model Navy cylinder would have plenty of wiggle room for reaming to bore size without much thinning of the cylinder walls but I would be hesitant to try because if it also has tapered chambers it won't work and the closest size to .36 cal cylinder reamers I see sold online are for cylinders that use .38 special/.357 cartridges (.357 bore) way too small.

I guess I would have to slug the bore and get a custom size reamer assuming the cylinder walls are not tapered.

I would love to be able to send it to someone who has the means and knowhow to do both the .44 and .36 percussion cylinders right.

Today I noticed a #7 taper pin reamer goes from .3297" to .422" over a length of 4.437". That should cover 36 caliber revolvers nicely. I am working on a Pietta 36 cal currently so ordered one of those reamers to give it a try. We'll see how that works out.