Honing cylinders

[JimB..]

Okay, this may be my third thread on this general topic, I swear that I’m learning…if slowly.

So I’m a fan of the 41 mag and have been thinking that I should get the cylinders of several revolvers and a sizing die honed, that would sure make my life easy!

So I slug the barrels, and now I don’t know what to do. Here are the sizes:
.4050 (m657)
.4069 (m57)
.4099 (redhawk)
.4101 (m57)

Yes, several slugs of each to confirm.
Yes, dead soft lead for the slugs.
Yes, calibrated starrett micrometer.

Assuming that the chambers are sized larger than the barrels (IDK, not patient enough to slug 24 of them) the two largest will almost certainly shoot the same size bullet, but I’m guessing that the smaller bores won’t like the same size bullet.

Maybe hone the largest two to .412?
If I hone the smallest two to .408 the m657 will probably shoot that well, and then sell the .4069 m57 if it doesn’t like the same bullet?
At least that gets me to 2 sizes.
The marlin 1894 is getting rebarrelled, think it’ll measure .410 so should shoot a .412 bullet.

I really want to like the m657 with a 3” barrel, but that bore seems tiny. Not exactly easy to buy a dozen of them and keep the one that matches the other bores.

I’m leaning toward honing the smaller two at .408 and the larger two at .412 and then see how they shoot.

Anyone care to weigh in on this plan?

[Der Gebirgsjager]

So you know the bore sizes, good; but you don't know that perhaps the cylinder chamber sizes are larger. Without that knowledge you might be sizing down larger bullets into smaller bores. You don't necessarily have to slug the chambers, you can use a pin gauge. I think you need all the data to make an intelligent decision.

DG

[contender1]

Pin gauge the chambers first!

[JimB..]

Okay, pin gauges in half thou sizes, who can make a recommendation for brand or place to buy?

Jacketed bullets at .410 will not drop cleanly through any and chamber, although the’ll go through a few with just finger pressure.

[rkrcpa]

Have the cylinders honed to .4105, load bullets sized to .410, enjoy life.

[DougGuy]

Your stated groove sizes are too close to .410" to size for .410" boolits. I would suggest sizing to .411" and honing throats to .4115" in all the cylinders. You can size universally life is much easier.

I use Meyer gage pin gages exclusively in even and half thou sizes. I prefer the ZZ minus sets as they are typicaly .0002" under the stated size, and this is just the right amount of undersize for good cylinder work. You will have to find some older sets as current manufacture is only .00001" under and that's just too close to stated diameter, you would be honing oversize just to have a bit of a light drag fit with the pin.

Now to the honing. I won't comment on methods other than the Sunnen precision automotive hone which is what I use exclusively to hone cylinder throats with. There is no other method that can produce consistent and precise results, and keep the throats round and parallel. You may send a PM if you are interested in having them done with the Sunnen hone.

Even a brand new Manson reamer cannot cut the same size holes as the hardness varies from cylinder to cylinder, and Ruger cylinders are notorious for very inconsistent heat treated steel that comes from the mill in long rods, the hardness is all over the map. Therefore, the reamer cuts a smaller hole in harder material than it will in softer material, which is the whole reason I switched to the Sunnen hone and laid the reamers aside.

Very common for a Ruger SA cylinder to have steel on one side of the cylinder harder than the other side, so throats cut by reamer on the softer side cut easy and have dimensions close to the size of the flutes, where throats on the other side of the SAME cylinder the reamer will be VERY hard to turn, it will squawk loudly, you fear you are going to twist the shank right off, and of course the throats are a LOT smaller than the throats on the other side of the same cylinder. If you ream enough of them, you will undoubtedly run headlong into what I am describing here. Been there done that, got to be a better way methinks, so I invested in the Sunnen hone and all the tooling for it. Afaik, it is the only method that can produce consistent throats in an inconsistent material. Nothing else will do this.

[DougGuy]

Also, I don't know how you are measuring the slugs from the S&W barrel being they are 5 lands and grooves. I would be VERY skeptical of the .405" measurement. My guess is you drive a slug through that barrel, and try pushing it through some known cylinder throats, pinned with pin gages, not measured with a caliper, you would be surprised to find that the slug won't go through a .409" throat.

[littlejack]

I had Doug hone the throats in my Ruger SBH Hunter. They were different sizes, and all undersize. Doug did an outstanding job. There has been many, many, of the members of the Castboolits had Doug do hone work on their revolvers in the past years. I haven't heard of any negative feedback about his work. If I owned those revolvers you mentioned in your post, I would have them all honed to the what Doug has reccomended. The bore of the revolvers will size the boolits to fit their individual dimensions after they leave the cylinder.

[Piedmont]

How do the guns shoot? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Let the target tell you if you have a problem.

[JimB..]

Also, I don't know how you are measuring the slugs from the S&W barrel being they are 5 lands and grooves. I would be VERY skeptical of the .405" measurement. My guess is you drive a slug through that barrel, and try pushing it through some known cylinder throats, pinned with pin gages, not measured with a caliper, you would be surprised to find that the slug won't go through a .409" throat.

I’ll try again, it was a bit of a wiggle and pivot. I’ll build a fixture to do it right this week.

I had Doug hone the throats in my Ruger SBH Hunter. They were different sizes, and all undersize. Doug did an outstanding job. There has been many, many, of the members of the Castboolits had Doug do hone work on their revolvers in the past years. I haven't heard of any negative feedback about his work. If I owned those revolvers you mentioned in your post, I would have them all honed to the what Doug has reccomended. The bore of the revolvers will size the boolits to fit their individual dimensions after they leave the cylinder.

Doug has done a S&W M19 for me, and he’s going to be asked to do these for me, just figuring out the size.

How do the guns shoot? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Let the target tell you if you have a problem.

There is a measurable difference in the cylinder throats. The Ruger is the best, it has just one undersized throat and mostly I just avoid that chamber because it doesn’t shoot well. I haven’t spent as much time with the others yet.

[Randy Bohannon]

If I liked the gun and had never done this kind of work before despite wanting to learn how to do it. It would go to DougGuy with no hesitation or reservation it will be done right. Find some beater guns or cylinders to practice on until you have it perfected,nothing worse than screwing up your own gun.

[mozeppa]

i had doug do more than 10 cylinders...very happy with his work!

[DougGuy]

Here ya go! Ruger stainless 45 Colt .4525" throats.

Attachment 302048

[littlejack]

Now that purdy!