Hi all,
I'm looking for some response from those of you that have some experience in shooting cast bullets in your Smith
500's .
I have measured the throats, (.4997" ) and bbl groove (.5015-5017" ) on the gun i have , a JR 500 , that i pickup up a few weeks ago.
If i stick with a light load , 14 gr Trailboss , and 475 gr JR design long range bullet at 800 fps , i don't get any leading .
Pretty much anything else, 900-1000 fps + loads, and above , and i start getting leading starting about 2" down the bbl.
with as little as 10-15 rounds .
These are wheelweight ,and wheelweight/ 25% pure lead, bullets .
In reading some of the load info that John had written , he mentions using a plastic wad , (ldpe maybe) on top of the powder to cut down on leading .
I have used these in the past in some of my BP loads in my 45-90 , 45-110 .
Conventional wisdom says that i have to open up the cylinder throats to at least .5015" and i was wondering if anyone else has done this , and how it worked out for you .
I can't get too carried away with the throat opening , the cylinder has a pretty tight chamber , i did load an as-cast bullet
of .502+ diameter and it did chamber ok , but i doubt you could go any larger .
I have a .5015" throater from Pacific tool and gauge waiting for me, I just want to make sure i really want to use it ????
I am also concerned as to what effects opening up the throats to .5015" would have on the use of jacketed bullets , as those run right at .500" diameter .
I really don't plan on shooting jacketed , but somewhere down the line , someone else is going to end up with this revolver.
thanks
Joe