[JohnKSa]

This is from another thread, but I thought I'd like to ask the question by itself.

For years, I've looked at the breech face of a pistol to get a rough idea of wear. Recently I started trying to quantify that wear--or at least determine a progression.

The wear I'm talking about is the rings that get polished on the revolver breechface from the case setting back into the frame.

...I'm guessing that hotter rounds are going to leave more of a mark than light rounds, all else being equal. That's fine though. IMO, a hotter round puts more wear on the gun, and it's wear, not the actual round count that we care about.

Jim March also mentioned that nickel cases might polish differently from brass cases--I don't know what to do with that, so I'm ignoring it for now.

One other note of interest--my autos display a different pattern of wear so if you make a contribution to the thread, it needs to be based on examination of revolvers only.

It would be great if we could nail down a progression and maybe even put some approximate round counts with the various steps. Could be very valuable in determining the age (in rounds) of a revolver of undetermined origins.

This looks like the progression to me:

1. No mark.
2. Light ring at the edge of the primer pocket.
3. Light concentric rings at the edge of the rim AND the edge of the primer pocket.
4. Polished "donut" around the firing pin. From the edge of the primer pocket to the edge of the rim.
5. Marks as in step 4 plus light marks at the points where the rims of the upper two rounds on either side of the fired round in the cylinder set back into the frame.
6. Marks as in step 5 plus the edges of the firing pin hole begin to dimple outward. (approx 2000 full power .357 rounds)

With only 4 revolvers, I'm getting shaky trying to define 6 steps--but I figure there are others here that can make a few more observations than I can.

[Andrew Wyatt]

that only seems to hold water for steel framed guns.

my 37 has less than 300 standard pressure .38s through it and has some pretty significant breechface markings.

[BluesBear]

I have a S&W model 28 that I have no idea of how many thousands of rounds I have fired in it and it was used when I bought it. The recoil shield is one of the few places that shows NO wear at all.

When I come back from the range there are always three brass colored circles at the top. A couple of strokes with a GI "toothbrush" with a little Hoppes #9 and they're gone.

Same with all of my other revolvers. Of course they are all steel. I suppose an alloy frame could show markings but as I recall none of my old Colt Cobras ever did.
I might just have to track down an old Cobra and do some testing. :evil:

[Jim March]

Besides differences in primer and shell makeup, we've got different types of bluing/parkerizing/chroming/God only knows what surface treatments, different STEEL types even within the two "major families" (stainless and otherwise), we've got different heat treats, we've got surface hardening versus "hardened to a specific degree all the way through the metal" techniques, and more I probably haven't thought of.

Ehhhhh...unless you're an expert in a given TYPE of gun and know how those tend to wear, I don't think this sort of analysis will prove very fruitful.

[JohnKSa]

Jim,

I'm beginning to see the light. It SEEMED like a good idea...


Bluesbear,

My steel Rugers all show marks on the breechface/recoil shield.

Most of my autopistols of various brands show marks on their steel breechfaces as well, although they follow a different pattern of wear.

I'm not sure why one type of gun shows them and another doesn't, but the type of material doesn't seem to be the only factor.

[sgt127]

I have an old cop carry gun, a Mod 15. It has tons of breechface wear, where every single case head rubbed against the breechface for how ever many years it was carried. I think the cases jiggling back and forth actually abrade the bluing more than firing it. Add a little dirt and dust and you have lapping compound.

[J Miller]

OK, I dug out my 71 Vintage OM Ruger BH, .45 Colt. It has 4439 rounds since I got it used.
The Ruger shows a full circle of blue wear around the firing pin, with partial blue on the rest of the case head area. A tiny bit of blue wear where some of the other rounds have rubbed the breach face.

My 59 Vintage S&W 28 .357 Mag. It has 8619 rounds since I got it used.
The Mdl 28 being a hi-pressure magnum gun has the most wear. The area around the firing pin is totally devoid of blue, and there is actually a visible amount of wear into the breach face from the case head.
Each of the other five cartridges have worn the breach face to the point the divot in the fired primers has left a visibly darker spot surrounded by the primer, and case wear areas.

My 80 Vintage S&W 25-5 .45 Colt. It has 6734 rounds since I got it new.
The Mdl 25-5 has the same wear patterns as the 28, only to a lesser degree.

Pretty interesting. I didn't realize I had racked up so many rounds through these guns.

I wish I had a digi cam to take some pics. That would be better than a text description.

Joe