So why not a bottleneck cartridge in a revolver?

This is just a guess, but I suspect that when the round fires the pressure would try to straighten out the shoulder of the case, thereby wedging the case head against the recoil shield and tying up the gun.

Don't forget about the .22 Jet

Ah young weedhopper......ye be shooting them new fangled revolvers have ye?

Meet the 32WCF, AKA 32/20. Fastern' a speedin' bullet they be.......

This is just a guess, but I suspect that when the round fires the pressure would try to straighten out the shoulder of the case, thereby wedging the case head against the recoil shield and tying up the gun.

Click to expand...

That's exactly why.

The 17HMR produces little pressure compared to larger calibers...and some of these still have issues with the cases tying up the actions.

Bottleneck cartridges in revolver are not a new idea. For powerfull ones, look at the Gary Reeder's creations ( http://www.ravenammunition.com/cartridge_description.htm ).

Don't forget about the .357 Bain & Davis (sp?). It was a .44 Rem Mag necked down to .357".

If you think of a "bottleneck" round like the 22-250 as a "bodied up" .22 instead of a necked down .25, it makes more sense. The goal is to get more room for powder behind a small bullet. In a short barrel like on most handguns, it's unlikely you can actually make much use of that larger charge.

Not saying there shouldn't be any or that there are no usefull ones but I believe it's why it isn't common.

I be picking my jet up this Sunday.I have shot one since the 60s. If the chamberes are kept degreased I've NEVER had a freeze up. Of course a 100 rounds in an afternoon was allways alot of shooting with the JET!

There's two variants of the Bain & Davis. The early ones did have setback issues so a revision was made to the angle and shape of the shoulder. The Mk2 variant appears to solve most issues up to a surprising amount of power in a large-frame Blackhawk, something like 158gr @ 1,800fps or similar (working from memory).

The 356GNR is Gary Reeder's answer to the same issue, a 41Mag case necked to 357. Supposedly setback isn't an issue and I'm very keen on scoring a second 357Mag cylinder for my NewVaq and having it reamed to 356GNR. I've also considered the B&D but I don't like the lack of cylinder wall beef that would result.

NewVaqs have been successfully re-chambered in 41Mag so the 356GNR with stock barrel should be no problem. Reeder has loading data for these in S&W-length cylinders which should be appropriate to the New Vaquero.

bottleneck

How about a 7.62x25 revolver? I think that would be great! You could fit 7 or 8 in a decent size wheel gun.

That was the exact thought I had reading the thread title.

Or, for some real craziness, how about re-chambering a Nagant for something like .32NAA? I guess you'd probably have to go to a six chamber cylinder, if it would even work.

Lets put on our stinking caps, .22 Jet, 32-20, 38-40 or is it 38-44, (memory bad on that one because its so freaken old) the 44-40 isn't exactly a straight brass casing is it...kind of narrows up to taper at the top end.

Then there's a whole slew of wildcats that are too numerous to mention.

Jim

Magnum Research has a BFR in a 30-30

Taurus also had a .22 hornet "Raging Hornet". Shooting a few boxes through it at an indoor range will cause a "Raging Headache".

Reeder has also been necking down the 500 S&@ to take .45 caliber bullets. 454 casull velocity, without the vicious recoil and pressure...
Anyone have news on that project.?

Rumor was the S&W X frame cylinder is 2.3" long so that it could accommodate a .223 round later on. Just what I heard, not sure how much truth there was to it.

Somebody say bottle neck?
since I have a .400 Corbon barrel
for my 1911 I'll chime on in on this
subject.

.400 Corbon - developed by Peter Pi at
CorBon - .45 ACP necked down to .40 with a
25 degree shoulder. Corbon has not submitted
it to SAAMI for a pressure spec. but some
suspect it is in the 26,500 range. I have
two boxes of .400 CorBon
155 gr. Speer GDHP @ 1,400 FPS &
155 gr. Hornady XTP JHP @ 1,360 FPS

I exchanged some emails exploring the
possibility of a revolver in .400 CorBon
with Hamilton Bowen. The S&W Da is
not possible with a modified S&W Cylinder
as there is no cylinder to start from & he
also pointed out the possibility of case back
out. He suggested a Ruger SA - use a barrel
in .38-40 and mod. the cylinder - if it had
chronic case back out it could still be changed
back to .38-40 and salvage the gun. At that point
I thought why even do it, just get a SA Ruger in
.38-40.

Speaking of the .38-40, it is a necked down .44-40
The .38-40 is mis-named in that the bore is .40 -
it should have been named the .40-40

The .32-20 is it's own 'parent' circa 1874.
The .25-20 and .219 Zipper? or .218 Bee?
necked it down further.

The .22 Jet is a necked down .357 Magnum
but it, more so in profile is like the .38-40 as
the case is in a long taper, not an abrupt
shoulder.

The older bottlenecked cartridges are SAAMI'd
at 14,000 psi?c.u.p pressure - the Jet at
.357 Mag = 35,000 pressure would certainly lead
to more expansion of the brass case.

I think case back out is a combination of
pressure, case shape, and the chamber
dimensions - & stretched brass reloades
even if resized the abrupt shoulder on some
of the different types stretch and would get
right up agin the bottleneck shoulder
and chamber length. I hope that makes sense

Bottle necks work well in rifles and Semi-Autos, long
guns or handguns because of the
strength of the actions or the nature of
Semi-autos in relation to revolvers.

Hmmm, a Auto Ordanance 1927A1
rebarreled to .400 CorBon. It would
certainly be loud.

OH, FWIW

The necked down .45 ACP to .357 has been done
at least a couple of decades ago.

I think I recall a necked down cartridge
in a Guns & Ammo article in the late 70s or
early 80s - a Commander with either a .45
ACp or a .38 Super necked down to .22 and it
broke 2,000+ FPS.

I think the other thing besides set back is the cylinder gap allows flame cutting of top strap which would only be worse with a high intensity cartridge.

Ah young weedhopper......ye be shooting them new fangled revolvers have ye?

Click to expand...

The .32-20! I hear it will cut you half in two.

One reason is that trimming cases is too much work. Just finished reloading 2K of .223 and sure nice to get back to loading .357's, so much easier.

Bottle neck setback in a revolver

The notion of bottle neck case setback in a revolver being a problem is mostly myth. It does occur with certain cases, but there are plenty of case deisgns that will not set back.

The 22 harvey K'Chuck was a wildcat 22 based on the Hornet case and there was no problem with setback. It inspired the 22 Jet, and as is so often the case, the factory had to fix what wasn't broke. The 22 Jet is a necked down 357 Magnum. That would be OK, except that they set it up with an extremely long tapered shoulder which is the recipe for set back problems.

There's a long list of bottle necked cases that don't tie up revolvers.

I shoot the 17 HMR and the 357-44 B&D and have never had any hint of tie up. Used to shoot 32-20 in two different revolvers.

It should be noted that bottle necked cases are quite common in break open action rifles where set back would tie up the action just as it would in a revolver.