Any Success with 45 Colt Cylinder Throat Reamer?

[Hunt480]

Anybody got any good things to say or had any noticable improvement in accuracy after using the Manson Throat Reamer on a 45 Colt? I have read a right smart about this and was thinkin this might improve the accuracy on this Old Vaquero 45 I just bought a few weeks back. This gun is just like new and had hardly been shot much until I got it. I have not slugged any of the chambers but a .452 sized bullet want begin to push through any of the chambers at all without starting to swage down the bullet.
Will this improve accuracy? Does anybody think its a bad idea?

 

[MifflinKid]

Slug the chambers before spending money on a reamer. Depending on when your Vaquero was made, the throats may be OK.

I use Hornady .454 lead balls to slug my .45 revolver throats. I clean the throats thoroughly, lightly oil the balls before driving them through the throats. I drive mine using a hardwood dowel tapped by a block of oak. I use a micrometer to measure the diameter of the balls. I tried using my calipers but they just were not accurate enough.

I have reamed a few .45 Colt cylinders. Accuracy improvement? I think so but at 20 yards a 1" improvement from the original 3.5" to 4.5" diameters (12 shots) isn't really all that great. But leading was greatly reduced in the barrels.

Good luck if you try your hand at this. It really isn't that difficult. Just take your time and use a good cutting oil.

One other idea. You could just send your cylinder to a revolver smith. I sent my original Vaquero cylinders to Hamilton Bowen. Turn around was about two weeks. I don't think he offers that service now but there are others who do.

 

[mavracer]

I've done 3 of my Rugers now and will do my new 5 1/2" SS Bisley soon. So far it's made good improvements on accuracy, my 7 1/2" Bisley went from 2" groups off bags at 25y to one jagged hole.

 

[dickttx]

Made a big difference on my 1970 Blackhawk.
Unless you have several to do it is much more economical to sent it to cylindersmith.com. You can also rent the tool, but at the same price that cylindersmith charges to do the job.

http://www.cylindersmith.com/

 

[MMCSRET]

I did both cylinders in my 2005 45/45. Made a lot of difference. I cast and size to fit my guns. The chambers were varied from .446 to .451, I opened them all to .4525, bore slugs at .451 and I size my cast to .452. Works well. The gun has never had a jacketed bullet thru it.

 

[Bozack]

I sent my cylinder to the cylindersmith. Big improvement. Cut my groups down, heck I couldn't even get a group before. Now it is my favorite gun to shoot.