Chamber mouth chamfer?

[ZVP]

Is it a good idea to have the chamber mouths cut and retapered? I have herd it helps seating, when you try to shoot conicals.
I would wonder though if it prevents the round balls from cutting the ring of lead that's supposed to help seal the ball?
Trying to learn...
Thanks,
ZVP

 

[Acorn Mush]

If the chamber mouths are chamfered, the balls will be swaged to size as they are rammed. There will be no shaved ring of lead. As long as balls of proper diameter are used, not having a ring of lead is of no concern.

You mentioned "chamber mouths cut and retapered". I presume you mean "retapered" as in the small area of the chamfer only, and not extending beyond the lower edge of the chamfer down into the chamber. The chamber walls must remain parallel so the ball is not further reduced in size as it is pushed deeper into the chamber.

 

[arcticap]

I like the lesser to no chamfer that the mouths of the Pietta Remington .44 chambers have. They seem to be capable of cutting the thinnest lead rings when ramming .451 balls.
If it's not broke then I don't want to fix it, nor break it by altering it.

 

[junkman_01]

I always say "If it aint broke, but I can make it BETTER, go ahead and alter it!"

 

[Noz]

The small hand held device that Lee sells to chamfer the inside and outside of your cartridge cases will cut a nice chamfer in your cap and ball chambers. This is an historical correct thing because my 1851 Colt(Manufacture date of 1862 has it's chambers chamfered.
I find it is easier to load a round ball in a chamfered chamber.

 

[junkman_01]

Noz,

I agree 100% and am glad you mentioned your ORIGINAL Colt with chamfered chamber mouths.

 

[arcticap]

I feel the same way about my original Pietta Remington.
Did Ruger chamfer the ROA's?
What about the Rogers & Spencer?
Do they need it?
The other question that I have is does chamfering affect the amount of gas cutting of the cylinder pin or arbor?
Would chamfering create more, less or no change in the amount of gas cutting if firing heavy loads?

 

[junkman_01]

They all could use it, but they don't 'need' it. All of mine have it and there are no ill effects.

 

[Busyhands94]

i did it to one of my guns. i think it might have made it more accurate!

 

[makos_goods]

The small hand held device that Lee sells to chamfer the inside and outside of your cartridge cases will cut a nice chamfer in your cap and ball chambers. This is an historical correct thing because my 1851 Colt(Manufacture date of 1862 has it's chambers chamfered.
I find it is easier to load a round ball in a chamfered chamber.

Noz,
Are you sure it was chamfered from the factory?

None of my three originals have it and if you do detailed search of pictures of cylinder mouths in the respected texts and even online, chamfered chamber mouths are the exception. You can't "undo" a chamfer on a chamber, so if the majority of them don't exhibit a chamfer wouldn't it be more reasonable to assume thy were added later?

You probably remember I have pictures over on CAS city of a couple of mine, an one if of '49 cylinder from '53 and the other is a '60 built the same year yours was. I used to have them posted here, but you can go look at them over there.

http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,26043.msg343399.html#msg343399

Your buddy,
Mako

 

[AbitNutz]

I looked at the idea and Clement did a very mild chamfer. The best solution is to use a conical Bullet that has a slightly smaller base...like a BigLube. All conical loading problems go away then.