cylinder throat and bullets match or oversize

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roval

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I've had some advise to oversize the bullet by .001 above the throat. what would be the advantage over just matching the throat size if i know all my chambers have the same throat size(used pin gauges) and is larger than the groove diameter?
 
what would be the advantage over just matching the throat size if i know all my chambers have the same throat size(used pin gauges) and is larger than the groove diameter?

Most revolvers can shoot just fine if the bullet is an exact fit for the cylinder throat. By exact fit I mean you can fill every charge hole with a bullet using moderate thumb pressure and they won't move regardless if you're pointing the revolver up or down.

A lot of times it comes down to using bullets slightly larger than throat size due to sizing die limitations and the fact that the bullets could be used in a variety of different guns.
 
Assuming the throats are .001 over the groove diameter, sizing lead to fit the throats is fine. A tight slip fit is good. If the throats are under groove diameter you will need to ream them or shoot plated/jacketed.

reddog81 made a great point about loading for more than one gun and being a little over throat diameter to fit another gun. It will swage down when you chamber it.
 
my 44 mag has throats .431 uniform and its larger than the groove diameter. for this single gun how can a .432 bullet have an advantage over .431 wouldn't it just be swaged down to .431 as well?

both .431 and .432 should completely obturate the bore. where does the .001 above throat advice come from? is it because .432 sizing tolerances means some may be .431 to .432 and better to get the larger size?
 
.432 ensures a complete seal. .431 means you'll probably get a good seal.

.431 might work as well as a .432. .431 might work better than .432. Soft bullets with light loads seem to be more forgiving. If pushing the limits on .44 Mag you'll probably have to do some experimenting. No one here will be able to give a definitive answer on what will work best in your gun.
 
if there's no downside to going .001 above throat will do so. i don't notice any difference shooting .431 vs .432... but again wouldn't the .432 just get swaged to .431 upon firing?
 
.432 bullets will be swaged down assuming all throats are .431.

Sometimes the throats aren't all uniform. Let's say you've got 3 holes at .431 and 3 at .4315. In this instance .431 bullets won't be ideal. .432 would work a lot better.
 
i checked the throats with pin gauges they were uniformly .431. so no advantage to .432 in this scenario then. i understand of course if they were not uniform to go with the size of the larger throat. thanks
 
the groove diameter is less than the throats as mentioned in the original post. i will likely just order .432 in case some of them are smaller than stated so long as i have to stick to non standard sizes.
.431 is available with lasercast and .432 is easily obtainable with dardas but i want pc to decrease the mess.
 
It’s a matter of how the shooter wants to promote consistency. If you oversize your bullets, the throat has to do some sizing, which ensures every bullet passing through that particular chamber will be sized exactly the same. Alternatively, if you use a slip fit sized bullet, you can’t necessarily be sure each and every bullet has the exact same slip fit. Does every bullet slide into the throat with the exact same pressure? Is the pressure required for some bullets caused by uniform drag, or by a few random high spots in the bullet circumference (egg shaped bullets, casting mold lines, high driving bands, etc). Lack of lube, excessive lube, out of center gas checks, etc... alternatively, if a shooter relies upon the throat to final size the bullet before presenting it to the forcing cone, how does the shooter know the sizing will happen concentrically, and know the chamber and cartridge case relative position won’t let the bullet press harder against one side of the throat than the other - yielding an out of round bullet leading into the bore?

Personally, I slip fit all of my bullets. Either side is speculation, but I know all of my rounds will chamber and I know they will all be capable of greater precision than I am as the shooter, without leading/copper fouling or gas blow by.
 
This is theory, not science, but my opinion is that the throat is there to control the movement of the bullet down the chamber.

When you load a revolver, the cartridges simply drop into the chamber -- they're necessarily quite a loose fit. And the bullet is inside the case, making it an even looser fit in the chamber. If nothing were done about that, the bullet would go rattling down the chamber, bouncing off the walls, and accuracy would be nil. What we do is have a throat (Smith and Wesson calls it a "ball seat") that controls the bullet as it emerges from the case mouth and keeps it under control as it enters the breech.

That tells me -- in theory -- that a slight swaging down by the throat is a good think.
 
I am a slip fit guy, tight slip fit is ok, but no play. In a perfect world my .357 revolver has a .357 groove diameter, my throats are all exactly .358 and so are my bullets. But in the real world we have a little wiggle room.

That said, as long as the bullet is .001 over groove diameter and the throats are that or .001ish over, you are usually ok as far as leading and accuracy goes.
 
varminterror gives me the logic i was asking for. since neither of these are common sizes might as well try to order the .432.
 
The beauty of today's revolvers, at least the ones I'm familiar with is that the throats are not only all the same size they are round.

I had a Smith 629-3 that had throat diameters all over the place. I pushed oversized, lanolin-coated cast bullets through them using a brass rod of appropriate diameter, a hammer and a two by four with two holes drilled in the right places (one for the bullet and one for the ejector rod). I would remove the cylinder and ejector assembly from guns and measure the throats this way using a micrometer that would read to a ten thousandth of an inch. Some people say you can't repeatedly measure a ten thousandth of an inch like this. I say that with enough practice you can get pretty close.

The slugs of course were not round before pushing them through the throats but the throats sized them down at least a couple thousands of an inch. The slugs were not round when they came out the other side either!

Last Fall I did this with a brand new Smith 686 - 6. I was astonished at how round and uniform in diameter the slugs were as they exited the chamber throats.

If you if you have a gun like that 629 - 3 that just will not shoot standard .430" diameter cast bullets (or whatever is normal for your situation) well, have a look at the throat dimensions. Gas blow-by in the throat is a major source of leading.

I was using a .430" diameter Star sizer die and wound up having to put an 11 mm reamer through it. Afterwards, all was well.

The bottom line is that you must measure your gun and use ammunition that is sized appropriately for it. This could involve some trial and error, LOL.
 
If you if you have a gun like that 629 - 3 that just will not shoot standard .430" diameter cast bullets (or whatever is normal for your situation) well, have a look at the throat dimensions. Gas blow-by in the throat is a major source of leading.

I was using a .430" diameter Star sizer die and wound up having to put an 11 mm reamer through it. Afterwards, all was well.

The bottom line is that you must measure your gun and use ammunition that is sized appropriately for it. This could involve some trial and error, LOL.

i had leading with .430 Powder coated swc that's why i ended up measuring the throats with pin gauges.
the leading was much reduced with .431 and .432. honestly didn't see the difference in leading or accuracy between the 2, both were slight especially after shooting a cylinder or 2 of jacketed at the end. it more had to do with the different loads. both were with lead. i want to go back to PC. less mess on the dies.
 
I coat bullets too. Just keeps the mess down when handling bullets and now thanks to Hi-Tek I can also put cast lead bullets through my m-a systems collator.
 
im still trying to figure out how to special order a different size from MBC and what the minimum ordwr is . sent email no reply yet.
 
I'm dying to try .429" swaged hollow point bullets (that I make) in my 329PD because those throats all measure .4290". Just what the base guard concept needs to work, I think. Now if I could just get some spare time...
 
I'm dying to try .429" swaged hollow point bullets (that I make) in my 329PD because those throats all measure .4290". Just what the base guard concept needs to work, I think. Now if I could just get some spare time...

What’s your bore diameter? Throat dims?
 
Don't know the bore diameter on this particular gun but do know the throat diameters. I probably got busy & had to put it away, lol. Regardless of the bore diameter, I make bullets to fit the throats. If it won't shoot like that I'd sell it. There are guys who will ream throats to get what they want but that seems like a pain.
 
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