How to stop gas cutting?

[Saleen322]

I have a vague memory of such a thing in a 357 Maximum revolver, where the gas-cutting issue came up in a big way about 30 years ago. I want to say Ruger or maybe Dan Wesson, but frankly I cannot be sure I saw such a thing at all, let alone what kind of gun it was in.

Our Dan Wesson 357 SM (Maximum) that I posted about earlier came with another barrel. Since I only used bullets 180 and heavier, the second barrel has not been needed in over 30 years of use. The Ruger 357 Maximum is a fine revolver but the cylinder is a little shorter and some folks were shooting 158 grain and even lighter bullets through it which effected the gas cutting as well as forcing cone erosion. The Dan Wesson and the other popular 357 Max revolver used in silhouette back then, a Seville, had a little longer cylinder that handled 200 grain and heavier bullets. My most used bullet is a cast gas check bullet that weighs about 208 grains. That load still groups around 1.5" @ 50 yards from the Super Mag. They are very good revolvers.

 

[Varminterror]

Has anybody legitimately made a revolver with a sacrificial hardened plate?

The S&W scandium frames have a “blast shield” embedded in the topstrap. Whenever I get near a cut-through, I send it back and they repair it.

 

[ATLDave]

Does anyone know if there are documented/recorded/verified instances in which (excluding alloy-framed revolvers) gas cutting eventually caused a failure of the frame or other non-cosmetic issue?

 

[Drail]

I have never seen one go past the point where it starts to redirect the gas out to the side. It pretty much is self limiting. Looks like hell though..... With certain powders loaded at max charge (like Blue Dot) the top strap cutting will be worse and the forcing cone erosion will be worse also. I seem to remember that the main reason Ruger dropped the .357 Max was due to guns being sent back to them that had been seriously abused by handloaders using certain powders with lighter than standard bullets. I know I won't ever use Blue Dot again in any cartridge.

 

[Old Dog]

Strictly a cosmetic issue as far as I'm concerned. I started shooting K-frames in the late '70s; when the hotter, lighter (i.e. 125 gr) fast-steppers started getting popular, especially in the late '90s/early '00s, I shot metric butt-tons of those, mostly 'cause there was no internet gun forum to tell me that was a bad idea. I'd noticed the line from the flame-cutting in the topstraps of my Model 19s and 66s, but that seemed normal as every other .357 K-frame I'd looked at looked exactly the same.