Questions about 1858 cylinder reaming

[Mizar]

Hello. Just some questions about reaming the cylinder chambers on a Pietta 1858 .44 cal - my barrel measures .453 inch and the average chamber measures are at .443 inch. The in between chamber walls are .053 thick at their thinnest portion. If I ream the cylinder chambers to .453 the chamber walls will be .043 thick. So, the questions - is a .043 wall safe to shoot with max charges of black powder? Meaning - 35 grains by volume of 3FG and Lee 200 gr conical, or 40 gr 3FG with round ball? The chamber to barrel alignment is very good and I was able to get about a 2 inch group at 35 yards with 200 gr Lee conicals and 35 grains of 3FG - this group came as a big surprise for me - it's a 5 1/2 inch barrel and I'm a lousy shooter. And the next question - after reaming I will need a bigger conical bulet - the .456 220 grain Lee for example. Is there a difference in height between 200 gr and 220 gr bullet and what is the diameter of the rear driving band - will it fit a .453 chambers?

Boris

P.S. At first I was disappointed from this revolver - big barrel to cylinder gap, short hand and poor bolt timing, but after some working on it including making a new hand, cutting a barrel crown, refitting the bolt and etc. it did grew on me. I consider this revolver as a fun project now.

 

[martysport]

I reamed mine with an 11.5mm hand ream (0.452755906 inch)
I use conicals I made from a LEE mold the same 220gr .456 one like you mention.
When loaded a Lee .456 conical into the cylinder (no powder) and pushed it out again and it measured .4525" The bigger bullets load fine with no problems, the base is stepped.
I loaded mine with 28gr of SWISS powder and I still have my fingers

 

[Mizar]

Marty, can you please give me the height of the bullet? Metric is OK

Boris

 

[arcticap]

There's helpful info. links related to reaming within this thread:

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=592634&highlight=ream

Is there a difference in height between 200 gr and 220 gr bullet and what is the diameter of the rear driving band - will it fit a .453 chambers?

Here are some dimensions:

For example:
The .450 200gr. Lee conicals for most .44 caliber C&B revolvers measure:
.442
.446
.450
The .456 220gr. Lee Conicals that fir the Ruger ROA & some other .44 caliber C&B revolvers measure:
.447
.451
.455
All are +/- .001

http://www.thehighroad.org/showpost.php?p=5754996&postcount=3

 

[martysport]

Sure, but will have to wait untill tomorrow morning

 

[Mizar]

Arcticap, I'm "worried" on two things - is a .043 chamber wall safe enough for maximum charges and how long is the 220 gr Lee conical - concerning accuracy with the slow twist rifling on Pietta?

Boris

 

[arcticap]

MutinousDoug considered similar reaming to be safe.

MC Dan,
A standard 29/64th inch reamer is .4531" dia. My ROA barrel slugs ~.451/.452" across the grooves. I had my cylinder reamed at a machine shop to the .4531 dimension and it cleaned up 4 of the 6 holes. (The two holes that did not clean up won't accept a .454 gage pin even a little.) The gun shoots better, but I bet it would do better still with the holes brought up to .454/.455. That would require a custom reamer or an expertly modified 15/32nds one $$$. At some point, correctly sized ball/bullets will become a problem. I expect ROA smiths would know where to have this done.
Good luck on your quest.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=244774&highlight=ream

Voodoochile reamed his chambers to .4510 and fired over 500 shots without any issues. It's worth noting that he's mostly only loading 30 grains of powder for better accuracy.
See post #1:

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=401071

Voodoochile made another post about considering advice to not ream all of the way down to the bottom portion of the chamber where the powder will be.
See post #3:

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=387881

 

[martysport]

15mm in length

 

[Mizar]

Thank you, Marty!!

Boris