Revolver lifespan, lead bullets vs jacketed

[no.5enfield]

FWIW:
Back in 1987 I bought a nib s&w 586 along with a 6-cavity h&g #50 mold & a 4-cavity lyman 358311 mold.
View attachment 832536

Used a lot of ww452 & unique when I 1st started reloading for it. For hot loads I'd use ww820 back then I'd buy cases of it (4 #8 jugs/#32) at a time from pat's reloading when he'd setup at the medina gunshows. I started getting into swaging jacketed bullets in the early 90's but I mostly shot cast bullets in that 586. I'd keep track of the primers I bought for that 586. That revolver saw a lot of lite target 38spl wc loads. But it also burned a lot of that ww820 & full house 357 loads also.

@ the 100,000 round count I had to send it back to s&w. The timing was shot it was spitting lead bad. They redid the timing & re-cut the forcing cone.
@ the 200,000 round count it went back to s&w to get the timing redone along with the forcing cone re-cut.
@ the 275,000 round count the bbl was done. The accuracy just wasn't there anymore & a pet load (15.0gr 2400/358311) lost 75fps.

I took the bbl off that 586, this is what it looked like. You can see a sharp edge on the non-drive side of the lands & the drive side is rounded. Also note the flame cutting on the forcing cone.
View attachment 832537

Hard to see but the cylinders were ate/etched pretty good also. They shouldn't have that "step" in them, that's flame cutting
View attachment 832538

That's over 4k pounds of lead!

 

[edwardware]

Lil'Gun. I did my own experiments and found it can be used to chew out the barrel face and forcing cone very quickly.

Ok, now I understand. I was aware of the reports of erosion issues, but hadn't connected it to chemistry.

 

[Garandimal]

For this question, I would point you to a post by @Slamfire here:

So, the best competitive pistol team in the world (that prints its own money!) replaces 1911 barrels every 180k-250k rounds. Methinks you're not in any danger of wearing out a revolver barrel before the rest of the gun is worn completely out of time.

A more realistic concern is endshake due to yoke compression. I own two S&W revolvers (1970s and 1990s) that needed yoke peening or shimming to correct endshake caused by a diet of .357 Magnum loads.

Yikes! Better run out and buy at least Two.






GR

 

[Garandimal]

Lil'Gun. I did my own experiments and found it can be used to chew out the barrel face and forcing cone very quickly. Note that I said "it can be used to..." and not that it will in the case of every use. I won't detail it further than that because my work wasn't enough to draw more decisive conclusions. If you're curious, get some and try it.

Does that erosion effect pertain to Stainless Steel as well?

(Considering Lil'Gun as a base for some thermonuclear 180 gr. XTP .357 rounds for a RUGER SS 77/357.)




GR

 

[Eddietruett]

That's over 4k pounds of lead!

Not sure when you took it out of service but if it was this year, I figure an average of 700 rounds a month for over 35 years. And I thought I shot a lot. Wow! Its a wonder your trigger finger didn't fall off before the barrel wore out! You certainly got your money's worth out of that S&W.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

That's over 4k pounds of lead!

That mould casts a nominally 160 grain bullet. 275,000 X 160 /7000 = 6,285 pounds.

 

[forrest r]

Used to go thru +/- #300 of lead a year feeding the pistols/revolvers. Things change, only going thru +/- #100 a year now. I did shoot a lot of 22lr pistols for awhile and eventually I sold of my s&w 41 and 2 k22's. Still have/use the sport pistol/free pistol/silhouette pistol & a marvel conversion for the 1911's. Probably shoot more 10m air pistol now than anything else. Too easy to walk downstairs & shoot. I clean the pellet trap out every 6 months


That 586 treated me well over the decades. Didn't care about the loss of velocity, darn accuracy went. Took it out of service 3 or 4 years ago. Put another cylinder on it and a 4" bbl. Shot it for awhile but just never cottoned to the 4" bbl'd 568's/686's. I like a muzzle heavy bbl'd revolver for range play/target work. Ended up selling it and put the $$$ into a new 686


Happy to say the new 686's are just as accurate as that old 586 was. Not hand/cherry picked targets by any means. Nothing more than the test targets used that day/typical 6-shot groups @ 50ft


Not sure what would happen to that 686 if I took it to the 100,000 round mark with the sleeved bbl.'s.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

What powder coating do you use -- looks like Harbor Freight?

 

[forrest r]

What powder coating do you use -- looks like Harbor Freight?

I started out using harbor freight pc back in 2014 & quickly switched to a high quality powder.

 

[silvermane_1]

Might look for some of Mickleck's writings/videos. I seem to recall he consider 10,000 rounds as just the break-in period.

Like MCB my competition revolver, 686 5", has around 20,000 rounds.

Are you referring to Jerry Miculek there alfsauve?

 

[Vern Humphrey]

I started out using harbor freight pc back in 2014 & quickly switched to a high quality powder.

What are you using now?

 

[alfsauve]

Are you referring to Jerry Miculek there alfsauve?

Yeah. Blame it on auto-correct.

 

[forrest r]

What are you using now?

Started buying pc from smoke over on cast bullets in 2015, excellent quality. Ordered another #2 of john deere green from him last summer, I'm getting +/- 10,000 pc'd bullets per pound of pc.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

Thanks for the tip!

 

[Charlie Martinez]

If we are talking about barrel wear only I read that barrel wear is mostly caused by the extreme heat generated for a split second every time the gun is fired. Both lead & copper are softer than (barrel) steel but if jacketed bullets are indeed harder on barrels (I really don't know) maybe it's because jacketed bullets are usually fired in hotter loads.

 

[Charlie Martinez]

What causes "flame cutting"? I think some of my revolvers have that but I've never fired 100,000 rounds out of any of them.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

Flame cutting refers to the action of hot gasses on the metal. Under certain conditions -- for example, gas bypassing the bullet, pressures will be higher locally and the cutting action worse.

If you have a revolver than has been fired quite a bit, look at the forward upper angle of the frame (right above the breech end of the barrel) and you may find a groove there -- that's flame cutting. Usually it will go just so far, and stop. But some revolvers -- typically those chambered for very high-pressure cartridges -- may have a square of harder, more resistant steel inlet there to prevent flame cutting.