Undersized chambers

[Rojelio]

All this talk about undersized chambers, I decided to do a little test.

I have an 1851 Euroarms 44 with a spare cylinder. The chambers on both cylinders measure .444 and the barrel slugged at .450 (grooves) and .442 (lands).

I reamed the chambers in 1 cylinder to .451 and left the other one as is. When I shoot them side by side, it should tell me if it makes a difference.

May not get to shoot till next week. Still have to replace the front sight. The last time I shot it, the sight went into a time warp.

A couple of pics:

Indicating a chamber.


reaming a chamber.

 

[rodwha]

I'm all ears!

 

[tscmmhk]

I have an old ASM 1860 Colt Army that has almost the same dimensions as your revolver. Based on your test results, she might get reamed!!

 

[Smokin'Joe]

Rojelio, Please try to recover the balls and check out the rifling grooves. See if the grooves are deeper on the balls from the reamed cylinder.

 

[Rojelio]

Rojelio, Please try to recover the balls and check out the rifling grooves. See if the grooves are deeper on the balls from the reamed cylinder

Joe, I'll have to rig up something to stop the balls. I usually shoot at a metal plate and they just splatter.

Maybe a box of sand. Any suggestions?

 

[Smokin'Joe]

Plastic water jugs.

 

[Willie Sutton]

I think you'll see a difference, I've certainly had better results after than before.

And who could ever live life without a Bridgeport in the garage?

Brownells does sell piloted reamers than can be used as hand reamers for those without machine tool access. It can be done on a kitchen table with the piloted reamers.


Best,

Willie

.

 

[Hellgate]

I tried the same thing a few years ago but did not have a piloted reamer but I did have a crummy chinese made vise for my drill press. I hand turned the reamer mounted in the press but the vise did not hold the cylinders vertically and I ruined about 4 of the 6 cylinders I "reamed" to .450. Lesson learned. Fortunately I could buy replacement cylinders for the ASMs & Ubertis. I basically reamed myself on that one (still hurts). Looks like you have the correct tools to do it right.

 

[Rojelio]

Looks like you have the correct tools to do it right.

Yes, everything went smooth. It just took a while to indicate each chamber. If I had a rotary table, it would have went a lot faster. The chambers turned out nice.

 

[Marlin 45 carbine]

looking forward to range results.
there's some fella that reams and deepens chambersto hold a bit more powder as well as fit the slugs/balls.
seems he's a bit pricey though.

 

[Rojelio]

there's some fella that reams and deepens chambersto hold a bit more powder as well as fit the slugs/balls.

I only reamed down to the rebated area on the cylinder. Past that would probably be dangerous.

 

[mykeal]

there's some fella that reams and deepens chambersto hold a bit more powder as well as fit the slugs/balls.

I suspect you're thinking of David Clements Guns. He only does that to Ruger Old Army's.

 

[4v50 Gary]

I want a Bridgeport.

I met a gunsmith who takes about 3 days to go from a plank of wood to a shaped stock. He doesn't use a duplicator but rather a milling machine.

 

[kituwa]

Ruger cylinders are heavy duty and have more to play around with.Colt and remington cylinders are pretty thin on the .44 ones especialy where the bolt notch is at.If you look at a colt you will see that the bolt notch is off cinter from the cambers, that is why, a reminton is off center too but not as much as the colt. They make something called cratex, it is rubber impregnated with grit and you can get it in disks of diffrent sizes and shapes and in bullet point shape and also in a longer flat end stick that you can use in a holder to do engine turning or jewling on meteal.One of that would be nice to polish up the bottom of the chambers because they are usually rather rough and makes them really hard to clean up.The bottom of the chamber is rounded somewhat but the cratex shapes itself to fit.Just an idea to try if you can get a hold on some cratex.

 

[Willie Sutton]

^^ What's the point?


As for reaming, you are taking a few thou out of the mouth of the cylinder, you do not need to ream down further than wherethe ogive of the ball will be seated.


Willie

.

 

[kituwa]

Willie, i was answering someone up a little that was talking about having the chambers reamed so it would hold more powder. You can do that a bit on a Ruger but a bad idea on a Colt or Remington.

 

[mykeal]

Ok, let's get back on the page here.

Reaming the chambers refers to increasing the diameter in order to prevent the lead ball from being reduced during loading to a size that's too small for the groove-to-groove diameter. It is NOT done to increase the amount of powder the cylinder can hold.

Dave Clements machines the Ruger Old Army cylinders DEEPER to increase powder capacity. It's an entirely different operation. He will also, for substantially more money, machine the chambers AND the barrel to .50 caliber; this is not 'reaming'.

 

[kituwa]

Mikeal, actually he make a whole new cylinder, its a 5 shot cylinder and a new barrel.And you are right, he deepens the ruger chambers, rugers already are the right size for the barrel groove to start with.To ream colt and Remington cylinders to make them to groove size does not remove much metal from the chambers but you dont want to go any deeper than the balls would normally seat.

 

[Rojelio]

I had time to do a quick test today before I got rained out. I shot the reamed cylinder first. The first shot went high just off the target so I changed my point of aim to the bottom of the target and shot the remaining 5 shots.

I cleaned the bore and shot 5 of the undreamed cylinder (to be fair) on the next target.

Targets were 25 yds. and shot off a rest.

The only difference in the load was I used .451 balls in the unreamed cylinder and .454 balls in the reamed cylinder. Powder was 27 grains of Goex fff. Bore butter on top of the balls.

I realize this is not a scientific test, but, More testing to come when I get more time. Keep in mind I'm not a very good shot with a handgun.

Smokin'Joe, I'm still trying to collect enough water jugs to do your test.

Anyway, reamed cylinder target on the left. Looks like it made a difference.

 

[rodwha]

That sure did make for quite an improvement! Good job!

I've really been wanting to get a Remington 1863, and have heard how off the chambers are compared to the grooves. It just doesn't make sense not to.

 

[Smokin'Joe]

Rojelio, Thanks for performing this test. Many readers are interested in your results.

 

[Dan D]

Thanks for sharing. It does seem to make a substantial difference,
Dan

 

[Dan D]

I'm assuming you're planning on reaming the other cylinder as well?
Thanks,
Dan

 

[Rojelio]

I'm assuming you're planning on reaming the other cylinder as well?

Yep, and several others after I get my milling machine set back up and re-leveled. I moved it and my lathe into a new shop yesterday so I'm out of commission till I get everything back in order.

 

[d-a]

Your test mirrors the results I got when I reamed my cylinder on my ASP '58 Remington

d-a