Post by Cholla on Oct 19, 2019 2:21:42 GMT -5
Even as a handgun hunter, I have no use for jacketed handgun bullets, and shoot cast bullets exclusively.
There's a lot of good advice here, but I've never had to mess with a certain diameter neck expander, piddle coating, a specific Bhn(unless casting HP's) or alloys, etc.
From your description, I strongly suspect your revolver is the culprit, and specifically either the cylinder throat diameters and/or, as someone else mentioned, thread choke, which is a very common occurrence in revolvers, but especially it would seem in Ruger's. Imagine a .430 +/- inch bullet leaving the cylinder, going through a tight spot where the barrel is threaded into the frame and being reduced 2, 3 or 4 thousandths in diameter, then proceeding down a barrel whose groove diameter is .429". How could it be accurate? Jacketed bullets on the other hand "spring" back after running such a gamut.
A few years ago I bought a New Vaquero in 45 Colt with intentions of making it into a good, solid utility revolver that I could carry every day and hunt with. I first had to send the cylinder off to the cylindersmith to have the throats uniformed, then it took 60+ firelapping rounds to reduce the tight spot in the barrel to an acceptable diameter so it would shoot cast bullets well. It was an extremely frustrating process and I finally sold the damned thing. On the other hand my Flat Top Blackhawk in .44 Special was for the most part good right out of the box, although I did have the cylinder throats worked over, and my Uberti's are simply amazing right out of the box, seeming to care little what bullet shape, weight etc.
Cholla
There's a lot of good advice here, but I've never had to mess with a certain diameter neck expander, piddle coating, a specific Bhn(unless casting HP's) or alloys, etc.
From your description, I strongly suspect your revolver is the culprit, and specifically either the cylinder throat diameters and/or, as someone else mentioned, thread choke, which is a very common occurrence in revolvers, but especially it would seem in Ruger's. Imagine a .430 +/- inch bullet leaving the cylinder, going through a tight spot where the barrel is threaded into the frame and being reduced 2, 3 or 4 thousandths in diameter, then proceeding down a barrel whose groove diameter is .429". How could it be accurate? Jacketed bullets on the other hand "spring" back after running such a gamut.
A few years ago I bought a New Vaquero in 45 Colt with intentions of making it into a good, solid utility revolver that I could carry every day and hunt with. I first had to send the cylinder off to the cylindersmith to have the throats uniformed, then it took 60+ firelapping rounds to reduce the tight spot in the barrel to an acceptable diameter so it would shoot cast bullets well. It was an extremely frustrating process and I finally sold the damned thing. On the other hand my Flat Top Blackhawk in .44 Special was for the most part good right out of the box, although I did have the cylinder throats worked over, and my Uberti's are simply amazing right out of the box, seeming to care little what bullet shape, weight etc.
Cholla
