I almost hope I don't like it !

[tj3006]

After reading the posts,
    From my previous thread on the model 66-4, i expect to pick up in about 3.5 hours, I almost hope I don't like it. 
The odd's are I will, as the action is fantastic in both double and single. 
  But it's 3 inch barrel is Ported. I generally do not like ports, and that is putting it mildly. My hearing is not great, and i like playing guitar so I need to be cautious.
  But Lee Martin tells me he is Pretty sure only 500 of these were made with Color cased hammer and trigger, and factory ports.
  So if I don't like it , I should be able to turn a handsome profit. 
     I have a slightly guilty conscience, because the seller , is a friend. But on the other hand he owns a gun store,  and should do a bit more research on gun's he is un familiar with.
    I am going to urge him to join this sight. And I did not know the true value of this gun either, until I posted here. 
    I will ask him to call the person who he got the gun from and tell them i would pay 50.00 for them if she could find the factory grips I would pay 100 if I need to !...tj
 

[jeffh]

Maybe that friend who owns a gun store does know what it's worth and is taking care of a friend himself.

I personally prefer 3" DAs over any other length, especially in 357s. They are hard to co me by and I've also always abhorred extra holes in the barrels and have passed on many otherwise fantastic 3" DAs for that one "fault."

Many tell me that the extra holes don't accumulate lead or make them any harder to clean when you eventually have to, and I only shoot full-blown 357 Mag loads in my carbine - and rarely at that, so maybe the blast wouldn't be that bad. My preferred 357 Mag load in my own 3" revolvers is a cast, 180 grain, plain-based WFN of straight wheel weights or 50/50 WW/Pure Lead, driven my 6 grains of Unique. I've never chronographed that load, but it's supposed to do about 1050 fps out of a 4" barrel. Maybe I'm getting 900 or 950? It's accurate, manageable and the extra weight gives me an edge with momentum for very good penetration. I don't feel like I'm giving up a thing over any full-powered jacketed 357 load.

I hate noise and noise levels which don't bother some people is literally painful to me. My hearing sucks and is getting worse in spite of wearing hearing protection from the time I left home, but as a kid, we never had hearing protection. We shot 22 handguns to 44 Mags, 22 rifles to any non-magnum rifle, to include some very intense varmint rifles. I assume that's where the hearing issues are rooted, but I am extremely sensitive to noise and avoided the 357 mag for many years. One day it downed on me that I didn't have to load them like that and that I had no use for full magnum loads anyway.

I almost hope you DO like it and find a way to enjoy it, extra holes or not. I'm excited for you and what I think will be an exquisite revolver.

Fingers crossed...

[oddshooter]

I have the same problem with my hearing. And I like to play guitars as well.

I double up my protection.
Nowadays, I push a twirled soft rubber into the ears and then put ear muffs on top of those.

Ranges can have neighbors with muzzle breaks that are louder than any ported revolver.

Prescut

[tj3006]

odd Shooter,
I mostly avoid ranges, , I was next to a guy with a .338 X .378 Weatherby mag. I got up and left. Brutal to everyone but him !

[bradshaw]

Jeff.... was told sound wave of .357 Mag runs 7,000 cycles per second, a higher frequency than .44 Mag. Certainly the pitch is more akin to C4 (Composition 4), which VOD (Velocity of Detonation) hits 24,000 to 27,000 fps. A difference is that C4 can do that to you 50 yards away. Both types of blast damage unprotected hearing. (Regular old stick dynamite with VOD 17,000 to 19,000 fps doesn’t do that, and it does a much better job fracturing rock than C4. Don’t know about straight nitroglycerine----25,000 fps----but nitroglycerine dynamite doesn’t crack your hearing like C4, or .357 Mag. A shaped charge of RDX or C4 cuts steel like an oxy-acetylene torch, only thousands of times faster.)

Your 180 WFN sounds like good medicine. I’d try it DEEP SEAT. Roll crimp on ogive. Should increase efficiency, slightly reduce sound wave.
David Bradshaw

[jeffh]

Thanks, David. So, I'm not just imagining the obnoxious nature of our dear, old 357.

I am familiar with C4 and remember the first Claymore mine I heard detonate. I was several hundred yards away and remember how the blast seemed SO violent, even in terms of explosions in general. The low BOOM of other explosives in mortar and artillery rounds is more like thunder, but C4 gets your attention and sounds so much more serious and unforgiving - scarier - as dumb as that may sound.

The 180 WFN load with 6 grains of Unique is very much more pleasant compared to a full case of H110 under a 158 grain bullet. I have a fair bit of sized OD forward of the crimp groove on the bullet (NOE 360-180) and could probably seat it as much as .100" deeper. I'll try that and see how it works in the revolvers and the carbine. So far, I have not found seating bullets out to the rifling on the carbine barrel to show any significant gain in accuracy, so deeper seating would also benefit the exploits relating the the suppressor and possibly a faster powder.