Thinking out loud... gas ring

[tek4260]

Will the gas ring stretchers that Brownells sell work for Rugers? I was curious if stretching a factory Ruger to 0 endshake would be a worthwhile process or is the "cushion of oil" that Linebaugh talks about enough to make it pointless to stretch one.

Also, I was considering getting a cutter and taking a bit off the gas ring to close the B/C gap by a couple of thousandths. This would require a shim to be made from a piece of feeler gauge to go behind the cylinder like Iowegan shows in his manual. I don't think .002 would cause ignition problems considering I am already running #26 springs.

Would ya'll give up a bit of headspace for a tighter B/C gap?

[subsonic]

I don't think any of this is worth messing with unless you can turn the barrel in and do it right. I don't think I'd go for the shim behind the ratchet. I suspect it will not be long before the ratchet deforms your shim. If you need to shim, do it at the front where you want to stretch the gas ring. Have you seen where you can ream out the existing gas ring and part of the base pin hole and press in a new gas ring/bushing?

If you have a big enough BC gap that you NEED a shim to fix it, your headspace will open up too much by fixing it.

No expert here, just thinking outloud too.

[tek4260]

I have seen those bushings as well, but they are beyond the tabletop. I am not talking about repairing or piecing together revolvers, but rather improving a factory one.

I have used the gas ring shims on my OM Super, but I found another cylinder that was longer and was able to fit it. I'm no fan of the shims on the gas ring. I actually started to shim the rear when I fit the new cylinder since the ratchet had already beaten up the frame pretty good, but I was able to smooth it out and still get by with no endshake. Whenever it batters again, I will make a shim for the rear.

[edk]

After considering myself those hand tools from Brownells that perform a singular task and are not inexpensive, I just decided to get a lathe...

Now those shims I do not care for on a single action however in a Smith DA they seem a more elegant solution.

[boxhead]

I have had Alan Harton weld up the gas ring and refit the cylinder for zero play.