J.G. Terry
New member
Year of introduction
The Security Six series of handgun was introduced in 1972?
The Security Six series of handgun was introduced in 1972?
357 ammo needed resizing
- Thread starter tank1949
- Start date
Did the rest of you miss this???
I did, the first time around. Tank fixed the problem (all brass now works in the Ruger), so there is no need, or point to doing anything to the gun.
He had some rounds that fit fine in his S&W with were tight in one chamber of his Ruger. He re-sized them and now they all work in the Ruger (and I assume in the S&W too) so problem fixed.
Seems like these days everyone is always recommending doing something to the gun as a first step anytime something doesn't go just perfect. Changes to the gun ought to be the LAST RESORT as they are nearly always something permanent.
In this case, a slight tweak to the ammo cured the problem. Without polishing the gun, or having a smith work it over or any of the other suggested "fixes". He said he bought the gun in the 70s and while he hadn't shot it much, he had shot it, and he didn't say it had an issue from day one, he only found the issue with THIS BATCH of his handloads.
That right there, should put mods to the gun at the bottom of the list of things to consider. And as it turned out, (and as I suspected) no work to the gun was needed, just some work on the ammo.
J.G. Terry
New member
Where to start
44AMP: Sounds like you are trying to tell me to start at the simplest thing that can go haywire with the gun situation 100% of the time. What a novel idea!
44AMP: Sounds like you are trying to tell me to start at the simplest thing that can go haywire with the gun situation 100% of the time. What a novel idea!
Jim Watson
New member
Ah, but does all .357 loaded ammo? Without running loaded rounds through the sizing die.
buck460XVR
New member
Kinda where I am at. Again, all the OP's ammo fits in every other charge hole/chamber of two guns except for one. This is a clear indication that something is off with that one charge hole. Regardless that post-sizing the rounds allows the ammo to be chambered in the one chamber, the fact remains, that it is of a different dimension than the others. If the ammo did not chamber in any of the Ruger charge holes then I would think it was just a matter that the chambers on the Ruger were a tad tighter than the Smith. But this ain't what's happening. Post sizing ammo generally is a fix for another problem and the problem seems to be one charge hole in a line of guns from a manufacturer well known for having mismatched or undersized charge holes. IMHO, the fix is not to resize all of ones ammo to accommodate one errant charge hole. That difference in the chamber will create a difference in pressure and may well make a difference in POI from the others. As I said before, even with post sizing and the capability to now chamber unfired rounds, it may mean sticky extraction from that one chamber after firing due to it being undersized. Why not just find out for sure what's going on? If Ruger's customer service is a great as everyone claims, why not call them and have them give a look? One ain't out anything. Since the OP claims he rarely shoots the revolver, it ain't like he will miss it for a coupla weeks. A call to Ruger costs nuttin' and may result in a pre-paid label and a free fix. One of the reasons we pay good money for a quality firearm from a reputable manufacturer is for customer service/support. Why not use it instead of creating another step in the reloading process?
Thanks to all, even the folks who didn't fully read my initial post. But, even I made a mistake. I resized ONLY the examined rounds that would NOT easily eject from the identified chamber/cylinder. I examined around 500 and maybe 50 or so were tight. They are the ones that I resized, not all 500. And as some might have missed my text, back in the day before some of the people reading this post were born, resizing reloaded magnum ammo helped (but didn't totally) keep bullets from dislodging in brass under violent recoil (at least that was the belief) , even after hard roll-crimped. It has also been my experience that manufactures do not condone shooting reloads. All of my factory (NEW) bullets ejected with little effort. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that each chamber/cylinder was reamed within Ruger's specs., even though one was "tight." I was careless in not adjusting my Dillon to where it needed to be concerning different revolvers. I have never had issues with semi-auto pistols or rifles. Again, THXs to all!
Aguila Blanca
Staff
The issue may not have been the adjustment of your Dillon setup. Dies are dies, and I've never heard of a seating/crimping die that had any adjustment for diameter.
First off, Ruger's long had a reputation for uneven chamber diameters. Jim March posted about this frequently. If I remember correctly (and I may have it reversed), in the "old days" Ruger bored their cylinders using six drill bits in a fixture, and all the holes were done simultaneously. Apparently it was not unusual for one or a couple to be tight as the cutters wore out. More recently, Ruger switched to CNC machines and all the chambers are done sequentially with the same cutter.
That said, how it happened isn't as important as the fact that you got a cylinder with one tight chamber. But not that tight, since it has no problem with factory ammo, and it appears (if I read your follow-up post correctly) that it also handled 450 out of 500 of your reloads okay. Are all the reloads the same headstamp? Brass from different makers may (in fact, generally does) have slightly different wall thicknesses. That alone could explain your problem.
It also appears that you have found a workable solution, so that's good. I would still do a bit of polishing on the tight chamber, but that's just me.
Out of curiosity, which Lee die did you use for resizing -- the decapping die with the decapping pin removed, or the Lee Factory Crimp Die?
First off, Ruger's long had a reputation for uneven chamber diameters. Jim March posted about this frequently. If I remember correctly (and I may have it reversed), in the "old days" Ruger bored their cylinders using six drill bits in a fixture, and all the holes were done simultaneously. Apparently it was not unusual for one or a couple to be tight as the cutters wore out. More recently, Ruger switched to CNC machines and all the chambers are done sequentially with the same cutter.
That said, how it happened isn't as important as the fact that you got a cylinder with one tight chamber. But not that tight, since it has no problem with factory ammo, and it appears (if I read your follow-up post correctly) that it also handled 450 out of 500 of your reloads okay. Are all the reloads the same headstamp? Brass from different makers may (in fact, generally does) have slightly different wall thicknesses. That alone could explain your problem.
It also appears that you have found a workable solution, so that's good. I would still do a bit of polishing on the tight chamber, but that's just me.
Out of curiosity, which Lee die did you use for resizing -- the decapping die with the decapping pin removed, or the Lee Factory Crimp Die?
Aguila Blanca
Staff
I did a bit of searching. I found one of Jim March's nuggets in this thread:
https://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=544612&highlight=ruger+cylinder+bore
Post #8:
https://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=544612&highlight=ruger+cylinder+bore
Post #8:
J.G. Terry
New member
What did he say?
What did he say? One could make a case for communication problems. Parts of this account have been described several different ways. This thing could go on forever with these changes. The guy needs to get a taper crimp die. He needs to retire that mishmash of dies. I might suggest, since he rarely shoots the Ruger or the Smith, is to buy factory ammo for those guns.
What did he say? One could make a case for communication problems.
Parts of this account have been described several different ways. This thing could go on forever with these changes. The guy needs to get a taper crimp die. He needs to retire that mishmash of dies. I might suggest, since he rarely shoots the Ruger or the Smith, is to buy factory ammo for those guns.