Crracked forcing cones

M

MR.G

New member
A recent post indicated a problem with the forcing coses cracking in S&W K frame guns, as a result of shooting 125gr. bullets.
I examined the forcing cones of my K frames, and they seem to be ok, even though they have all had a fair amount of 125 and 110gr. magnum rounds through them. Maby I have just been lucky. How bad of a problem is this? What weight and velocity is safe to shoot in a K frame?
 
From what I've *read*, versus experienced...

At some point hot .357s, esp. the better 125grainers, will eat the forcing cone before the actual barrel is anywhere near worn. A lot of the complaints were by police departments that were buying entire "fleets" of the things and having officers do all their practice with the same full-house monsters they carried.

Damned if I know JUST how many it takes. I suspect that blue versus stainless may make a big difference, and possibly "early stainless metallurgy versus modern" could also factor in?

It's possible the reputation in this area stems from early stainless guns, and later ones are better. I do know there have been improvements, except that a very small batch of early stainless J-Frames in the 60's were VERY strong, but used a high-grade stainless that was eating tooling so they stepped down for a while, and then much later (80's?) picked back up some.

I know, this isn't really enough info, more of a research starting point. Sorry. I know that if I had a K-Frame .357, I'd be very happy with it practicing mostly in .38/.38+P and shooting modest amounts of good .357 fodder.
 
Where the problem is. For the cylinder to shut, the design requires a small flat to be machined or filed on the bottom of the barrel that hangs into the cylinder window. What I have seen is that if the flat is kept to a minimum they last quite a while. If you get a combo of a deep forcing cone and a flat that is a little too deep that is when they will crack. I have seen PPC guns crack in this section due to the combination I just described. Before they crack you can turn the barrel back a turn or two and put a shallow forcing cone (top of the tolerance using the go-no go gauge) and hope for the best. I hope this helps.
God Bless
Jack Weigand
 
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