Leaded barrel and no accuracy

M

mc4

Inactive
Hi,

I own a Dan Wesson revolver, model 732, .32 Magnum, with a 6″ barrel and I tried to shoot some targets at the range with .32 wadcutter ammo, but without sucess.

From what I read, this DW revolver is very accurate and also has a very good trigger, but unfortunately the impacts are everywhere around the center of the target, and not a shooter problem ;)

For what I see there is a lot of lead in the forcing cone and also on the rear face of the barrel, also notice lots of debris came from the gap between the cylinder and the barrel, maybe lead debris…

What I think is that the forcing cone was made to accept round nose lead bullets and not flat ones (wadcutter) so maybe I should open a little the forcing cone with a tool like the “11º Brownells Revolver Chamfering Kit”, what do you think?

Any experience with that?

Thanks in advance for any help,
Mike
 

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Important question ! Were you shooting new factory loads or handloads ?
In a lot of cases it's not the gun but the ammo that's causing the problem.

Is this gun used ?
After looking at photo's it appears to have not been cleaned for for some time .

Gary
 
This happened once to me with a m25-5 S&W. I bought gun NIB and 1st time at
range fired 2 boxes of old Rem ammo. The gun shot excellent. Didn't bother to adjust the sight because I was going to load for it. Cleaned pistol good as new, only 100rds had been fired. Bought couple boxes of Speer lead bullets, loaded up a hundred target loads. 750fps with Unique. Next trip to range gun was spot on with first 6, second 6 not so good, third 6 terrible and 1st thought was loose sights. It wasn't, 18 rnds of those Speer bullets had clogged forcing cone and filled the bore to the point it looked like foil in the grooves. Moral of the story it
was the bullets, not the gun.
 
Hi, thanks for your inputs.
I used factory ammo, Fiocchi and Lapua, and the results were the same, holes everywhere in the target, some shots did not show...
I made the photos after maybe 100 shots and as we can see the forcing cone is heavily leaded. After the photos I cleaned the barrel and shot a box of Lapua 32 WC and noticed lot of debries coming from the gap between cylinder and barrel, and also noticed lots of lead on the top of the rear side of the barrel, both things are consistent with the wadcutter bullets do not enter well in the forcing cone...
Don't you agree with me?
 
Is this gun used ?
After looking at photo's it appears to have not been cleaned for for some time
Click to expand...

I was wondering the same thing. Was some of that already in there before you tested your loads.

I would have to clean that all out of there and try it again to be sure before making assumptions. If the bullets are bevel based and to hard for the velocity they are running, than that would cause it like the other posters have said.

Reaming would be a last resort and you don't know if it would help.

Did you check the throats in the chambers to see if they are undersized?

They should be around .358.
 
Maybe it's me, But I don't see anything "heavily leaded" in those pics...

I have seen barrels where the first few inches of rifling is almost invisible due to lead...

I have seen barrels where you can take strips of lead out of the rifling with a dental pick...

ADDING:

OK...After looking hard at the pics again, it appears your forcing cone is indeed 'heavily leaded'...I was concentrating on the lands and grooves before...

Have you cleaned that encrusted lead down to bare metal since you acquired the gun?
 
Maybe it's me, But I don't see anything "heavily leaded" in those pics...
Click to expand...
Neither do I.
Looks entirely normal.

.32 [H&R?] Magnum, with a 6″ barrel ...with .32 wadcutter ammo
Click to expand...
What/whose wadcutter ammunition (cartridge) were you using ?
 
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It could be that the cylinder locks out of alignment with the barrel.

You should be able to check that with a good bore light. I don't think a bore scope would help with that.

Also, the cylinder throats might be too large for that particular bullet.
 
LE-28 said:
I was wondering the same thing. Was some of that already in there before you tested your loads.

I would have to clean that all out of there and try it again to be sure before making assumptions.

If the bullets are bevel based and to hard for the velocity they are running, than that would cause it like the other posters have said.

Reaming would be a last resort and you don't know if it would help.

Did you check the throats in the chambers to see if they are undersized?

They should be around .358.
Click to expand...

The barrel has maybe 100 shots with Fiochhi 32 WC before I made the photos.

I did clean the forcing cone after that and shoot a box of Lapua, not the same leading in the forcing cone as before, but lots of debris (spit lead) and also lots of lead on the the top of the barrel (no photo).

I think the first Fiocchi ammo have Bevel base and the Lapua have plain base
(not sure) and in the Fiocchi website I read 200m/s and the Lapua seems to be 240m/s...

I did measure the throats of the cylinder with a digital micrometer and got 0.310"... in the Lapua website they say that the diam. of their 32 wc bullet is .314
 
mehavey said:
What/whose wadcutter ammunition (cartridge) were you using ?
Click to expand...

My first 100 or 150 shots were Fiocchi .32" Wadcutter, then cleaned the forcing cone and shot with Lapua .32 Wadcutter.

It seems that the Lapua do not make the same leading of the forcing cone, maybe because I shot fewer shots or maybe because it seems that they are plain base bullets instead bevel base as Fiocchi seems to be... (not sure).

Anyway, with this Lapua 32 WC I felt more debris coming from the gap cylinder/barrel and the top of the barrel (not the cone) became heavily leaded (no photos).

It could be consistent with a misalignment between cylinder/barrel... ???
 
Dufus said:
It could be that the cylinder locks out of alignment with the barrel.

You should be able to check that with a good bore light. I don't think a bore scope would help with that.

Also, the cylinder throats might be too large for that particular bullet.
Click to expand...

I thought that too, but don't have a way to verify that... I have a bore light but it is too big to stay inside the chambers :(

I did measure the cylinder throats with a digital micrometer and get 0.310, not sure the diam. of the bullets, but the Lapua website states .314 ??? If this is true, maybe the throats are too small, don't you think?
 
Salmoneye said:
Have you cleaned that encrusted lead down to bare metal since you acquired the gun?
Click to expand...

I shot very few shots with this barrel, maybe a total of 5 boxes, and every time I cleaned the barrel after the range. Never saw that leading until now, maybe it was there before, maybe not.

Right now I cleaned it but the accuracy did not improve
 
"...32 wad cutter ammo..." What ammo? .32 Mag with WC's or .32 S&W Long?
Fiocchi .32 and Lapua .32 are brands and calibres.
.314" is normal for a cast .32 S&W Long bullet. Is for an H&R Mag cast bullet too.
"...made to accept round nose lead bullets..." Nope. DW would have no idea what ammo would be used. Most factory H&R Mag ammo has an HP bullet anyway.
Best thing for you to do is reload the Magnum cases to Long velocities.
 
T. O'Heir said:
"...32 wad cutter ammo..." What ammo? .32 Mag with WC's or .32 S&W Long?
Fiocchi .32 and Lapua .32 are brands and calibres.
.314" is normal for a cast .32 S&W Long bullet. Is for an H&R Mag cast bullet too.
"...made to accept round nose lead bullets..." Nope. DW would have no idea what ammo would be used. Most factory H&R Mag ammo has an HP bullet anyway.
Best thing for you to do is reload the Magnum cases to Long velocities.
Click to expand...

Sorry, did not realize that there are more than one type of .32 wadcutter... it is .32 S&W Long wadcutter, not magnum wadcutter.
Anyway I do not reload my ammo, only buy commercial ones and it is difficult to get them, usually I shoot with Fiocchi
 
Get yourself a Lewis Lead Remover. Brownell's has them. You will be able to clean your forcing cone and your barrel with little effort and can keep doing it as time goes by. The kit is the cheap way to go and you don't need to buy the forcing cone cutter.
 
This then, is your problem . . . from a revolver cylinder/throat/length issue:

32_Long_v_Mag_sm.jpg
 
HERE is a link to an article written by a highly regarded retired gunsmith from the Ruger Forum that discusses lead bullets and accuracy from modern firearms. I read it a while back and the problem you're having brought it to mind. Might be worth your while to read it.
 
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