Opening Up Ruger Cylinder Chamber Throats

D

DixieBoy

Inactive
Does anyone have any experience in opening up the
throats on a Ruger Blackhawk's cylinder chamber
throats? I've got one in .45 Colt that I believe
is just a bit under barrel groove size, after
slugging both the barrel and the throats. Think
taking just .001 or, at most, .002 out the throats
should do the trick. Do I have to send this to a
smith? I am fairly experienced with precision
tools, but I don't want to foul up this job
either. What do you guys think? Sure would like
to do this job myself if it's possible. Thanks
for any replies. - DixieBoy
 
Db, you might be able to do this fairly easily with an adjustable reamer . To my knowledge there isn't a "throater" for the cylinder but I'm sure that Clymer would be happy to make you one. I would try to find a smith who specializes in that type of work and see what they charge to do it vice what it would cost you to get the reamer and do it yourself. George
 
Dixie Boy,

Brownells sells a reamer for just this purpose. The cost for the reamer though will be more than the cost of having the job done elsewhere. We do these on a regular basis in our shop, and it does make a noticeable difference in group size, especially when using cast bullets. You should be able to find a smith locally that will do the job for $50 - $60 dollars. .

If can't find someone locally, send me an email. We could do the job for you via mail order. You would only need to send the cylinder, and we could turn it around to you within five working days.

If I have broken any rules by offering to do this on the forum, I apologize. Just trying to offer you an alternative if you can't find someone near you to do the job.

Stush
 
Thanks

Stush - Thanks for that link. I think that's the
ticket. I've got a friend who has a machine shop
which does high precision work. Gonna have them
hold my hand. I'm going for the reamer, and do it
myself, as I'd like to have the tool for other
Rugers I will certainly buy in the future, which
may come with the same problem. I understand that
it's not uncommon these days for the throats to be
off spec. Until I can buy a Freedom Arms, this
will do! Whiskey, and George Stringer: thanks to
you too. I appreciate the advice. I'll let you all
know how things go once I get the reamer.
- DixieBoy
 
Stush.....not at all inappropriate. And welcome to TFL.

I have seen quite a few recent SnWs with not only small chamber mouths, not even all the same size in a given cylinder.

Sam
 
I do believe you are right

C.R.Sam - I've beat the bushes in learning about
this little problem, the phenomenom of undersize
cylinder throats. Seems that it's been around for
awhile. Last night I went through my copy of
Elmer Keith's "Sixguns," and he talks about this
same problem. That's over forty years ago that he
wrote that, and Brian Pearce, whose contemporary
writing about sixguns I greatly respect, also
notes that you can significantly improve your
sixgun accuracy if you ream out too-small chamber
throats. I've got one chamber that's almost right,
and I've noticed (by marking each chamber)that
this one shoots really nicely. The others vary
from .002 too small to .003 too small. I look
forward to making this Blackhawk as accurate as it
can be. I figure if I do this job correctly there
should be only one danger: I will eliminate one of
the best excuses for poor shooting that I had!
Thanks again to you all. - DixieBoy
 
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