45 long colt

NVcaller

New member
Hello all I was just wondering how many people have ever reamed there chamber in there revolvers?And did it improve your accuracy as much as people say?And for die hard class did you go the next step and get your forcing cone reamed as well?
 
What particular .45 colt do you have?
What part of the chamber do you want to ream, the throat or the actual chamber (case portion)?
Why do you want to ream?
Are you shooting hard cast bullets?
Ive had two .45 colts done, but the throats were small to start with. I would NOT re-cut the forcing "just because". See whatbthe gun will do after the cylinder work unless theres something obvious/visually wrong with the forcing cone.
The .45 colt is one of my favorite big bore revolvers!
 
I have 3 ,Ruger black hawks with different barrel lengths. The two shorter barrel guns can't group. With anything, cast or jacketed. I measured my cylinders forcing cone and they varied from. 0.448 to 0.450 on all three I ordered the kit from Brownells. The 7 1/2 inch barrel does 1 1/2 at 50yrds but would like to get a 2 inch at a 100yrds. The shorter guns I would be happy with 1 1/2 at fifty yards.
 
I have owned over a hundred Ruger revolvers, currently have about 30. I ream all of my throats to proper specification, then ream my forcing cones to 11deg. Ruger 45cal's are notorious for undersized throats - the 44mag's almost as vulnerable. I haven't had as much issue with 357/38's nor 32's or 22cal.

Brownells sells a forcing cone gauge - barrel chamfer plug gauge - that will let you determine whether your forcing cones are in spec or not. They also sell piloted throating reamers and forcing cone cutters and laps, if you're so inclined to do the job yourself.

In general, I count on Ruger revolvers, once cleaned up a bit, to shoot 2.5MOA. Anything better than that is generally a fluke. Many do, but it does take a bit of load tuning to get there, and not all of them will ever shoot that well. This is assuming you're firing from a rest with a magnified optic. The standard Ruger front sight covers about 15+ MOA at 100yrds, so it's very easy to drift the front sight in the rear notch, or drift the target across the top of the front sight and inadvertently move more than a few MOA.

The idea is simple - for maximal accuracy, you can't distort your bullet too many times in the firing process. The throat should match the bullet diameter, then the entry to the forcing cone needs to be the same size or slightly larger than the throat diameter, and the bore diameter should be the smallest yet.

Have you slugged your bore to check for a frame crush constriction?

Personally, I would recommend reaming the throats and forcing cone. I used to do this work for a local gunshop, I have NEVER had a revolver shoot worse from having this work done, and almost all of them do shoot markedly better after this correction.
 
No I haven't checked for frame compression I have heard of it . just taking one step at a time the barrel change to 11degree angle and frame compression are next. I did thin the front site and half way up the rear site I thicked it to give me a true ç
Center for the rest site picture. Thanks for the insite
 
I'd do it. I can tell a difference between 2 cylinders in my gun that are just slightly tighter than the others. They print in their own group, slightly off from the main group.
 
My 41 bh was horrible had 2 hole that you couldn't hardly push a jacketed bullet through. I used emery cloth and a drill and worked slow to even everything up Shoots great now. But if I had it to do over again I would send it to this guy over on castboolit site. Goes by the forum name DougGuy seems to have a pretty good following for doing this work.
J
 
Well I reamed 3 cylinders in 30 min,took 1000 grit rubbing compound to it for a honed finish polish.will be testing if it improves accuracy. One gun does 8 inch groups at 25yrds the other does 1 inch at 50 yrds.I will also check velocity for changes. I'll report on Friday.
 
Originally Posted By: tomcat388thMy 41 bh was horrible had 2 hole that you couldn't hardly push a jacketed bullet through. I used emery cloth and a drill and worked slow to even everything up Shoots great now. But if I had it to do over again I would send it to this guy over on castboolit site. Goes by the forum name DougGuy seems to have a pretty good following for doing this work.
J

DougGuy is good to go.
 
Omg acurracy 3 inches from the bad gun, but I chronographed and nothing like copper.
My hard cast .454 260 grain Keith bullet with 24gr of h110 came out of my 7 1/2 inch black hawk came out at 1557fps.my 255gr Keith .452 with h110 24grs was 1501 .so much for linebaughs starting load.it was according to his post 1290 fps. I'm lowering and changing powder to hs6 or 2400,might try unique. Any thoughts for a 255gr or 260 gr hard cast.I would like to stay at 1200fps
 
The HS-6 or Longshot has been good for the medium loads. And of course you can always go to the old standby of Unique. I would suggest starting at 10 grains there, and 10 should be fine, and usually is right, but you can go to 12 for the max.
For the 260 grain it is hard to beat the 8.5 grains of W231 It is a comfortable load and in my 5 1/2" has been fairly accurate. It kills Elk and everything smaller when you place the shot correct.

I wanted to chrony my loads that I have but Friday the wind was 25 MPH with gusts up to OH NO not again... I had more than 8 staples in my Target and it still blew off. Chrony tripod wants to blow over. It did once and I said no more !! Can't afford to get it broken.
 
OK lol I got confused between pm and posting.shot hs6 ,H110 in cast bullets .bullets used are Matt's bullets 260gr Keith, 270 saa which weighs in at 280 and the 315cast.since I have a Ruger black hawk load pressures could be taken higher than your standard cowboy loads. For the 260gr bullet loads from 9.5 to 13 grs where tested.the most accurate load was 10.5gr rem 2 1/2 primer velocity was 948 with standard deviation of 1.5 fps.with 10 rounds. 270saa bullet with hs6 12gr produced the best groups as well as standard deviation of 11,velocity was 1054 ,10 rounds where tested. After that load deviation became larger and accuracy diminished. H110 well lets just say there isn't a good published reloading data,for cast bullets,the numbers don't match my results .I must have 2 of the fastest black hawks out there for H110 and w296 . some people qoute writers on line about these loads well there theory doesn't work for me (example 24gr of h110 with mag primers is suppose to produce 1280fps well in my gun it produced 1532fps.h110 cci 350 with 21.2 gr produced .25 inch groups at 25yrds chronograph clocked the 315gr bullet at 1339.little hot I will try 20.8 looking at the speed per grain of powder it should put me at 1300 fps and 30000 cup for pressure.
So just a note of caution to the standard Blackhawk owner work your load up.
 
Last edited:
HS-6 has always performed really well for me in my .45 colts. Plenty of velocity to get the job done and accuracy has been outstanding.
 
Not many are aware of just how large the bores are in the 44's and 45's. So, you should start at the start with accuracy issues and slug your barrels.

This guy will cast and size with gas checks some very accurate bullets that will match your bore, and you want an over size bullet for your bore, not an undersize.

https://www.beartoothbullets.com/faq/

Also, for shooting for groups at 50 and 100 yards, Merit adjustable diopter will make your sights perfectly sharp:

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/978528/merit-optical-attachment-with-suction-cup

if your sights are blurry, the Merit diopter is the best money you will ever spend in shooting a pistol.

My last Ruger Super Black hawk, 10" SS would group with the bullets touching at 50 yards with a slightly over size cast bullet with gas check using the Merit diopter. Alignment with the cylinder and bore was ok, but not super.

Drop a bullet through the cylinder, if it does not go through, push it through and then mic with a micrometer that reads in the 0.0001, then ream accordingly. You want an over size bullet, and this is why slugging your barrel is so important.

Shooting off a pistol rest, you should be looking for a load that knaws a ragged hole at 25 yards, about the size of a quarter or smaller, and a heavy trigger will NEVER get you there.
 
Last edited:
Yes hs6 was a real nice powder to work up loads with, my shooting was done in day light. I did not see any big flash that others talk about, recoil was pleasant. Accuracy was good with most charges. But the powder as you increased the charge past 12.5 became more erratic. For h110 it gave me the best accuracy to date but 315gr bullet at 1300+fps is a little fast. I looked at all my books what people published for velocity and it was still hot.I am thinking with any cast bullet vs jacketed loads need to be reduced the velocity runs 200 to 300fps faster than the jacketed.bought a Lyman cast bullet reloading manual it is ok for the 45 colt.but if your looking for black hawk only loads it's a complete waste of money.
 
Last edited:
Thx ackleyman I'll check it out and true I have not sluged my barrel.I have reamed my cylinders.and interesting I've never seen that diopter thing before is it just a peep sight mounted to your glasses or does it have a glass in it.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top