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Accurizing the ROA..

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bigbore442001

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I was thinking, which can lead me into trouble at times about my ROA. I slugged the barrel on my 44 mag and discovered that there is a constriction at the barrel's throat. So I plan to have a Taylor throating procedure done on that gun. Now I was wondering about my ROA.

Would it be possible to ream the throat of the ROA to enhance accuracy? Thanks.
 
Ofcorse.

More often than some realize when a revolver is built at the factory some variables are not really paid that close attention to which could lead to slight inaccuracy like the throat of the barrel, chamber size compared to the grove diameter of the barrel, slight misaligned chambers to the bore, & Crown.

In common with rifles and pistols, the barrel crown and leade (the "funnel" area just in front of the bullet seat which aligns the bullet to the bore) must be concentric with the barrel bore. Considering arms where the chamber is cut in the barrel, the leade is usually concentric. Not necessarily so with revolvers, for the leade is the barrel forcing cone, and it is seldom concentric with the bore and almost never with the chambers, unless the chambers are line-bored. The crowns of most factory guns are off a little.

When cylinder throats are undersize, they can be enlarged by reaming, lapping, or honing.

A revolver will almost always shoot more accurately when the barrel is recrowned and the forcing cone recut, assuming the work is done correctly and the cuts are concentric with the bore. Improperly done, the new cuts will simply follow the original with no improvement. The amount of improvement will depend upon how poor the original was, and how concentric the recuts are.

Essentially, the barrel throat is lengthened one and one half to two calibers, and enlarged to slightly over groove diameter. The throat serves as the throat in a rifle barrel, enabling the bullet to become perfectly aligned with the bore before engaging the rifling. The "choking" effect present from tightening the barrel into the frame is removed as well. The rifling leade is a very gentle 1 ½ degrees.


Statements in bold were derived from information from Alpha Precision, Inc.
 
I recently recut the forcing cone on my ROA and I'm pleased with the results. Mine was rough and had some machining marks.

For other ROA accuracy/other related modifications, check out this prior post of mine:

Link

Tight groups!

Old No7
 
Would it be possible to use jeweler's rouge and a properly-shaped felt to smooth the forcing cone and get the same results, i.e. and improvement in accuracy?
 
Felt will just follow the original forcing cone. It'll smooth it up nicely, but if it wasn't cut concentric to the bore, as mentioned in the post above yours, your work won't be concentric to the bore either. Correcting the forcing cone requires precision machining. You can get a kit to do it from Brownell's but it's not worth the cost if you're only going to do a gun or two. It's not that costly to just send it to someone who can do the forcing cone and crown the muzzle at the same time. Have them check the chamber to bore dimensions also. An undersized chamber is a recipe for inaccuracy. Rugers aren't so bad at that, but most of the italian imports benefit from chamber reaming to match bore size.
 

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