Reaming a cylinder to 45 colt, and not with a 45 colt reamer.This is a discussion on Reaming a cylinder to 45 colt, and not with a 45 colt reamer. within the Ruger Single Action forums, part of the Pistol & Revolver Forum category; well being that this is my first post here I thought I would introduce my self. my name is Jarod but I go by JT. ...
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June 15th, 2011, 08:16 PM
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#1 |
Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: provo, Utah
Posts: 3
| Reaming a cylinder to 45 colt, and not with a 45 colt reamer.
well being that this is my first post here I thought I would introduce my self. my name is Jarod but I go by JT. I am the proud owner of a 45 colt vaquero that has slowly been replacing my glock for every day carry. I am a machinist so I do a lot of custom gun work including building a few from scratch. I have been tweaking my vaquero to fit my tastes. I recut the front sight and milled lines into it. then I bead blasted the back of the front sight and the rear sight. now bright sun does nothing to my sight picture as it is a stainless steel gun. I have done a few other things as well to sweeten it up.
Ok on to my question about the current tweak. I have bought a 44mag un fluted cylinder that I'm going to fit to my vaquero and chamber to 45 colt. but I'm not happy with current 45 colt reamers as thy make the chambers over sized. well at least bigger then I want. so my plan is this, I want to use a 454 casull reamer to chamber my cylinder so I get the tighter chamber I'm.after. but in my research I have found out that the throat of the 454 is a lot shorter then the 45 colt. the 45 colt has a throat angle of 7deg and the 454 is 30deg. this makes the 45 colts throat like a cone and the 454's an angled step. I'm guessing Dick casull had a reasion for this but will it help the 45 colt? I then looked at the 460 S&W and it is also diffrent throat deg then the 45 colt and 454. from the reading and research I have done on the 45 colt it seams like its chamber is a hold over from the black powder days and has not had much changes made to it.
So after reading my random thoughts what do you think. use a 454 reamer or maybe the 460. Thanks guys for any help you can give.
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June 15th, 2011, 08:22 PM
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#2 |
Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: NE NSW Australia.
Posts: 18,906
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Welcome from Australia. Great place to be, you will like it here.
Post up some pics of your Vaquero when you get a chance.
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June 15th, 2011, 09:51 PM
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#3 |
Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: fl.
Posts: 604
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Welcome from fl.we need pics!
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June 16th, 2011, 02:12 AM
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#4 |
Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: marylnd
Posts: 75
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welcome nice choice of revolver
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June 16th, 2011, 04:04 AM
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#5 |
Join Date: May 2011 Location: Missouri
Posts: 277
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You build your own? Cool!
Welcome.
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June 16th, 2011, 08:12 AM
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#6 |
Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Northern KY
Posts: 418
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You might give 'cylindersmith.com' a jingle. He does what you propose, on a commercial basis and might be willing to share some ideas on a one off basis. He's done two of my revolvers...opening the throats...and does a beautiful job for very little...Rodfac
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June 16th, 2011, 02:34 PM
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#8 |
Join Date: May 2009 Location: NE In.
Posts: 317
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JT, I'm a little confused on your sizes.Are you talking about the cylinder throats or the barrel forcing cone angles?
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June 16th, 2011, 02:54 PM
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#9 |
Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: provo, Utah
Posts: 3
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cylinder throat
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June 16th, 2011, 04:27 PM
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#10 | | Retired Gunsmith |
JTknives, You are right ... the 45 Colt chamber dimensions haven't changed since the cartridge was invented in the 1870's. The origional 45 Colts used .454~455" bullets so the chamber had to be large enough in diameter to accommodate the larger bullets plus the thickness of the case. Now that industry standards for 45 cal bore diameters are .451", jacketed 45 cal bullets are now .451" and lead bullets are .452". That means there is about .003" of excess chamber diameter at the mouth and even more at the case head because the origional chambers had a slight taper. This doesn't seem to bother accuracy much but cases will last longer if they don't swell up as much.
Yes, it does get a bit confusing .... there are actually two forcing cones ... one in the barrel mouth that everyone knows about and another inside the chamber. The cone inside the chamber is a transition from case diameter to bullet diameter (.4805 to .4525" in a 45 Colt chamber). This cone is vital if you shoot ammo with shorter cases ... such as a 45 Schofield in a 45 Colt or a 45 Colt in a 454 Cas.
Here's my recommendation: If you plan to shoot lead bullets, use the 454 Cass chamber reamer but control the depth to 1.290". Use a .4525" throat reamer. If you plan to shoot exclusively jacketed bullets, the .460 S&W reamer can be used, however the chamber will likely be too tight for lead .452" bullets. Don't worry about the angle of the internal cone ... either will work just fine.
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