Suggestions on what I ought todo with this revolver?

[429421]

Hello there and greetings from Finland.

I'm writing this to get more input on what a suitable course of action would be to get my revolver in a shootable condition with regards to lead bullets. I bought this S&W 629-5 last year and I have shot it little because it leads and I get tired of cleaning all the time. I got the revolver with the intent of casting my own bullets so this is not a favorable situation.

I've found it has too small throats, they are smaller than the bore which was slugged to .429" so this seems to be the most obvious problem and I have contacted a smith to ream it to .430" as I intend to calibrate my bullets to the same.

The smith though says I ought to ream to .4305" or a little less, because the bullets should be slightly smaller than the throat. I have heard much talk on this on internet boards, and there seems to be two distinct schools of thought. Most seem to favor a bullet that is sized the same as the throat or slightly over. What are your feelings in this matter? I plan to shoot targets with this revolver and don't intend to be running much magnum level rounds through it.

I also have some photos of some irregularities in my barrel, I was wondering if you think these could contribute to leading or accuracy issues? A swedish shooter told me they ought not to, and shooting enough jacketed might wear them away.

[S A Webbx1]

I opened up undersize cylinder throats on 2 Ruger 32 mags following instructions from Veral's book and cut my groups in half on both. I also used his fire lapping kit on most of my lead bullet shooting revolvers, following instructions carefully, and got good results with that too. Leading isn't an issue with the loads I shoot.
I love forums, but you will find a comprehensive set of answers to how to make a gun shoot lead bullets in one place in the book. You can solve the leading problem in most all cases, along with gaining accuracy and performance. Follow the directions and do the needed work and you will get the results. He even tells you which problems aren't with messing with. (Not many.)


Essay Webb

[Veral]

S&W makes quality revolvers, so your problem will be easily fixed.

  First  thing to consider is type of bullet lube you are using and bullet hardness.

  No bullet lube will equal the performance of the LBT lubes, and bullet hardness for optimum magnum performnce is 20 bhn or higher.

  The other factors are the internal dimensions of bore and cylinder throats, and bullet fit to these.

  I've written this much as 'universal' information for all customers.  Please email me for more detailed information exchange, you and any readers with similar problems.   We'll simply end up with a huge hairball if we try to go farther than this on this forum.   (Perhaps of interest to 99% of the world, a hair ball is a wad of hair that forms into a ball inside a cows stomach, sometimes getting as large as 6 inches in diameter and hard as a piece of wood.  It is hair which they lick off themselves and other cattle.   ---  I could have simply deleted that old farmer word, but after writing thought it might be of interest to many readers.)

  Send your emails to LBTisAccuracy@localnet.com