Fire lapped my 3.75" Vaquero, AND..............

[Dusty Miller]

AND that sucker sure do shoot better!  Previous to the fire lapping I'd never have been able to put 8 in a row into a 7" paper plate but that's what I did today.  SEVERAL times 6 in a row hit the plate and that just never happened before.  I kept thinking I needed to just find the right load but that was not the problem.  I'm sure the gun is now more accurate than my old eyes can shoot but the improvement is very reassuring. 

[Lloyd Smale]

Ive fire lapped a few of them and usually it helps and ive never seen accuracy get worse.

[Ahab]

Ive fire lapped a few of them and usually it helps and ive never seen accuracy get worse.

Yup, me too.

[Catfish]

Fire lapping a barrel that was fouled with molly was the only way I kept from rebarreling a gun. I`ve fire lapped others that did nothing for accury though, but even then they fouled less and were easier to clean. I still only fire lap when all else fails because it puts alot of wear on the barrel.

[Dusty Miller]

I knew I had a nasty tight spot where the barrel fit the frame and I figured rebarreling would not solve that problem.  Maybe I just got lucky!!

[Woodtroll]

Just out of curiosity, what caliber is you Vaquero, Dusty? I've got one Ruger SS Bisley .45 that has the same barrel/ frame constriction, but the throats are just right. I'm not sure how to firelap the constriction out without opening the throats, unless I use a bullet smaller than the throats (0.4525") but bigger than the constriction (0.4505" or so). The gun leads somewhat, but has never shown me the accuracy I thought it should.

[oso45-70]

Woodtrool.

Tell ya what i do in that situation, Use lead removing cloth on a gig or brush that will go into the bore kinda tight and push it into the area that is tight and work it back and forth with little strokes like 3/4" until you feel like you have taken the tightness out of the barrel then put a swab that fits snug and cover it with Jewelers Rouge and work it back and forth. you must be careful not to go too far. You can also do without the second action with the jewelers Rouge by Fire Lapping at this point. Good luck sir...........Joe.............

[Dusty Miller]

Mine is a 45 Colt also.  If I remember correctly the cylinder throats are supposed to be .001" to .002" larger than the barrel for shooting cast lead bullets.  The cylinder throats on this gun were opened up a couple of years back and that didn't help the accuracy any so finally I got fed up and did the firelapping. 

[Woodtroll]

Sorry for the all the questions, Dusty. How many rounds did it take you to remove the constriction? How hard were your bullets? I've run 60 rounds through, but the constriction is not completely gone. Mine is stainless, though, which makes the process slower.

Thanks, Regan

[Dusty Miller]

I put about 35 rounds thru it and the BHN was 12.