Jump to content
Brian Enos's Forums... Maku mozo!

jmax

Classified
  • Posts

    152
  • Joined

  • Last visited

About jmax

  • Birthday 01/01/1935

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Warrenton VA
  • Interests
    ICORE, IPSC and cast rifle bullet shooting
  • Real Name
    John Maxwell

Recent Profile Visitors

619 profile views

jmax's Achievements

Finally read the FAQs

Finally read the FAQs (3/11)

  1. For the 627 Smith machines a step in the hand adjacent to the ratchet. The ratchet on the left appears to use a hand with a shallow cut and the one on the right was fitted with one with a slightly deeper cut with a bit more metal left on the ratchet bearing surface next to the red arrow.
  2. Looking at both 8 shot 627 ratchets and 617 10 shot ratchets they look like they are machine cut. When I went to S&W armorers school (twice) ratchets were cut with a sharpened hand on a target trigger with a steel bar welded on the right side of the trigger. The trigger, rebound and spring were installed in the frame and that is how it is done with side plate screwed in place the the trigger was pulled cutting the ratchets and do not believe that is how it is now done on modern Smiths. For my C19 stay at home project I checked the spare 627 cylinder that I had dropped in, timed up, chambers aligned with the bore, BC gap and head space were the same.I reamed the chambers, got moon clips and off to the races. It takes both 9mm and 38 Super. This is a sample size of one but is was basically a drop in for me.
  3. I used a finishing 9mm reamer on a spare 627 cylinder after I verified timing and chamber alignment. I was unable to get cast 158 gr cast to shoot well at 50 yards but 124 gr XTP were accurate. Switched to 38 super brass and with 158 gr cast my group size was on par with the XTP loads but testing stopped at 950 ft/sec as I was looking to make minor but major seemed to be easily within reach. Now I have one cylinder assembly in 9mm/38super and one in 357 mag and happy with both. Revolver Supply moon clips were used.
  4. Powder dies in my Dillon have different dimensions, .352” for 9mm and .354” for the 38/357 die, something to consider.
  5. I scrounged up some 38 Super brass, dug out my super dies and set them up in a spare 550 tool head. Lyman Cast bullet manual listed loads using Unique that encompasses the range from major to minor power factor loads. I extrapolated to slightly above minor (approx 850 ft/sec) and slightly below major (approx 950 ft/sec) using a 158 gr .358" RN bullet. I have limited powder choices for 9mm development but other powder choices should yield similar results for 9mm. I ran into pressure signs when I loaded the same bullet in a 9mm case as it was a near compressed load but when I reduced the load bullet yaw at 50 yards consistent with unstable bullets. Today I got very different results with the 38 Super loads. No bullet yaw at 50 yards. I also used a smaller target at 25 yards to give me the same sight picture at 25 and 50 yards. Notes were made on the targets when I peeked when pulling the trigger. Mild recoil with both loads but still cannot setup a chronograph due to social distancing and limited time on the range.
  6. A modern N frame hammer will not fit, the hammer stud is about a sixteenth of an inch closer to the recoil shield, now we know.
  7. Hammer and rebound springs are the same so no fitting should be required. Basically the only things that don’t fit in the lock work are the cylinder stop (5 screw design with a spring and plunger) rebound, thumb piece (split to fit the rear bolt), rear bolt and possibly the hammer that I have not checked. I had to take off the lanyard (drift out a pin) and no fitting required for the grips as the frame shape is the same. I have been shooting black on black sights for a long time but a good Gunsmith should be able to to install a brass bead for you. Have fun with it as I have with mine. In fact I just got back from the range shooting it.
  8. I took a number of summer classes over a decade. USPSA TY655, I am an old guy
  9. This particular revolver was carried by my Grandfather in WWI where he was company scout in the First Expeditionary Force so I wanted to make it a good "modern" revolver for shooting.
  10. I have a S&W 1917 Army that I had a gunsmith install adjustable sights many years ago. The job was rough and is why I took gun smithing classes at Trinidad State Junior College but that is another story. I will return to TSJC when the "Virus" problem is past next year to take a bluing class to refinish it. The original barrel had very shallow rifling and did not cast cast bullets at all. the barrel shank and threads are the same as a 1950 or 1955 target 45 ACP revolvers. Additionally modern triggers and hands can be fit to these old war horses. I found a 1955 6 1/2" barrel and fit it the the 1917 hence the name 25/17. The forcing cone needed to be recut, barrel cylinder gap was not square but the barrel indexed up just fine. I turned down the bulb end of the original ejector rod (RH Threads) and started load development. The chambers and throats were slightly pitted from WWI and were touched up wit a match reamer.This particular revolver does not like bullet shoulders in the chamber mouth but will shoot 230 gr RN bullets, a Bear Creek Supply 200 gr RNHB and the LEE 200 gr RNFP bullet well. Powders tried included TiteGroup, Unique, Clays and 231 with 231 yielding the best performance with both 200 gr bullets. The 200 gr RNFP is cast soft to improve barrel fit when the bullet strikes the forcing cone so it will distort and better fit the lands and grooves. Auto Rim brass yields a slightly better DA and is used for casual shooting but moon clips also work very well and are used when reloading becomes important. . This is due to headspace is at minimum of .093" and B/C gap is .006". The front sight is a bit low so it shoots high. I installed the lowest Smith rear sight blade but it prints alloy 1-1/2" high at 15 yards. If i hang half liter water bottles at 50 yards and sit the bottom go the bottle on top of the from sight I can hit them.
  11. I have two cylinder assemblies for my 627. The LC loads were fired in the 357 cylinder and 9mm loads were fired in the converted 9mm cylinder otherwise the LC brass would have been damaged. I first tried coated .356" coated bullets with very poor results and then used my 38 powder funnel to expand the cases for .358" coated bullets. Both 158 gr RN with a typical grease groove and a RNFP with no grease groove were tried. Larger groups were observed when the RN bullet was used with various OAL settings so I settled on the RNFP and again tried different OALs and got better groups. I also tried my XTP load that I developed to simulate my carry load in my G43 and shot them without change and got some very nice results. A lot of steps between when I first posted and now.
  12. I have finished my load development w/o chronograph data due to limited range access. I shot groups at 25 yards and 50 yards using a rest from the bench DA only. There was some wobble due to 72 year old hands and eyes but illustrate what I achieved. Bullets were 158 gr RN lead used in 38LC brass, 158 gr RNFP bullets with no grease groove, and a 124 gr XTP used for 9mm. There was yaw in bullet holes for the the 158 gr bullets used in 9mm at both distances with arrows highlighting elongated holes. The 158 gr RNFP load would be suitable for ranges at 25 and closer ranges but not for ranges beyond 25 yards. There was no observed yaw for the nXTP loads at both distances. I suspect that 147 gr jacketed 9mm bullets would also perform well. This has been a great shelter in place project and now I have a 9mm revolver again.
  13. Now I start load development. It will be some time before I can chrono as the range has social distancing and has cut the number of shooting positions in half. I should get some accuracy testing completed at 25 and 50 yards this week or next. I have Clays, Unique and 231/HP38 on hand and will start with Clays and 231 first.
  14. I added the bullet diameter and it is .358” in diameter to the original post, good catch. Good info on the 929, I had a 987 L Frame and it also preferred .358” diameter Bullets. I still have some 7 shot moon clips left over and depending on how this works out I may start looking for 7 shot 686 cylinder to add variety to the mix.
  15. 357454 Pilot diameter is .348". revoman Yes I could have done the same thing with 38SC but a) I had a spare cylinder b) I had the reamer c) I load a lot of 9mm and only have to back out the seating die d) It was a fun project e) I have buckets of 9mm brass to the point that I reload it once and toss the empties in my brass scrap bucket f) I am lazy, resetting my dies on my Dillon 550 is a hassle and buying more brass was not attractive to me
×
×
  • Create New...