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K or L frame for an open build


Stevenb

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Polyagonal Rifling works best with Jacketed Projectiles.

If you intend shooting wadcutter then it had better be plated of jacketed for the poly barrel.

Traditional lands and groove rifling will work with anything. Many in Australia who shoot revolver use a 135 gr Wadcutter, 1:18 will work for that.

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2 hours ago, stardust tommy said:

wich barrel do you guys prefer? SS or carbon steel?

 

I've bought a lathe with all the material to build myself a PPC revolver , the only barrels available here are Lothar Walther. They offer SS and carbon, normal land/grooves or polygonal rifling. Most current (european)revolvers that I see all use stainless polygonal rifling

 

can choose between 1/10 and 1/17 twist, I prefer the 1/10 for the HBWC...

 

I have a mill to so I can perform al the work myself

 

gr T

My revolver set up has a .355, 1/10 (normal rifling), Walther stainless barrel on an L frame.  This set up is accurate for most bullet weights, but I prefer to use Zero 125 jhp's because they shoot flat.  At 10 yrds hold top of the X, at 50 yrds hold bottom of the X.

Edited by toothguy
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Ray Pulver of Holland  Precision Barrels can do his famous cut-rifled revolver blanks in just about any twist rate between 1-10 and 1-40. The 1-14 and 1-16 twists are the most popular for Aussie shooters.

The 1-24 is very popular for 9mm and 38 Super semi-autos like CZ SP01, 1911/2011 and SIG 226. They are absolutely beautiful pieces of work.

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wich sequence do you guys prefer when turning a barrel blank into a real barrel?

the Lothar Walther blank I will order will be +- 26", so I hope to get 4 6" barrels out of that blank.

the blank is 32mm (1.25") diameter and I will mill the sightrib into the top of the barrel (I like heavy round barrels). For the moment I don't know how the barrelblank is finished,so maybe only a light finish cut is needed.

 

can I use the the first and last part (1"?) of the barrel? I was told that benchrest rifle builders cut down the first and last parts.

is there a difference between the accuracy of a .38 or a .357 K-frame? I have a few mod 64 and a few mod13. now I shoot a 686 with .38hbwc and get great accuracy so the longer cilinder seems not to be a problem. The lenght of the barrels is different (the part of the barrel in the frame)

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You can't use about 1/2" on the end, but it varies from barrel to barrel. Just make sure you're into good rifling. The first thing I do is to mark the barrel with the direction of the rifling and make sure the bullet is going the same way. Then cut off the end without markings so the blank always has the original ID marks. Put the barrel in the lathe, one end in the chuck and one end on a live center. Turn about 1" to clean up over the live center, flip the barrel so the turned part is in the chuck and turn to diameter. This assures that the outside of the barrel is parallel to the bore.

The standard PPC barrel is 1-1/16" or 1.062 outside diam. I make my Open class barrels 7/8" or .875 diameter to reduce weight and use a Titanium comp for the same reason. Thread the barrel making sure the end that goes in the frame is the back end of the way it was rifled. I only build on L frames now because of the forcing cone cracking on K frame ones. When that happens you have to replace the barrel or shorten the original quite a bit. They will all shoot tight groups if the gun is mechanically correct and quality ammo is used.

Edited by Toolguy
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  • 3 weeks later...

finally got into gear and got the open revolver to the gunsmith to have a look. Get a call after a couple of weeks today and he said it is a no go. The holes on the top strap are all drilled in the wrong spots (guess you can't weld up the top strap) so I can't get the stick shift mounted and he said the barrel isn't on straight and isn't machined straight. So a little bit of a bummer. Going to pick it back up off him tomorrow. He has suggested building an open gun on a K frame, but I might be picking up a 686 4" in a deal so would prefer to use that.

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3 hours ago, Stevenb said:

finally got into gear and got the open revolver to the gunsmith to have a look. Get a call after a couple of weeks today and he said it is a no go. The holes on the top strap are all drilled in the wrong spots (guess you can't weld up the top strap) so I can't get the stick shift mounted and he said the barrel isn't on straight and isn't machined straight. So a little bit of a bummer. Going to pick it back up off him tomorrow. He has suggested building an open gun on a K frame, but I might be picking up a 686 4" in a deal so would prefer to use that.

1860d7c09bf5d38df556e229cb1635e6.jpg

Can you temporarily mount a reddot using the existing holes to see how the gun shoots?  It might still shoot good groups.  You could then make a separate mounting plate with the correct hole placement, lifting the mover base only about 1/4'' or so. 

Edited by toothguy
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Viper holster is the centerfold in that photo, the quality has to be seen to be believed. The adaptor plate should work fine, to get the best from the comp I suggest 125 grain projectiles and Winchester WST powder at 4.4 gns loaded in 38 Special brass. Federal small pistol primers are a must.

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39 minutes ago, Service Desk said:

Viper holster is the centerfold in that photo, the quality has to be seen to be believed. The adaptor plate should work fine, to get the best from the comp I suggest 125 grain projectiles and Winchester WST powder at 4.4 gns loaded in 38 Special brass. Federal small pistol primers are a must.

They are a fantastic holster (and they make some nice mag pouches too), I've got one for my Glock 34 (will adjust to the 17, and with an extra arm will work with my open 17)

I'm assuming jacketed projectiles for that load? I've got a heap of 38sp brass, so I'll give that a try.

Another AP revolver shooter has given me his load, 135 (139)gr button nosed wadcutter, 3.8gr AS30N (I think that is the same as clays), 357mag case with the projectile seated to just above flush with the case mouth, fed small pistol primer (GMs if I can get them)

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8 hours ago, Stevenb said:

They are a fantastic holster (and they make some nice mag pouches too), I've got one for my Glock 34 (will adjust to the 17, and with an extra arm will work with my open 17)

I'm assuming jacketed projectiles for that load? I've got a heap of 38sp brass, so I'll give that a try.

Another AP revolver shooter has given me his load, 135 (139)gr button nosed wadcutter, 3.8gr AS30N (I think that is the same as clays), 357mag case with the projectile seated to just above flush with the case mouth, fed small pistol primer (GMs if I can get them)

125 grain lead will shoot OK, keep the jacketed stuff for serious competitions. 357 mag brass is no advantage for most guns, 38 Special works just fine. I would be cautious of AS30/Clays in loads above 3.7 grains with 139 grain wadcutters, it is known to spike in pressures. 3.5 gns in 38 Special cases with the 135 gn BNWC shoots fine in my AP revolvers and usually runs 920 to 940 fps.

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Up to 4.5grains of Clays / AS30 with 158gr in 357magnum is perfectly safe, 4grains load in 38Special cases perfectly dangerous.

3.2gr to 3.5gr with the 138WC in a 38Special case is certainly hard to beat as Greg says. Shoot it first and see how it performs before consigning it to the scrap heap, groups are all that matter.

You can weld up the holes in a Smith top strap, easy enough to do. But I would mount off both the frame and the barrel in any event. K-Frame gun not going to fly either in my opinion, it is not like they are making shit loads new these days, anything cheap will be more hammered than what you have. If shooting open, and want a new gun, look at the 686 plus (7 shot), same frame as 686 with the added advantage of the extra round in case of brain fart. Plus a barrel job will be the same for anything K or L.

Personally i like the idea of seeing how what you have got shoots first. Then make an informed decision based on all the ideas being thrown about here.

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hopefully I'll take it with me on Tuesday night and have a shot with it before IPSC.

 

picked it up and I don't think the gunsmith has understood what I wanted /what the issue is. The barrel is straight, but he said the wing hasn't been put on level. But the top dead centre of the barrel would be pointing at about 12:30 and not 12 o'clock. This is not an issue except for my OCD.

He also said the forcing cone could be cut a little deeper.

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5 hours ago, Stevenb said:

hopefully I'll take it with me on Tuesday night and have a shot with it before IPSC.

 

picked it up and I don't think the gunsmith has understood what I wanted /what the issue is. The barrel is straight, but he said the wing hasn't been put on level. But the top dead centre of the barrel would be pointing at about 12:30 and not 12 o'clock. This is not an issue except for my OCD.

He also said the forcing cone could be cut a little deeper.

If the barrel isn't clocked correctly that can be set back.  If the wing is the problem I would see if you can get an aluminum one milled correctly, so it's straight and saves weight.  The forcing cone is easy to fix with the right tool.  It looks like you're most of the way there with what you have.

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The wing is perpendicular to the barrel.

As has been said, I'll get it to the range and have a shot with it. I did run some factory 38 specials through it when I got it, it shot pretty well, but the blurry 2x scope on it was a little bit of a hindrance

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

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2 hours ago, Stevenb said:

so the verdict is to keep it

 

rushed off hand at 20m, 4 shots under an 1", the 5th out to 2", the 6th out to 3.5" group. the 5th and 6th were all me jerking the trigger.

A large portion of the match can be shot from prone, so I would switch out the Bill Davis grips for something like the Hogue Big Butts, or make your own with some sort of platform.  I bet with the right load you can shoot one hole, prone groups all day.  I always liked the Zero 125 jhps because they shoot flat and as accurately as XTP's, but at a more reasonable price.    

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  • 4 months later...

got the open gun back from the gunsmith with the barrel sorted and the stick shift mounted. Also had to get the firing pin fixed on the metallic gun. 

 

next thing is to sort out some better grips for both.

AM_revos.jpg

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