Toolguy

You can NOT mix 6 and 8 shot frames and cylinders. The 8 shot cylinders have a .060 larger bolt circle (center to center of opposite holes). That means that the barrel and chambers of an 8 shot are offset .030 higher than the barrel and chambers of a 6 shot. If the 327 is an 8 shot, you can turn back the cylinder face on a lathe to fit the longer barrel shank of the 929. I did that with a 627 cylinder and it works great. Now I can shoot 9mm, 38 short colt, 38 special, and 357 mag. in the one gun. It takes about a minute to swap cylinders. You do need to have a good lathe and the tools and ability to make accurate precision measurements. In other news, I recently made a 357 Sig revolver, the only one I know of, out of a 686. That is a 40 S&W(10mm) necked down to 9mm. I rechambered the cylinder, and cut it for moonclips. The same moonclips will fit 9mm, 10mm, 40 S&W, 38 Super, 357 Sig, etc. The chamber walls are too thin to run full power loads in, but I will only be using light target loads for matches and practice. You could do the same in a model 27 or 28 six shooter and probably use full power loads. There is not room to do this to an 8 shooter.

The Allchin mount is the lowest one I know of. I have 4 of them and like them a lot.

Hi Gargoil. I don't know of any in particular, just things I've read over the years. You might google Winchester Super Target powder problems.

The inverse temp. sensitivity of WST has been well documented over the years. Yes, it is an anomaly. Every other powder I know of is going the other direction temp. wise except the Hogdon Extreme powders starting in this century that are very stable over a wide range of temperatures.

Spoken like a true bottomfeeder shooter...

When I was shooting pins, there were 5 pins on a 4 x 8 foot table, set one foot from the front. You had to move them 3 feet back to go off. No 9mm would work for that.

Lots of good advice here. Don't be in too much of a hurry to buy something. Whatever you get, you will likely be stuck with it for a long time. Precision Matthews is a good import brand. You would be far ahead to get a new one of those than a beat up Bridgeport. Look at the ways. If the scallops are worn down and/or there is a lot of slop in the leadscrews, hard pass. See if the X and Y axis handles turn more than .015 or so without moving anything. That tells leadscrew and nut wear. The best new knee mill on the market right now for the money is an Acer 3VKHH. It's Brideport sized for around $9500. You may be able to find a used one on eBay or Amazon for less. They are better than BP. A new BP is around $14000 bare bones. I don't know what your budget is like. Whatever you get, you want a Digital Readout on X and Y at least. DRO on Z axis is optional. If you get a 220v 3 phase machine and you only have single phase 220 service, you can use a Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) to run it with. The advantage to that is that then you can have variable spindle speeds that you can dial up or down electronically. The Acer comes with that built in.

Measure the straight part below the bell. That's what sets case neck tension. I should have said case neck instead of case mouth.

Your powder drop die may be expanding the case mouth too much, thus cutting down on case neck tension. One possible thing to look at.

When using the trigger pull gage normally, your are measuring the action as a whole, including the rebound spring, leverage and friction of all the parts together. When just pulling on the hammer by itself, you are isolating it down to just the mainspring tension on the hammer. Then you have a known quantity of what mainspring pressure works 100% in that gun, that you can dial back up to the same setting at a later time if needed. The spring may weaken, the strain screw may back out, you might want to try a different kind of spring or put in a new one, the gun may need to be disassembled to work on it, you may want to check it before a match, etc.

If not replacing the hammer, I would use a Wilson spring kit. Always use firmly seated Federal primers for a tuned revo, regardless of what else you do. Get a 3/8" long x #8-32 socket setscrew to replace the strain screw. Use either #222 purple or #242 blue Loctite to keep it from unscrewing. With these, you can make adjustments any time and the screw will stay where you put it. Start with the mainspring misfiring some, and turn the screw in clockwise 1/8 turn at a time, test, repeat, until you have no misfires. If you get one misfire in 100, turn it another 1/8 turn. Use a trigger pull gage hooked on the hammer to weigh the final mainspring tension on the hammer. To do this, pull the trigger to partially cock the hammer, and hook the trigger pull gage over the hammer. Holding the trigger all the way back, gently lower the hammer/gage hook down on the frame. Start pulling on the gage and take the reading just as the hook lifts off the frame. Write down this number for future reference. If you have to take the gun apart or work on it, you can dial the strain screw back to that setting without having to shoot a lot of ammo to find that spot again. Now find the lightest rebound spring that returns the trigger the way you like it. Some like the lightest trigger pull, some like the snappiest return, some like something in between. The factory rebound spring is generally thought to be 18 lb. Wolff Gun Springs makes 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16 lb. ones. Maybe one in the Wilson spring kit will do what you want. This process will give the best action you will get with just a spring kit. You will not get exactly the same action in multiple guns, because every gun is a separate entity unto itself. You can get actions that are similar to each other and all acceptable, though.

I built a 44 Auto Mag revolver for pins, the one in my avatar. It's too small to see much, but a 44 Mag on moon clips with Wichita Rib, 2 port slab barrel, underlug, action job, trigger guard hook. I was shooting 300 gr. bullets at 920 fps. That is a 275 power factor. That one will take off 2 pins lying down together in one shot. I was running around 4 to 5 second times with it, about the middle of the pack in the group I shot with.

Smaller than a prairie dog.

This is our Classic style sight base. It is 1/4" square x 1.5" long. It is shorter than the Weigand/Bowen base which is 1.75" long. This one has a setscrew in the front rather than a spring loaded plunger in the rear. This design makes it much easier to get the sights in and out, and holds them more securely. The sight base is made of stainless steel. We also make the sights to go on them, but any brand of Classic style sight will fit. The sight base comes with a #6-48 mounting screw. They are $45 + shipping and can be ordered from our website (use the contact form).

Nice work. I would have had to use corner rounders and end mills.

You will need to take that one to a gunsmith. There is no telling what all could be wrong with it over the internet. It will have to be looked at in person, on the bench.

The front sight can be milled off and a new base installed that uses the Classic style clip on sights. Then you can put on any kind of sight you want. The 6 inch gun will serve you well.

I would like to see them, too. I've never seen any top revo guys shooting other than JM.

I wouldn't leave any loaded for more than 100 years. Probably time for fresh ammo by then, anyway.

Wow. That would be an insanely compressed charge!!!

There are lots of moon clip holders that will do any 6 or 8 moonclips interchangably. I make a holster mod for the Hogue Power Speed holster that works for any S&W revo from 4" to 8-3/8" and anything in between. It takes about 10 seconds to change from any one to any other one. Then you can buy whatever guns you want or can find a deal on, without having to worry about barrel length.

The 45 moon clip holders would work fine for 44. A 5" barrel is a good compromise between 4 and 6, but some prefer those. The 4" is a bit handier, though it may be hard to tell a difference, a 6" has a longer sight radius for better aiming. TKCustom can make 44 moon clips.

Most trigger pull gages are set up to record the highest pull weight. That is the reading people are talking about when they say my trigger is xx lbs. The reality is that the trigger pull is ever changing throughout the length of pull, but you can't tell it on a hand held gage. I made a bench mounted gage that eliminates the human factor that shows the pull weight through the full cycle. You can see this on the videos at the https://RevUpAction.com website. The S&W leaf mainspring actions get slightly lighter as you pull the trigger. For example, an average factory setup will start at around 12 lb. at the beginning, and ramp down to around 9 lb. by the end. With the RevUp hammer, starting at 12 lb., it will go down to 4 or 5 lb. by the end, depending on what rebound spring is in it. With the RevUp hammer dialed down to 7 lb. and an 11 lb. rebound spring, it starts at 7 and ramps down to around 3. I have a couple that go down to 2.5. You can set the starting point at whatever it needs to be to fire the primers you're using. It will smoothly ramp down to whatever the rebound spring pull is, or just a bit more, with the hammer and mainspring out of the gun. I don't have a Ruger with coil mainspring to put on the gage to see what it does. The common consensus is that the coil springs stack (get heavier) as they are compressed. That may or may not be the case, due to the interaction of the hammer and trigger.

Thanks for the good words, Matt. Actually, if you watch the videos, it does make it lighter. It starts out at the normal weight for the mainspring tension, but gets lighter as you go back, until at the end, you're mostly just pulling against the rebound spring. Most of my guns with the RevUp hammer (Federal primers) start at around 6.5-7 lb. and go down to around 3-3.5 lb. by the end of the trigger pull. That is single action pull weight.

If you go to the https://revupaction.com website, you can see 3, 15 second videos of different action setups on the home page. I invented and built a special trigger pull gage to show what the trigger is doing all the way through the pull. No one else shows what you would get by using their product. #1 - Shows what an average out of the box 12# trigger pull is doing. #2 -Shows what just trading hammers, but keeping the 12# starting point is doing. You can see that even if you have the mainspring dialed up to 12#, it still goes all the way down to 4# by the end. You can dial the action up or down to fire any primers. This hammer needs a factory S&W mainspring, not aftermarket one. #3 - Shows what a gun tuned for Federal primers looks like. It starts at 7# and goes down to about 2.5# This gives you the convenience and speed of DA with the shot placement control of SA, all in one.