Poor accuracy from my 38 special loads

[Petrov]

Hey guys I am getting poor accuracy out of my loads for S&W 627

I am running bayou bullet 160 grain round nose 1.500 OAL, 3.5 grains of solo 1000, federal primers assorted brass.

I am basically getting a 8 inch group at best at 25 yards. I crimp to take out 2 thousands of an inch difference between the bullet diameter and the case wall thickness.

I had some minor bullet shaving in a couple of the rounds I reloaded but I think I bell sufficently.

Should I mess with the OAL first ? Powder charge amount?

[Hi-Power Jack]

What kind of groups are you getting with factory ammo?

Have you pulled any bullets to look for indentations on

the bullets (too much crimp)?

[Petrov]

I am getting 4" groups with whichester white box +p HP ammo. I pulled a bullet and there is a very light crimping ring left by the brass on the bullet.

[GOF]

Have you chronographed the load? Have you miced the throats and forcing cone? A 4 inch group with factory jacketed ammo (even WWB) seems excessive.

[Petrov]

No, I have not done either. Can you recommend me the measuring tools for measuring the forcing cone and the throats?

[glynnm45]

Thoroughly scrub out the barrel and the cylinder of any Leading or copper fouling and then redo your shooting and see if the accuracy has improved.

[Guest]

I had accuracy issues with my 627 and was getting some pretty horrible groups with ammo that shot sub 1 inch from my 686. After reading a bunch about the quality of the SW PC shop the forcing cone became suspect. I ended up using the brownells 11 degree forcing cone chamfer tool to clean up the forcing cone, and then the 11 degree lap to lap it. That cut my group size in half. I still don't get what I would consider outstanding accuracy using short colts, but it is now tolerable. With 160 grain bayou bullets and short colts I get about 2 inches at 20-25 yards. While checking the sights from sand bags a couple weeks ago I had a three shot 1 inch group and was ecstatic. Actually, for short colts i don't think that is too bad.

If I get more into the gun I'll probably find someone to remove and set back the barrel and do a professional job on the forcing cone.

[Petrov]

I think I will have to have a pro rework the barrel. There is some soot but no fouling or leading on the barrel. Even when I started shooting clean it was same crappy groups.

[Petrov]

I thought of something else too, last I was shooting my revolver started binding after 290 rounds and I could not close the cylinder. After I let it sit and cool off a bit it was back to normal. Is that normal ?

[GOF]

No, that's not normal. I would suggest you have a pro look at your gun. I suspect, as some have noted above, that the gun itself has problems.

[Petrov]

Any suggestions as to which guns smith I can take it to?

[Scootertheshooter]

I thought of something else too, last I was shooting my revolver started binding after 290 rounds and I could not close the cylinder. After I let it sit and cool off a bit it was back to normal. Is that normal ?

I'm shooting almost the same recipe but I'm 3.6g of solo1000 but my brass has been trimmed to .902-.906. I have great accuracy. My too had some cylinder rotating issues after some firing. I clean the cylinder and cone face after a bunch of rounds and now do not have that issue. My PC has very little space between the cone and cylinder if anything got to dirty in there it caused the problem. Much more space in my 686 and I think too much space on my 929 Edited December 24, 2014 by Scootertheshooter

[Petrov]

I thought of something else too, last I was shooting my revolver started binding after 290 rounds and I could not close the cylinder. After I let it sit and cool off a bit it was back to normal. Is that normal ?

I'm shooting almost the same recipe but I'm 3.6g of solo1000 but my brass has been trimmed to .902-.906. I have great accuracy. My too had some cylinder rotating issues after some firing. I clean the cylinder and cone face after a bunch of rounds and now do not have that issue. My PC has very little space between the cone and cylinder if anything got to dirty in there it caused the problem. Much more space in my 686 and I think too much space on my 929

That's the think, as soon as the barrel/cylinder cool down it goes back to functioning normal.

[GOF]

It sounds like your cylinder gap is too tight. The accuracy you report also sounds like problems with the forcing cone or throats. I wish I knew a gunsmith I could recommend, but I do not. I'm sure some other poster will. More than a few PC revolvers have had to have a 'post purchase' tune up to get them to run correctly.

[dauntedfuture]

if you are shooting lead bullets things will start to gum up a little after a few hundred rounds depending on the powder you are using. Have you tried other bullets other then the 160's for reloads? 3.5 is kind of a light load, I suspect your velocity is on the low side and you might be just stabilizing the bullets. I should think that if you are getting 4" groups at 25 with a rest and iron sights that might not be "all that bad" Look at the forcing cone as others have suggested and see if there is a large build up of lead in any one area.

[Scootertheshooter]

Dauntedfutere is right being a light load. I know with a plated 158g bullet at 1.46 and 3.3 of solo was only a 85 PF. With a 147g I had to be in the mid 4's to get a 125 PF.

[captain037]

In the old PPC days we shot 148 grn hbwc with 2.7 grn of bullseye and a 158 wad cutter with 3.2 grn of bullseye. Really light recoil and groups of less than 2 inches at 50 yards. Try something equivalent with solo. I never found rn bullets accurate. We shot wads for a reason. This was using .38 special brass in .357 chambers.

As a side note we NEVER ran anything down our barrels. No patch. No brush. Nothing but lead bullets. Many top national shooters did the same.

[kuletchi1]

Any recipes for using auto comp or universal clay w/158 gr plated bullets, federal spp and mixed 38 special brass?

[pyrrhic3gun]

Here's how I fixed poor accuracy in the 627. First unscrew the factory barrel. Put it in your drawer of barrels (like the drawer-full of holsters that all competitive shooters have).

Make a new barrel with 1-in-10" twist from a good blank. Screw it on. Problem solved.

[NuJudge]

No, I have not done either. Can you recommend me the measuring tools for measuring the forcing cone and the throats?

To measure the cylinder throats, pin gauges. They are available from a variety of sources, including eBay.

To measure the barrel groove diameter, you need to slug the barrel and then use a micrometer to measure the groove diameter.