Hello S&W Forum;

I recently bought a beautiful model 66-1 that I hoped to use as an IDPA shooter. The gun has a great trigger, and is very accurate and generally easy to handle. However, it can be very hard to load fast, which is not good for IDPA.

The problem is one of degree, not black and white. When the chambers are scrupulously clean and fed with perfectly cleaned and sized ammo, all is well. But, shoot the gun twenty times and on the next reload a few rounds will start to get a little sticky in the sense that they won't drop cleanly and fully into the chambers. Even one slightly balky round is a problem. Have tried brush-cleaning the chambers between stages, but that doesn't seem to be sufficient.

By comparison I have a model 28-2 that attracts rounds into the chambers. So the issue here appears to be that 66-1 chambers were evidently cut with very close tolerances, much like the rest of the gun (which is why it is so appealing).

I am going to try polishing the chambers with a gentle abrasive. Hard to believe that stainless steel is going to notice that, however. Someone suggested using nickel-plated brass, which does stay cleaner and so is comparatively slippery. Now where to buy such brass?

Any other ideas?

Thanks.

If you reload, using nickel-plated brass doesn't add any complexity to the loading process. If you need some nickel-plated brass, I'm sure there are plenty of people out there with nickel casings they aren't using (I've got a jar or two full, for example).

Another thing to do is to use something like the Lee Factory Crimp Die for the final loading step, to ensure any case bulges (i.e. from loading lead bullets, which are usually 0.001" larger in diameter than jacketted bullets) are smoothed out, ensuring that rounds will drop right into the chambers -- my 610-3 has tight chambers and needs 10mm rounds loaded with lead bullets to be swaged down with a Lee FCD, otherwise I have to really press the rounds into the chambers.

If you don't reload, then about the only .38 Special or .357 Magnum factory ammo that use nickel-plated casings that I know of are defensive loads (+P, etc.); pretty much all target/standard-pressure ammo I've seen use brass casings.

Welcome to the forum!

+1 for valkyriekl

Have you tried loading with factory ammo? If they go in ok, then valkyriekl is right on. I used to have that problem, but the FC die solved the problems. Sometime, when seating the bullets, they cause a slight bulge in the case, which is ironed out by the FCD, sizing it down to minimum SAMI specs.

EarlFH

Ditto on the 2 previous posts. Nickel is just inherently more slippery than brass. If you do reload, you'll notice that the nickel is easier to resize even with carbide dies.

__________________
NRA Benefactor

Welcome to the forum.

Thanks all.

I do use a Lee FC die, and it helps a great deal.

I also check the fit of each round by dropping them into the cylinder (with the bore plugged) to make sure that each round is ready to use. Even then, after twenty shots or so the sticky loading is likely to return.

The ammo I load is pretty light, and there is often an obvious gas leak around the cases. My surmise is that just a speck of unburned powder or residue leaking around the case with the gas is enough to cause a problem on the subsequent loading (ejection has not been an issue).

Among the three kinds of powder I have used to date - Bullseye, Unique and Trail Boss - which do you suppose is the cleanest in this regard? My favorite for a number of other reasons is Trail Boss; it fills a case so that you can easily see it before setting on a bullet, and it overflows when you inadvertently try to fill a case twice. (Smells good, too.) But sometimes you can see specks of powder burning in the muzzle blast, suggesting it may not burn cleanly.

Any advice on polishing the chambers?

Thanks again.