Can anyone recommend a gunsmith that can bore out a 22 cylinder to 32 H&R?

Almost any gunsmith can do that.

Is it a K frame cyl?

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Jim
S&WCA #819

Many gunsmiths can but will they ? I was talking with Hamilton Bowen years ago at a gunsmith school about this very subject. Bowen is all about custom cylinders and swaps but he pointed out that for liability reasons it’s not a smart move to re-bore factory cylinders especially when you would roughly be doubling the working pressure from 22 LR to 32 H&R. Not to say you’d have problems but it’s not a smart move on the gunsmiths end.

Good luck
Rick

Andy Horvath would do that job, google his phone number. He is Diagonal Rd Gunshop also. The .32 mag isn’t that high of a pressure, I believe the cylinder in a 16-4 is the same size as a .22 cyl. Just had a .22 cyl done in .327 recently for a project and the 16-4 was reamed to .327. Larry

Well Horvath is certainly a first class mechanic but the.327 is a major pressure jump at 45,000 psi and handloaded 32 H&R mags can get up into the mid 30’s I’m told. One of the problems with most factory cylinders is that the tensile and yield strength numbers are never divulged. So depending on the source or supplier to S&W you may have a spread in strength from lot to lot. Therefore the factories always try to keep chamber wall thickness and cylinder strength well above any reasonable max pressures. Given the questionable QC performance and spotty quality these days I’d be careful pushing limits. Of course Hamilton Bowen was an attorney so he is very careful and rightfully so, so he specs out and buys his own cylinder stock. Anyway just a thought

Rick

The 22 LR pressure ranges from 21-24,000.
The 32 H&R is 21,000.

The K 22 cylinder is so oversize for caliber, the 32 H&R is a no brainer.
And conversions to 327 Mag is so common place thru the years now without a single report of failure (including S&W factory chamberings in J frame size cyls) that the experience and evidence is credible.

This presumes of course that the 22LR cyls to be used for conversion are post 1945 when S&W eliminated heat treating 22 cyls due to to it's major improvements in metallurgy.

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Jim
S&WCA #819

Jebus35745,thanks very much for the gunsmith lead, I'll give Andy Horvath a call.
Hondo44, thanks for confirming that the.32 H&R pressures should be safe in a modern cylinder, this is what I understood from reading many of the posts here and articles written on the subject.
Garbler, I appreciate the advice to be cautious, but I feel that this is a very safe conversion for many of the reasons stated by Hondo44.
Here's the situation:
It's a K-frame .22 cylinder from the 1960's that I plan to put on my Model 15 ND.
I have already fit a 4" barrel from a 16-4 and a .32 SWL cylinder to it and it shot one hole at 30' with wad cutters. But, the cylinder, which I got dirt cheap, turned out to have 6 bad chambers and causes the SWL brass to bulge. The perfectly adjusted extractor star that came with it was worth the price that I paid for the cylinder, so I feel fortunate for having found it.
I've been searching for another cylinder but at this point, I don't want to wait for something that I may never come across, hence the desire to have the .22 bored.
Thanks gents, I'll let you know how it turns out.
Mercury

A modern K22 cylinder has the same OD and metallurgy as a model 19 cylinder.. One reamed to 327 will have a lot more wall thicknesses than one in 357 mag. 327 pressures and 357 mag pressures 35,00psi, 327 mag 40,000psi. Put a smaller id tube will take more pressure. So, the 14% pressure increase and the thicker cylinder wall can handle it.
examples
Carbon steel tubing with .035 walls max working pressure
1/4-4800psi
5/16-3700ps
3/8-3100

I believe it is safe. The K22 cylinder that has been reamed to 327 mag and fires them in my model 16-4 hasn't complained.
Now, should a gun smith worry about it? Every time a gun smith works on your gun he should have concern. He can only control his work. He installs a new 357 cylinder in your model 586 and you make it go boom, who ya going to call? How does he know or you for that mater just what happened. Factory guns have blown with factory ammo. I bet S&W doesn't X ray, ultra sound or phase array every cylinder.

You're very welcome.

Before scrapping your 32 Long cyl, I would try to identify the cause of the sticking cases. For example; where does the brass bulge, up near the mouth of the case (as I suspect), near the case head, etc.? Hopefully not at the cyl locking notches.

By reaming the chambers with a 32 H&R finishing reamer, you will shave the chambers slightly for their full length. You just may find that it straightens the chamber walls enough to prevent the cases from bulging and sticking upon extraction. You've got nothing to lose and a lot to gain if it works.

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Jim
S&WCA #819

That's a great suggestion, I assumed that the cylinder was toast. It is worth a try.
IIRC,the brass was asymmetrically bulging in the center. I'll go find that brass to be sure.
Thanks.

Yes, I would try different brass, perhaps Starline.

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John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!