I would add a lot of time, and some fixtures I don't have. I did get out in the garage last night with good results.

I've always subscribed to the old adage of measuring twice and cutting once, but that was for making cutting boards in middle school woodshop. As a gunsmith, measuring 5 times and cutting once has served me better, and, in this case, I measured 10 or 15 times and cut once.

I know most of the audience here are just revolver fans, not rimfire enthusiasts, but slugging a rimfire bore to assess its accuracy potential, and especially finding the all-important tight spot in the bore, is very important in rimfire rifle accuracy. I don't know that it matters in a revolver with 6 chambers, a cylinder gap, and a forcing cone, but I wanted to give this revolver the chance to be as accurate as a J-frame can possibly be.

So, I slugged and slugged the bore of the Hart barrel section using lubricated slugs harvested from match .22 ammunition and, the more I slugged, the more convinced I became that the "choke" in this blank was longer than I had believed from initial slugging, although the release point was very consistently in the same spot. I think the choked portion is about 1.25" long, instead of about 1/2", as I previously assumed.

As mentioned, my intent was to experiment a bit with barrel length using a 4X Leupold handgun scope I just purchased for the purpose. Experimentation with various barrel lengths (8" to 6" to 4") would not be possible, however, with a distinct, relatively short choke, as I would need to re-cut the barrel from the breech, recutting the tenon threads each time I shortened the barrel, something I didn't really want to do. Yet, with this longer choked portion, I decided I could cut it to the original 4", long enough to mount the Leupold for group shooting, then cut the muzzle back about 3/4" to 1" and just re-cut the crown and still be in the tight sweet spot. So, that's what I did and plan to do.











I've always found it useful to know the weight of the respective components while everything is apart:







Even the light little Leupold overwhelms the petite J Frame. You can see it would be a challenge to mount this scope on a 3" barrel without making some "skinny" scope rings, which is why I opted to start with the 4" length:


So, if I have time tonight, I will cut the forcing cone, torque the barrel in place, scribe a witness mark, assess the resulting cylinder gap, and start relieving the bottom of the barrel for ejector rod clearance. I will also need to relieve the bottom of the barrel tenon for the crane. Getting that far will allow me to shoot it and adjust the cylinder gap, if necessary. Then I'll need to either cut some dovetail grooves in the barrel for direct scope ring mounting, my preferred method, or drill and tap it for conventional bases. Either will need to be shallow enough to disappear when I finally octagon the barrel.

On the ejector rod lug, every S&W revolver I've owned had considerable play in the ejector rod, and I never really thought the ejector rod detent played much of a role in tight cylinder lock up, but I feel better having some means of securing the rod, instead of it just flopping around out there. I also appreciate the comments on shooting these revolvers extensively without a secured rod. Eventually, after I octagon the barrel, I will fit the detent, spring, and pin into the integral lug.

Again, the plan is to octagon the barrel, leaving the size about .600" across the points, and also machine the under lug and and front sight ramp integrally. As always, my projects tend to sprout legs and wander a bit. Now part of me is saying a 4" octagon will look better than a 3" octagon. Just don't know. We'll see, but my original intent was a handy 3" M63 on the older 6-shot, no internal lock platform.

I welcome any thoughts or comments.

TBR