I've been thinking about getting my 625 fitted with a ti cylinder. S&W says that a ti cylinder isn't a something they regularly stock and other places say I need to provide a cylinder. What all 45acp models have a ti cylinder, I know the 325pd, and what is my best bet for finding one? Thanks, Wes

Why?, Nick

I'd like to get a fairly good light da trigger pull without having to limit myself to federal primers.. I was thinking that's how a lot of competition guns get crazy light trigger pulls so the ti cylinder with a good duty/carry trigger job would be noticeably lighter than the same work with the stainless cylinder.. It would also give me an excuse to have the gun built..

Wes

Wes,
I am not sure if I can get to it before Christmas, but I have several NIW Titanium cylinders on hand. Not sure if I have one for the 625 or not.

I personally think you're onto something here. The big heavy cylinders are the elephant in the room and just gobble up ounces of trigger pull to rotate. So if you have deep pockets and a yearn for a slick fast light shooting revolver go for it and report back, or better yet build two and send me one for testing.

Regards

A titanium cylinder won't do this. In fact, the Ti cylinder won't show up on a trigger pull gauge and you'll really only notice the difference when running the gun really fast DA.

It will be easier to spin the cylinder. I had a Ti cylinder in my 625 USPSA Revolver. A Ti cylinder loaded with 230 ball weighs the same as an empty stainless cylinder. I went back to the stainless cylinder and sold the Ti cylinder. The greater recoil with the lighter cylinder more than offset the advantage of spinning the lighter cylinder.

Hey thinks for the input.. How much did it effect your scores??

Although you are turning a certain amount of mass it is balanced mass until to new fired,once rounds fired a TI cylinder would be farther out of balance than a steel one.

No idea. Probably not much. I just didn't like the sharper recoil with the Ti cylinder. It was noticeable enough (annoying enough) I went back to the stainless cylinder.

So what? The cylinder is only making one revolution.

Not a case of vibration like a tire, but a balanced wheel is much easier to turn than one with more weight on the bottom, even a 1000# balanced wheel will turn relatively easy while a 500# wheel with an extra 50# on the bottom will not. A 250gr weight change in light cylinder will change the balance of the cylinder by a larger % than a heavier cylinder. 1/2 the cylinder empty on a light cylinder means the trigger/hand mech has to lift a more unbalanced side of the wheel. Small, yes, but the rate change would be greater in a TI cylinder than a steel one. Plus, Steel is stronger than TI although less mass slamming int po the bolt during high speed DA is one good thing about TI cylinders. That and carry weight is the only advantage I can see

The same size rod of steel is 5% stronger than titanium but 40% heavier. I just looked it up I'm not a scientist. I have 4 ti cylinder revolvers that are light for carry & just became part of my individual taste in guns. I can't notice any trigger pull difference compared to my steel cylinder guns but I do like the color contrasts. Have not yet had any problems with the ti cylinders. I find them easy to clean with hoppes elite.

Having no first hand experience with titanium cylinders but hearing about them in the competition world it's hard to sort the marketing BS from real world performance. I did discuss titanium firing pins for Mauser rifle actions and was assured by an expert that they will decrease lock time but is it worth it ? I also know that a loaded steel cylinder will register a bit more pull weight than an empty cylinder. Again is the cost worth it ?

I find this pretty interesting stuff and I'm always in favor of somebody else spending their money to find out

Regards

I have titanium cylinders in my primary USPSA/ICORE 625 and 627(which I also use in steel shooting). The rationale is quite simple; S&W stainless steel cylinders are softer than carbon steel and MUCH softer than titanium. The soft stainless cylinders will peen pretty severely when subjected to lots of fast double action shooting. When the peen burrs get high enough, the cylinder stop will skip over the notch and the gun will skip a chamber or more. Believe me, this is very disconcerting during a match! I first experienced this skipping with a Jerry M. 625-7 in the early 2000s.

How did I find titanium cylinders? I bought guns with them in(327 and 325) and switched them out. It works and I really like the stainless cylinders in the PD guns.

__________________
Bob.
SWCA 1821