27-2 with a Bulged Barrel

[Mtwoodson]

Picked up a nice 5' 27-2. Nice except for the bulged barrel.
Seems like I have three options.
1. Shoot and live with it as is.
2. Rebarrel with another 3-1/2, 4', or 5", if I can find one, or
3. Covert the whole thing to .44 Special. Cylinder, barrel, other wee bits, etc.
I'm thinking that prudence negates reboring the bulged barrel to .44 Special.
Thanks for your thoughts, experience or?

 

[jmiles1960]

I would put a replacement barrel on it. Since the part is not serialized, you would preserve the gun's value and enjoy it. Should be reasonably easy to find a correct barrel, probably already in the correct finish / condition. Good luck!

 

[Drm50]

Never herd tell of reboring a bulged barrel.

 

[NewDeparture]

I´d start by doing some shooting to see if accuracy is affected or not. If not (which is very likely) I´ll leave it as it is right now. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Hair Trigger]

Can we see the gun in profile? I can't figure out what the finish is. Looks like stainless, but M27's aren't stainless, so I'm guessing hard chrome, which is not a factory finish. If it were original, re-barreling the gun would affect value some; it's an earlier series gun, no older than 1981-82, (pinned barrel), but a refinish kind of does it in.

Do you know the history of the bulge? Squib load, followed by a good one, most likely? Look around on ebay, Numrich, or the forums and gun shows for a period barrel for it. Still make a shooter out of it.

 

[squidsix]

If you swap it, save the original barrel or at least good photos of it. These guys find out you modified a model 27 and they will roast you for sure.

 

[hannstv]

Finding a replacement barrel would seem to be the most logical course. Even if you could still shoot the revolver and accuracy was reasonable, it would still drive me nuts every time I looked down the barrel.

 

[murphydog]

I vote for both #1 and 2 - shoot it and search for a replacement barrel, to keep your options open. Personally I agree with hannstv, however, looking at it would really bug me.

 

[2152hq]

M27's and M28's used to be sometimes converted to 44Spcl's by re-lining the original bbls (instead of reboring/re-rifling) back when conversions to 44spcl were very popular.
That's one way to a .44 or even a .40 (38-40cal)

Another way is to 'Sleeve' the bbl. This uses a .44 bbl insert to incl the bbl threads as well. Not a simple relining tube.
Stronger than a liner. No liner showing at the breech end and the bore perfectly centered at the breech end.
The sleeve 'bbl portion' is made as large in dia as possible to be as strong as possible and is actually strong enough to be a bbl in itself.
The old bbl is reamed clear to be able to be slipped over the sleeve and is attached with either solder or a LockTite adhesive.

The Sleeve is easiest to make from another S&W 44cal bbl. All you need is an N frame bbl of the correct length. The contours will be lathe turned down to round.
But can be turned and threaded from a piece of plain bbl stock.
Of course the final assembly will need to be fitted for Cyl Gap, Crowned, Forcing Cone cut.

Not a necessarily cheap way out, but it is an option as they say now a'days.

Orphaned M27 bbls are usually not cheap either. They still require fitting.

I would not recommend a re-bore on a bbl that has been bulged like this one.
The bulged area has been pushed out beyond the stress point of the steel (if that is the correct terminology).
That area will always be weak. It may never cause any problems.
But I wouldn't bet money on it.

It may cause problems in the reboring process itself. When
completed, that area may still show as a slight flaw in the (re)bore. Uneven polish, darker, things like that.

I can't think of anyone reboring pistol bbl's right now.
JES Reboring doesn't adv doing handgun bbl's. Some say he will do them but doesn't adv as so.
He's about the only one I know of that does rebore work where you get your bbl back within your lifetime if you are over 60.

 

[steelslaver]

l
This is what 2152hq is talking about. I did it to make a 6" 327 mag barrel and used a piece of 32-20 rifle barrel to make the "liner"
K frame 327 project

 

[chief38]

I am just curious..... Was the M27 purchased knowingly that it had a bulged barrel or something that was discovered after the fact? Just a bit perplexed as to why someone would knowingly buy one like that unless a project gun was what they had intended.Then I could justify the purchase IF, the price were right and all else was perfect.

 

[SAFireman]

I have a 3.5" nickel barrel for a model 27. PM me if you would like some pictures.


Or, there is a 6.5" 44 spl barrel listed on the for sale forum right now....

 

[M29since14]

Not much hope a bulged barrel will shoot acceptably, IMO. I've never seen one that did. I'd replace the barrel with something else.

Years ago we did some unscientific tests with a bulged barrel K22 that the owner thought still shot fairly well. We compared it with three other K22s of roughly similar vintage. The gun with the bulged barrel didn't shoot terribly, but it did consistently group about 1" to 1.5" bigger at 25-yards than the other guns, which were all within 1/2" of each other for the three of them. The best shooter of the bunch was a 4-screw model that shot right around an inch with any ammo we tried in it. Average was probably 1.25" to 1.5" or so. The bulged barrel shot around 2.5". Bulge was about halfway down the barrel.

All of our shooting was done by hand, from a rest position. We figured the one with the bulge needed a new barrel.

 

[Mtwoodson]

Chief38.
Let's just say the price was right.

 

[teletech]

Finding a similar condition replacement barrel would be my first plan.
The look of a bulged barrel sets me off badly, so I can't leave one alone.
I did once have pretty good luck swaging one back down to the point where it was close to original. Made a 2-piece block and turned a taper to match the barrel, then crushed the whole mess in a sturdy machinist's vise several times, turning slightly each time. The bulge went from pronounced to almost invisible. I hadn't done enough accuracy-testing to comment on before and after but the resulting barrel shot within the normal range I've come to expect for a factory Smith.

 

[CH4]

I vote for #2

 

[STEALTh Inst.]

It looks like someone fired a "squib" load and instead of checking the bore, fired another round behind it. I would not recommend shooting it; the barrel steel has been over stressed already and could prove dangerous with full loads. I would have a gunsmith replace the barrel and check the weapon for any additional stress/damage.JMO

 

[s&wchad]

I bought a 6" post-war .357 Magnum with a bulged barrel at a good price from a member of my gun club. This was well over 10 years ago.

An esteemed member of this forum sold me a later 6" replacement barrel with a red post front sight that wasn't numbered. I sent the gun and barrel off to S&W and they installed the barrel and tuned up the gun. IIRC, the charge was $70 + return shipping to my door.

I didn't even bother checking if the bulged barrel would shoot OK. It would have bothered me every time I picked it up.

While the collector value is gone, it's a great shooter that I enjoy taking to the range. Replacement model 27 barrels are out there. Watch the auction sites and consider placing a WTB ad in our classifieds.

 

[stanmerrell]

You will have no problem finding the parts you need. Congrats on this. Hope to see more. It doesn't matter whether you go 44 or 357. Both are equally good ideas.

 

[steelslaver]

On something like this a replacement barrel is the way to go. I so believe that it would be possible to press the bulge back out doing something like teletech did.