.44mag velocity question

I guess I don't understand what headspace means on a rimmed, straight cartridge.
 
when i was digging around for some spec's. i can across this site page. pretty good basic smith info. how good the specs are i don't know. i didn't come across any printed smith data.


http://www.ammoland.com/2008/12/04/inspection-guide-for-smith-and-wesson-revolvers/

copied over:

Headspace: The distance between the cartridge head and the recoil shield is called headspace. There should be adequate space for the cylinder to rotate freely when loaded but not so much where the case can back out when fired. Center fire revolvers should have .006″~.012″ headspace, .010″ is optimum. Rimfire revolvers should have .004″~.008″ with .006″ as optimum.
 
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The forcing cone looks ok to me. That rough edge could have been caused by some home gunsmith trying to "smooth out" the forcing cone with some type of "tool".
The bullet doesn't make contact there anyways (or at least it shouldn't) so that little bit isn't really an issue. Too, being magnified always makes things look worse than they are.

If you use endshake washers to tighten up endshake, you'll also tighten the headspace at the same time, but slightly widen the BC gap. It'll still be within S&W spec though which is currently at .012" max (in my opinion way to large for the factory to be ok with, and up from the .010" it used to be a few years ago).

If you are like me, you like everything to be just as close to perfect as you can have it, but after lots of playing with lots of different guns over the years, I have found a lot of times it really doesn't make all that much difference. Chances are slim that a tighter BC gap will make much difference in velocity from what you have right now, and if you are getting the groups that you like, or are acceptable for your purposes, then adjust the minor endshake/headspace issues before they get way too far out of spec, and just enjoy your gun.

Too often we spend far to much time worrying about things that aren't realy important and forget to just enjoy our time and our guns while we are here. ;)
 
the start of this post was the concern of primer flatting/hatting with low velocities with a starting load of powder. now i find that i do have a headspace concern. how much of a effect the head space has on the primer problem i don't know? anyone have an actual published s&w spec.?
 
Here are some pics showing some cone wear on my 329pd. S&W replaced my barrel and cylinder when I sent it in because of the cracked blast shield.

forcing cone wear

This revolver ate a lot of W296.
 
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