CANTED REVOLVER BARRELS - THE TRUTH AS I SEE IT

[Protocall_Design]

I’ll have to post a pic of my 625-3 where the barrel has been tightening itself with shooting . The front sight now is canted a good 1/8” or more to the left . Unshootable now .

You can unscrew it, put blue Loctite on the threads and screw it back in with the sight vertical. Next day you can shoot it all you want and it will stay there. Clean the male and female threads with solvent, let that evaporate or blow it off, coat both threads, screw together, then wipe off any excess. Takes about 10 minutes to do.

 

[Nick B]

My 625-3 after about 800+ rounds . Started out straight.

 

[jjfitch]

Canted barrel back to SW 2 times!

A few years ago, I purchased a new 686 SSR!

As a competition shooter with thousands of rounds down range in S/A and revolver I immediately noticed the clocked front sight! My eyes wanted to correct it somehow and it literally made me dizzy trying to "align the sights"!

I have to wonder if the "technicians" are even shooters. I had a difficult time explaining the difficulty I was having!

It took two trips for warranty service to get it corrected!

Seems like an unnecessary expense for a 10 minute fix!

 

[chief38]

If a canted barrel bothers anyone, they are easy to avoid -- just examine the gun you are buying. It baffles me how many people apparently don't bother to even look over a gun they are buying, and how many people complain about how a gun shoots (high-low-left-right) when it is often their own refusal to train properly with a new gun that's causing the problem.

Yes, I whole heartedly agree, however some are so slight they may not be recognized at the time of purchase. Add that to a "Newbie" purchasers excitement and sometimes they slip by. As seasoned buyers now, we all look for this, but when I started buying Smith's 47 years ago I would not have thought to even look. I do have one or two with ever so slightly canted barrels. Never did anything about them because of the fact they shoot spot-on for me. Seriously, tweaking them to be perfectly centered would change where they print and that I do not want to do. Aside from which, they are minor enough not to be an issue cosmetically either. This was my original point - sometimes best to leave well enough alone if minor and shoots straight.

 

[__steve__]

I have a PC 500 3.5” that I had the barrel replaced. Forcing cone eroded, B/C gap 0.010”, and significant end play. In addition to barrel, I requested to close the gap and remove the play. Got it back with almost no play, B/C 0.005” and the action timed nicely. On the bad side, the shroud is over rotated about 1- 2° and has a significant gap between itself and the forward yoke/frame surface you can slip a credit card in. Was interesting how they reshaped the contours of the shroud and frame to visually balance itself.
The gun is very accurate and I can blast gallons of water at 100 yard’s unsupported. Do these aesthetic imperfections bug me? Not in the least bit.
I reckon it is probably a very difficult process of trying to keep the barrel gap within tolerance while keeping the shroud lined up with everything stretch torqued in place, without cylinder rubbing on barrel and yoke contacting frame while closing, and the extractor ratchet not binding to frame. I couldn’t do it.

 

[sniper]

I did want to post this because clocked or canted barrels are so common these days and sometimes they do not shoot straight and must be fixed. Other times when they do shoot well - leave well enough alone IMHO.

Just my own dos centavos.

Agree...I had a receiver sight added to a rifle, and when I received it, it appeared te sight was not square to the barrel. I questioned the gunsmith, and he assured me he had used the proper tools for lining it up. I didn't have any precision measuring tools, so just let it go. The rifle shot very well.