Chamfered My 625JM

[SW357Addict]

Hello. I just wanted to post my experience with a little gun smithing I recently did to my 625JM. I purchased this revolver about 4 weeks ago and love shooting it. However, I was having issues with reloading it. The .45 ACP rnds in the moonclips would not drop in to the cylinder freely. I had to wiggle the rounds quite a bit before they would drop in. The lip of the brass tended to catch on the edges of the cylinder and on the slight ledge of the area of the cylinder below the extractor star. So I decided to chamfer the charge holes myself. I purchased a 45 degree chamffering kit from Brownells. I also purchased some Cratex rubber polishing bits. It was much easier than I thought it was going to be. I took my time and put a nice chamffer the cylinder holes. I had to disassemble the revolver which was an easy task. I secured the disassembled cylinder in a vice with a couple of blocks of soft cypress wood so I would not marr the cylinder. The chamffering bit has a pilot that guides it and you just turn the bit by hand. I then used Cratex extra-fine polishing bits in a Dremel (also from Brownells) and polished the edges of the charge holes. I then put the extractor star in the cylinder and blended the edges using the Cratex extra-fine polishing bits. The Cratex bits don't remove much material at a time so they are very forgiving if you slip up. They are a carbide impregnated rubber. But they will polish a bead-blasted finish to a shine so you still need to be careful. If you have thought about doing this yourself and have patience and a small amount of mechanical skill you can do this yourself. While I was at it, I also polished the sharp edges on the serrated trigger. I used a Cratex fine grip bit and now the trigger is extremely smooth.

Now it is like the revolver sucks the moonclipped rounds into the cylinder. And the trigger is comfortably smooth. Pictures below:

Also, while I had the revolver dissasemlbled, I replaced the firing pin with a longer one from Cylinder and slide and replaced the trigger rebound spring with a 14# reduced power Wolff spring. The action is silky smooth in double action and the single action is very light. I estimate it at about a 2 lb trigger pull. But with the longer firing pin, the revolver ignites the primers in both double and single action every time. It's a dream to shoot now. Thanks for viewing.

 

[SW357Addict]

Hello. I just wanted to post my experience with a little gun smithing I recently did to my 625JM. I purchased this revolver about 4 weeks ago and love shooting it. However, I was having issues with reloading it. The .45 ACP rnds in the moonclips would not drop in to the cylinder freely. I had to wiggle the rounds quite a bit before they would drop in. The lip of the brass tended to catch on the edges of the cylinder and on the slight ledge of the area of the cylinder below the extractor star. So I decided to chamfer the charge holes myself. I purchased a 45 degree chamffering kit from Brownells. I also purchased some Cratex rubber polishing bits. It was much easier than I thought it was going to be. I took my time and put a nice chamffer the cylinder holes. I had to disassemble the revolver which was an easy task. I secured the disassembled cylinder in a vice with a couple of blocks of soft cypress wood so I would not marr the cylinder. The chamffering bit has a pilot that guides it and you just turn the bit by hand. I then used Cratex extra-fine polishing bits in a Dremel (also from Brownells) and polished the edges of the charge holes. I then put the extractor star in the cylinder and blended the edges using the Cratex extra-fine polishing bits. The Cratex bits don't remove much material at a time so they are very forgiving if you slip up. They are a carbide impregnated rubber. But they will polish a bead-blasted finish to a shine so you still need to be careful. If you have thought about doing this yourself and have patience and a small amount of mechanical skill you can do this yourself. While I was at it, I also polished the sharp edges on the serrated trigger. I used a Cratex fine grip bit and now the trigger is extremely smooth.

Now it is like the revolver sucks the moonclipped rounds into the cylinder. And the trigger is comfortably smooth. Pictures below:

Also, while I had the revolver dissasemlbled, I replaced the firing pin with a longer one from Cylinder and slide and replaced the trigger rebound spring with a 14# reduced power Wolff spring. The action is silky smooth in double action and the single action is very light. I estimate it at about a 2 lb trigger pull. But with the longer firing pin, the revolver ignites the primers in both double and single action every time. It's a dream to shoot now. Thanks for viewing.

 

[socal s&w]

Sounds like a bit of enjoyable and gratifying work, plus you have made your revolver more pleasurable to shoot and it's exactly what you had in mind.
A win-win situation.

 

[Big Cholla]

Sounds like you got a good job out of your efforts. Just a word of warning to others contemplating this job or any other with Craytex polishing system; the dust created while polishing with high speed impregnated polishers is VERY hard on human lungs. For the continued health of your lungs you must wear a dust mask while using the Dremel or Foredom polishing tools. ........... Big Cholla

 

[Tom C]

I love my 625-8JM. I have done similar things to mine, but didn't have to champfer the chambers. I use .45 AR most of the time and I don't want the extractor to be champfered too much. I also smoothed and rounded the top of the trigger to avoid biting my trigger finger.

 

[tomcatt51]

Originally posted by Tom C:
I also smoothed and rounded the top of the trigger to avoid biting my trigger finger.

I've always wondered if I was the only one. I've been rounding the top corners for years because my finger would get bit.

SW357 Addict: Let us know how many rounds it takes for the C&S extended firing pin to break. Keep your original pin handy.

 

[Tom C]

I have to smooth most of the Smiths I have. The Ruger double actions are much worse than the Smiths. They have a very sharp edge. I find this is one of the only gunsmithing things I do where a Dremel tool is useful.

 

[AzShooter]

You did an excellent job. It looks fantastic. I'll bet your reloads are much faster and reliable now.

 

[Geronimo Jim]

Thanks a lot for this report. It gives me the inspiration to do the same....now, where is my Brownell's catalog?

 

[odjoe]

think i'll try this for a winter project thank for the info

 

[Geronimo Jim]

btt

 

[odjoe]

any range update all working ok?

 

[backalow]

I was thinking of having the cylinder on my 625 chamfered as well. I was going to send it back to S&W so they could do this for me. What was the cost of the tools to do this yourself?

 

[tomcatt51]

In most cases (no pun) you need to ream the chambers also. Reamer, chamfer cutter, and pilot is around $150. Some good cutting oil too.

 

[shovelwrench]

Originally posted by tomcatt51:
In most cases (no pun) you need to ream the chambers also. Reamer, chamfer cutter, and pilot is around $150. Some good cutting oil too.

Why would you need to ream the cylinder after this?

If there was nothing wrong with them to start with, a chamber reamer is one heck of an expensive way to de-bur.

 

[tomcatt51]

Originally posted by shovelwrench:

Originally posted by tomcatt51:
In most cases (no pun) you need to ream the chambers also. Reamer, chamfer cutter, and pilot is around $150. Some good cutting oil too.

Why would you need to ream the cylinder after this?

If there was nothing wrong with them to start with, a chamber reamer is one heck of an expensive way to de-bur.

Has nothing to do with de-burring. Do a good job with the chamfer cutter and there's nothing to de-burr. Has to do with the fact that many have undersize chambers.

Edit: The chamfer helps get the rounds started into the chambers. Reaming the chambers (if undersize and many are) lets the rounds go all the way in instead of hanging up with ~1/8" still to go.

 

[kennyb]

beautiful work....i have the 5.5" jmm model from the performance center...it just shoots great!

 

[scooterj]

[/QUOTE]


SW357 Addict: Let us know how many rounds it takes for the C&S extended firing pin to break. Keep your original pin handy.[/QUOTE]

If the C & S firing pin is fit properly, there should be no issues with breaking. I've got over 5000 rounds and countless dry-fires with one on my 625and still going strong.

 

[tomcatt51]

Originally posted by scooterj:
If the C & S firing pin is fit properly, there should be no issues with breaking. I've got over 5000 rounds and countless dry-fires with one on my 625and still going strong.

Good for you. Makes you one of what seems to be very few.