After following the thread on pin gauges and chamber measurements in the ‘ Smithing ‘ section I recall reading years ago that many of the top match competitors knew that their revolvers had one or two chambers that shot better than the others. They numbered the cylinders so these chambers were identified and used in the Slow Fire stages. Then many years later I spent some time with Ron Power and Hamilton Bowen and they both said the same thing and in fact Ron Power numbers the chambers on all of his better comp gun builds.
When I got into the business I figured a Ransom Rest was needed to document performance with a signed target with load data. So one day I decided to look into this old belief that every revolver has one or two ‘best’ chambers. With a model 10, 19, 625, 686, 14 and Ruger Security Six and Vaquero 45 Colt. I then assembled a batch of ammo for each. Mostly my target loads with lead SWC bullets, same lube, no gas checks, firm roll crimps and loads chrono’d to be close as possible. I then brought out several boxes of Remington and Federal 38 Spl, 357, 45 Colt and 45 acp. My hope was to eliminate ammo as a variable the best I could. Barrels and chambers were thoroughly cleaned. Each gun was fired one cylinder full to foul barrels. Each chamber was marked with a felt pen. The test was shot indoors on a 50’ gallery course range — no wind.
At the end of the day the three of us had shot probably well over a hundred rounds maybe one hundred twenty-five and sure enough every gun had one or two ‘ best ‘ chambers. The model 625 and 686 had one chamber that was much more accurate than the other five. Both of these guns were printing one jagged hole on one chamber and roughly 1/2” on the others. The model 14 and Vaquero were all very accurate but two chambers printed a bit better. The other guns shot around .750” avg but one or two chambers outperformed with every cylinder full. In summary my little pseudo-scientific experiment did indeed demonstrate that these guns at least had one or two chambers that shot much better than their neighbors. There are some vague theories on why but uniforming chambers appears to answer most of the time, but not always according to some really good competitive shooters.
Rick
When I got into the business I figured a Ransom Rest was needed to document performance with a signed target with load data. So one day I decided to look into this old belief that every revolver has one or two ‘best’ chambers. With a model 10, 19, 625, 686, 14 and Ruger Security Six and Vaquero 45 Colt. I then assembled a batch of ammo for each. Mostly my target loads with lead SWC bullets, same lube, no gas checks, firm roll crimps and loads chrono’d to be close as possible. I then brought out several boxes of Remington and Federal 38 Spl, 357, 45 Colt and 45 acp. My hope was to eliminate ammo as a variable the best I could. Barrels and chambers were thoroughly cleaned. Each gun was fired one cylinder full to foul barrels. Each chamber was marked with a felt pen. The test was shot indoors on a 50’ gallery course range — no wind.
At the end of the day the three of us had shot probably well over a hundred rounds maybe one hundred twenty-five and sure enough every gun had one or two ‘ best ‘ chambers. The model 625 and 686 had one chamber that was much more accurate than the other five. Both of these guns were printing one jagged hole on one chamber and roughly 1/2” on the others. The model 14 and Vaquero were all very accurate but two chambers printed a bit better. The other guns shot around .750” avg but one or two chambers outperformed with every cylinder full. In summary my little pseudo-scientific experiment did indeed demonstrate that these guns at least had one or two chambers that shot much better than their neighbors. There are some vague theories on why but uniforming chambers appears to answer most of the time, but not always according to some really good competitive shooters.
Rick
