Slightly off topic but might be of interest. In 1986 I bought a used model 16. I used that revolver extensively for practice and bullseye shooting. I also collected and shot Colt DA revolvers .I shot many of my own reloads with cast unsized wadcutter bullets. Frequently they had a slight bluge where the bullet was encased in the brass. These rounds always chambered without difficulty in my Model 16 but the same bulged rounds would not chamber in my 1920s to 40s Colt revolvers either the service or Officer's models The 38 sp Colt cylinders had significantly tighter chambers than the Model 16 Smith. both shot very well.
Reaming .22 cylinder
- Thread starter JN01
- Start date
Another testimonial for .22 chamber reaming. I have a pre model 18 and a 17-6 that gave me trouble with extraction. After Big Cholla reamed them they both extract very easily. The accuracy of the 17-6 is greatly improved now that the chambers are uniform. Money well spent.
Lou_NC
Member
To anyone thinking about reaming their .22 cylinder chambers, if you can use a tap, go for it! Here's a thread I started a while back after reaming my first cylinder on a Model 18. I've never regretted that decision.
Just out of curiosity, for those of us who've used the reamer, is there an projected life expectancy for the reamers before replacement or resharpening is required?
Thanks,
Lou
Just out of curiosity, for those of us who've used the reamer, is there an projected life expectancy for the reamers before replacement or resharpening is required?
Thanks,
Lou
Big Cholla
Member
Life of a Reamer?
IMHO and experience a 22 caliber reamer of good quality will ream quality chambers for hundreds of times.....IF you take care of the reamer. i.e.: clean the reamer every time it comes out, Use quality cutting oil and lots of it, never turn the reamer backwards, turn the reamer in the cutting direction even when withdrawing from the chamber, don't try to hog out the whole cut in one pass, use multiple ins, outs, cleans, re-oil chamber and reamer. Do all this enough and you develop muscle memory for the 'normal' effort it takes. When and if you feel the necessary effort go upwards it is time for a new reamer. Yes, the reamer can be reground, but it usually undersizes it. So, the solution is to just get a new reamer when the original has given its all. And store the reamer in a plastic tube container that never allows anything else made of steel to touch it.
Don't try to ream a chamber that has been chromed. I don't know anything about reaming titanium. I have reamed aluminum but only when using special cutting oil specifically for aluminum. ...............
IMHO and experience a 22 caliber reamer of good quality will ream quality chambers for hundreds of times.....IF you take care of the reamer. i.e.: clean the reamer every time it comes out, Use quality cutting oil and lots of it, never turn the reamer backwards, turn the reamer in the cutting direction even when withdrawing from the chamber, don't try to hog out the whole cut in one pass, use multiple ins, outs, cleans, re-oil chamber and reamer. Do all this enough and you develop muscle memory for the 'normal' effort it takes. When and if you feel the necessary effort go upwards it is time for a new reamer. Yes, the reamer can be reground, but it usually undersizes it. So, the solution is to just get a new reamer when the original has given its all. And store the reamer in a plastic tube container that never allows anything else made of steel to touch it.
Don't try to ream a chamber that has been chromed. I don't know anything about reaming titanium. I have reamed aluminum but only when using special cutting oil specifically for aluminum. ...............
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I've done 8 .22 cylinders so far, and it is still like new. Be sure to follow the steps Big Cholla lines out, lots of cutting oil and keep the reamer clean.
tomcatt51
Member
I've reamed the chambers in two of the 10 shot aluminum cylinders. Brownells' DO-DRILL worked just fine. Perfect smooth shiny surface finish.
ggibson511960
Member
Gauges?
Odd that in all this discussion of experiences good and bad no one, even experienced gunsmiths, spoke of checking chamber dimensions with gauges. I guess whatever works is the right solution, but it would be informative to know if your pistol was on specification, particularly if having the fix done by S&W outside warranty. Has any one checked either before or after reaming?
Odd that in all this discussion of experiences good and bad no one, even experienced gunsmiths, spoke of checking chamber dimensions with gauges. I guess whatever works is the right solution, but it would be informative to know if your pistol was on specification, particularly if having the fix done by S&W outside warranty. Has any one checked either before or after reaming?
tomcatt51
Member
Read post #30.
The other question would be what is "on specification"? There are many different spec .22LR chambers.
Saami spec chambers are usually called "sport" chambers.
There are many more (usually) smaller and shorter with shorter throats.
How tight a chamber you can use ultimately seems to be based on the consistency of the ammo and the guns ability to extract the fired cases.
You can run a tighter chamber in a .22LR bolt action than will allow the usual blow back semi-auto to function. On our revolver it's compounded by having 6 to 10 to extract at a time...
Remember also that SAAMI spec is actually just a reference value.
With the amount of chips we're getting reaming the chambers they're way smaller (as post #30 references using a know VERY tight chamber reamer as a gauge) than Saami (sport) spec.
I don't have a telescoping gauge small enough to measure a .22LR chamber and small hole gauges aren't accurate enough. I did a bunch of measuring of 625 chambers verifying they were also just badly sized, being both undersize and out of round.
Try chambering fired cases from ANY .22LR semi-auto in your 617...
Near as I can tell S&W will call the chamber "in spec" if a .22LR round can be inserted into a clean chamber. They won't ream chambers if you send a gun back, they might install another cylinder with chambers probably no better than what you had. It was a really big deal to get them to warranty 625 cylinders and they still won't admit the "short" firing pins many CF FMFP guns have are a problem...
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Aviator
Member
I have a question for the pro reaming guys.
If you attempt to insert a Cci standard velocity 22 round into the ball end of your reamed cylinder chambers will it go?
This is the only way I know to check throat dimensions and puts mine at about .224.
Don't know if it matters, just askin.
If you attempt to insert a Cci standard velocity 22 round into the ball end of your reamed cylinder chambers will it go?
This is the only way I know to check throat dimensions and puts mine at about .224.
Don't know if it matters, just askin.
S&WIowegan
US Veteran
The finish reamer does NOT have any impact on the throats. The reamer only trues up the chambers(you know...the part where the brass goes).
tomcatt51
Member
+1
The revolver chamber reamer pilots in the throat (doesn't cut the throat) and only cuts the chamber.
The reamer will cut the rim recess so care is required to (at most) just touch the rim recess. If in doubt, stop a bit short.
Revolver chamber reamers are configured differently than other action type chamber reamers.
Reamers cannot be resharpened and still cut the same diameter hole. To sharpen, you have to remove metal from each flute on the reamer, which leaves the overall diameter smaller than reamer was when new. Depending on how oversize the reamer was when new, how much material has to be ground off when resharpening it, and how much is needed to open a chamber hole to make it chamber a round.
Now forget everything I just wrote.
What can be done to a used reamer is the have it re-cut, not resharpened. Reamers cut with the leading edge of the reamer, and that is where most of the wear takes place. After a lot use, the reamer cutting surface takes on a tapered shape from the front towards the rear. By moving away from this worn area and cutting off the end of the reamer, it can have the flutes where the shoulder is ground/sharpened to size and a new shoulder created. Whether this is cost effective depends on who is doing the work.About the life of the reamer, it is dependent on a lot of factors. Two things that effect the life of a reamer is how fast it is used and whether you use a good cutting oil. A hand reamer, used with little downward force at slow (hand) turning rate and lots of cutting oil should be able to ream a lot of holes before needed re-cut or replaced. Storage is also important, as you don't want to damage the cutting surfaces. Cutting life is also dependent on the material being cut. Normally I would say stainless steel would shorten it's life, but the grade of stainless S&W uses seems to be pretty soft compared a lot that I've had experience with.
The Manson reamer does not cut the throat. The shoulder on the reamer that cleans up the rim recess acts as a stop and keeps the reamer from going too far. There should be no change in dimensions of the throat.
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