Update: Velocity & Bullet vs. Cylinder Throat Size for .44 Magnum

[TheTinMan]

If you can't shoot lead bullets through a ported barrel, why would anyone want such a barrel?

Well I'd shot factory jacketed soft point ammunition through it for years without a problem. Did need to remove the barrel shroud occasionally to clean the barrel, but nothing like what happened after I dug out some old, cast lead bullets and made some handloads.

The problem was made worse by the fact that these old lead bullets measure .431". I bought them for a mid-1980s Smith & Wesson with ginormous throats. The Dan Wesson barrel slugged at 0.428" and the cylinder throats at 0.4285", so the bullets were getting squeezed way too much.

I got a Lee resizing die for the old bullets but haven't tried it yet.

When all is said and done, porting a 2-piece barrel probably is a bad idea.

 

[stansdds]

If you can't shoot lead bullets through a ported barrel, why would anyone want such a barrel?

Porting can sometimes sell a gun to an individual who may be a little recoil averse or just thinks it's a good idea to have holes drilled into barrels. When the revolver comes with holes in the barrel, they don't have to send it to a gunsmith for porting.

 

[Forrest r]

I learned a long time ago not use cast bullets in bbl's with that type of porting. I used external ported bbl nuts on my dw's.

 

[stansdds]

I learned a long time ago not use cast bullets in bbl's with that type of porting. I used external ported bbl nuts on my dw's.

If you really want a ported, sleeved type barrel, the extended barrel nut with porting is the way to do it. It's a shame that Dan Wesson revolvers have, once again, gone out of production as have the different barrels, shrouds, and accessories.