picture of a chamfered revolver chamber(s)

[maurice]

As the title says. Just curious as to what is involved and how much to remove/alter.

 

[Lee Enfield]

Don't do any removal.

This is one of those areas where if you don't know, you shouldn't attempt it.

What you probably really would need is a chamber POLISH rather than chamfering...

 

[maurice]

well, the rim of each chamber entrance is very sharp, as is the extractor. I have shot revolvers which had softer edges, as they had 1000's of rounds thru them. They were much easier to load.

 

[Fall Guy]

It was an old PPC trick for speed loading to chamfer the cylinder chambers only and not the extractor.

I wouldn't do it either. Polish as Lee says.

 

[JohnC]

It was an old PPC trick for speed loading to chamfer the cylinder chambers only and not the extractor.

I wouldn't do it either. Polish as Lee says.

light champfering was indeed done on custom PPC guns but yes on cylinder chambers only. S&W's Custom Shop also did this on the Jerry Miculek custom 625s. it really makes a difference especially with wadcutters on PPC guns but even with moonclips and roundnose .45ACP on 625s, the edge of the case can and wil catch on the edge of the chamber.

Brownells sells the tools

 

[maurice]

I find the wadcutters are the worst, but they easiest for me to get. So for now until the local gunsmith can chamfer it, you guys recommend I just polish?

 

[Lee Enfield]

You have to ask yourself an important question:
Do I plan to shoot only light competition PPC/IPSC loads with this gun? Jerry Miculek doesn't exactly shoot full house .45acp...

If you "chamfer" the chambers, you have changed the dimentions of each one, your brass will swell at the base just a little bit more, so you have to remove more metal from the extractor, or you may lose consistant ejection of non-mooned cases (.45 AR), small rims (.45Colt).
As with any mechanical relationship, each action causes/creates cascading changes.

Maximum charges may no longer function reliably in your gun (extreme case perhaps, but possible).

Rounding (barely cutting) the sharp corner edges of the extractor & polishing the chambers is the most I would have done.
I've seen "chamfering" jobs that look like someone used a 3 cornered file...

It is VERY important to realize that you can go too far & do serious damage to your gun.

The relationship of the extractor is very finely fitted, and I've seen some EXTREMELY VALUABLE guns which were funged by people who did "easy" stuff wrong.

Remember, you have 6 tries to get it wrong....

 

[maurice]

thanks, I think I will just lightly polish the edges. I only plan to shoot .38special out if it for IPSC. I think my biggest concern is that swelling would occur if too much material was taken off to leave that are of the chamber with not enough material to provide support. the extractor looks to be very rough, as it seems to have been stamped from some piece of metal and fitted "good enough" to work. 1200grit should be ok...?

 

[SDC]

If it's done right, the chamfering is only at the very edge of the chamber holes anyway, so the cases don't swell in any event (no differently than "throating" a 1911 barrel); also, Jerry Miculek CAN'T use "powderpuff" loads in competition, because they test your ammo to make sure it meets a power factor in every level III or above. If you do this, you don't need to put very much on there at all to make it work well (even a 1/32" edge on each chamber gives you a LOT bigger hole to aim for). That, and roundnose or truncated-cone bullets, will make them almost JUMP into the cylinder.

 

[Cocked&Locked]

I chamfered my 625 with a cutter from brownells. I am a tool and die maker so I have a fair body of experiance removing metal. I have had no issues with cases swelling, you would have to remove a truly huge amount of material before this would become a problem. Chamfering your cylinders will make it much easier to reload, I can all but toss my moon cliped .45 at the cylinder and it goes in. any form of wadcutter sucks for trying to get into the cylinder fast, the shoulder hangs on the rim of the chamber, try a conical or round nose bullet with a roll crimp. Gunnar at armco would be a good choice to chamfer your cylinders, but really its a 20 minute tops job.

 

[motoman]

i had my local smith do mine in my old ruger security six did not have any problems it sure made it faster to load full wadcutters for ppc

 

[mtbore]

Not suggesting this is what you do, but you asked for a picture.

Here's one, from Pinnacle Guns. There is moonclip machining there, also.