Revolver Bullet Size

[FlinchJerk]

Pistol shooters!.....how many thousandths oversize of the chamber diameter(s) should a round ball be? I plan to use pure lead and a cylinder-out-of-the-gun loading jig. I have not yet measured the chambers, or the bore; the gun is an original .36 Whitney.

I guess the idea is to not shave off or compress much lead from the round ball as it is loaded, while being certain there is enough bearing surface on the loaded ball to properly engage the rifleing. I know the difference between the bore diameter (smaller) and chamber diameter(s) (bigger) is relevant to the question.

Way back in the CW Centennial I bought an Italian repro Remington .44 that shot wildly erratically. Studying the problem, it turned out the bore was way larger than the chambers and it was actually like shooting a smooth bore with substantial ball-bore windage. It was great for blanks, however....

I tried the BB search feature without success; yours in the hobby!

Dean Nelson
1st Maryland Infantry, CSA, N-SSA

[pastore]

You need to ensure that the balls fit snugly in the chamber so they do not move forward in the chambers because of recoil, creating a gap between the ball and the powder charge.

[Ken Hansgen, 11094]

Dean, When I had a Remington .44 job by Tri-l, he installed a .451 barrel, reamed the chambers to .454, and told me to use .457 balls. Don't know what the ratio would be for a .36 cal., 'tho.

[Mike McDaniel]

That's about the right ratio. For a nominal .36 revolver, I would try a .375 round ball.

[hobbler]

For what it's worth...
Once upon a time, a long time ago, shaving lead seemed an unnecessary evil. So, the chamber mouths got a gently tapered chamfer. Did it work? Well, it didn't hurt and I didn't have to deal with lead shavings.

[FlinchJerk]

Folks...the Whitney chambers all miked to .373. So allowing for .002 oversize for moderate round ball tightness in the chamber, I will go with a .375 mold, as suggested.

Turns out the barrel has 7 lands and grooves, just like many Whitney-made
long arms barrels. Must have been a lucky number for him, or something. But I can't accurately measure a 7 land & groove slugged ball. Doesn't matter.....

On-line auctions feature mostly .375 bullet molds as intended for .36 revolvers, so that might be standard.

Thanks for your advices!

Dean Nelson
1st Maryland Infantry, CSA, N-SSA

[Mike w/ 34th]

Dean,

You can get a pretty good approximation of bore size if you take your slug and roll it between the slack jaws of a caliper. I works out pretty consistent, and requires less math than wrapping the slug in paper or any of the more exotic methods. I use this method on Martini-Henrys, which have 7-groove flat-and-spire Henry rifling, which would be impossible to gauge any other way.

Cheers,

Mike

[hobbler]

If you run into a problem getting a conical base to fit that tight of a chamber diameter, it's very easy to roll a taper onto conicals using two flat pieces of whatever is available. The back side of formica has a grain that is particularly well suited to the task. Sounds like a lot of trouble but it's real easy. Used to use a Lee 9mm mold drilled out 3/8" and rolling a taper on them created very, very accurate loadings in a 1861.