Balls smaller than quoted on mould.

[dromia]

Get a piece of wood that will go through the frame and countersink a cavity in the middle of it. Clean and lightly oil the forcing cone and lightly oil the ball. Put the wood through the frame and seat it on the open jaws of a vice, workmate, two chairs whatever with the muzzle pointing up. Put your oiled ball in the countersink and sit the forcing cone on it. Place another dod (technical term) of wood on the muzzle and tap it with a hammer that has authority. When the ball is seated in the forcing cone just tap it out with a bore fitting brass rod and measure. If you have a narrow rod seat a plug of kitchen roll down first for the rod to sit on.

[bigfathairybiker]

Many thanks again.

Triffid, I'll be ok, I'm having fun at the moment, nothing too serious, but I'd like to get things right and bring my group sizes down from 1ft @25 yards to a bit less. Probably need to stop using 40 grains of powder...

Mark

[bigfathairybiker]

Well, I have hammered balls and measured sizes:-

Slug down barrel - largest width = .451
Slug down barrel - smallest width = .444 ( grooves in slug )
Slug in forcing cone = .453 ( almost half a ball into cone )
Cylinder = .452

Interestingly the slug from the barrel is a nice sliding fit in the cylinder.

Also now have a broken foresight..... ooopppss...

Mark

[dromia]

The Lee balls should be there or there about.

Those are good revolver dimensions and are about what they should be.

As the cylinder is 0.452" you will never get a larger ball than that out of your revolver as anything bigger will be sized down upon loading.

Throat looks right and with a 0.452" ball you will have 1 thou over groove diameter going into the rifling, I'd be happy with that and then concentrate on varying powder charges and improving my shooting for smaller groups.

I always bench my loads for group first so that I know what the gun/load will do, once I have established that then any variance is down to me.

[dromia]

Broken foresight?

Sounds like you had a hammer of the wrong authority.

Other than that I trust you found the slugging process was easy and painless?

[bigfathairybiker]

Thanks again Adam.

The slugging process was a bit scary at first when the lead mushroomed over the top of the barrel.
Then I used a pin punch to get it moving the lead folded in and it went smoothly down the barrel.
Knowing that lead is softer than the steel barrel you are pushing it into isn't confidence building until you get past the point where you realise it isn't going to split the barrel in half.

The foresight is not original and not the half leaf shape normally on top. It looks like someone replaced it and then filed down until a bit around 7mm long and 3mm square stuck up at the end.
So, when I put a lump of wood on top of the barrel and hit it firmly (but not squarely ) it just snapped off.
So, luckily it is held on with a 1.6mm roll pin. I've now got to order a 1.6mm punch and some pins and a bit of 3mm steel to shape up.

Mosin is up next.. I'll be a little more careful then.

Mark.