Seating HBWC proud of the case for revolver ?

First topic message reminder :

Morning folks,
 Wondering if you experts have any thoughts on seating the HBWC slightly proud of the case ?
 I load for my 52 and a couple S&W revolvers a 14 and 15 .
 I can use the 52 loads in the revolvers, but I was told by several shooters that I should seat the WC about .010 to .014 proud of the case mouth for the revolvers.
 When I asked why the general wisdom was, "because they shoot better." 
 OK , that's the received wisdom .
 My revolvers do better with the Zero projectiles , while the 52 does better with PD.
 Any thoughts ?
 Seems there would be less pressure generated by the proud seating, but I would think it was slight.
 I'm loading 2.8gr of BE into , R&P, Starline  or PPU cases. I separate the headstamps .
 Can't really see any differing results from case to case.
 I'm running a Dillon 550 with their first die with an after market WC powder funnel die , then a Redding Competition seating die and back to the Dillon for crimp.
 Seems to be working out.
 Thanks !

DA/SA wrote:My 15 (bought used) was OK, but not real good, so I decided to look into it a bit. The first problem is that is suffered "thread choke" from an over torqued barrel so the bore was constricted where the threads were. Sliding a gauge pin down the bore revealed that. I removed the barrel to machine the barrel face back a bit and found that someone had dorked with the forcing cone in an attempt to make it 11°, and in doing so the forcing cone was no longer concentric with the barrel bore. I ended up re-machining the forcing cone and got that all pretty happy. After that it started to shoot pretty well, but still a little off. I got checking other things, slugged the bore, and found the cylinder throats a bit small, so I fixed that and it's doing pretty well so far. Still have a few things more to do.

Just a few areas to look into if you can.

Yes , I think my leading problem with my 15 is a throat issue, I need to have someone with more experience than I look it over.
Believe that the throat and the cone are contributing to the early leading. 
I can't run more than 30 light loads down the barrel before I begin to lead at 12 0,clock , if I keep on shooting the leading continues to build and finally accuracy is out the window.
Now I've hijacked my own thread.
My 15 I can run till I'm done with very little leading , but I had a going over long before I owned it .

Meanwhile , my Model 14 is shooting fine. 50 yd, off hand . Second time I've shot at 50.

I shoot the same 52 load in my S&W 586 (trigger tuned for target) for bullseye and get the same excellent results.  I shot for years in NJ for the Northern New Jersey Police Revolver League and all we could shoot was revolver. When I moved to Florida and joined a local club, everyone shot semi-auto (from 32 ACP to 45 ACP). After a while they actually would shoot a revolver only match because they saw how well I was doing. Revolvers are fun and yet challenging at the same time. My 586 has Herrett target grips on it. Sorry I don't have a picture with the grips, but I have a pic with wood combat grips. There are many 1000's of rounds through this gun and it is still tight and accurate.

mustachio wrote:I shoot the same 52 load in my S&W 586 (trigger tuned for target) for bullseye and get the same excellent results.  I shot for years in NJ for the Northern New Jersey Police Revolver League and all we could shoot was revolver.

I shoot in what's left of a PPL at TRPC in Tenefly NJ.
Several of the members shoot revolver.
Non are handloading any longer .
Some are shooting steel cased Blazer they get from aux Police as practice rounds.
They still manage to shoot pretty well with that stuff.
At 25 yards things will work that will not yield positive results at 50yd.

Al W. wrote:

mustachio wrote:I shoot the same 52 load in my S&W 586 (trigger tuned for target) for bullseye and get the same excellent results.  I shot for years in NJ for the Northern New Jersey Police Revolver League and all we could shoot was revolver.

I shoot in what's left of a PPL at TRPC in Tenefly NJ.
Several of the members shoot revolver.
Non are handloading any longer .
Some are shooting steel cased Blazer they get from aux Police as practice rounds.
They still manage to shoot pretty well with that stuff.
At 25 yards things will work that will not yield positive results at 50yd.

At the NNJPRL we shot at 25 yards. At that time one of the members loaded for the entire team, until we realized we could load less expensively and tune our own loads. I did not own a 52 at the time so I loaded Hornady 148 gr. HBWC over 2.7 of Bullseye. Today with my 52-2 I load Precision Delta over 2.5 of Bullseye and get a very soft shooting, accurate load.

Curious, are there any disadvantages with a 52 and Bullseye in dropping from 2.7 to 2.5?

mikemyers wrote:Curious, are there any disadvantages with a 52 and Bullseye in dropping from 2.7 to 2.5?

I have not seen any and the recoil is virtually nil. It drops my brass right at my feet.  I will shoot the 2.7 for Slow fire until I run out of it and then go to the 2.5 gr. for timed and rapid.

In that case, (no pun intended), I'll try doing so next time I'm doing 38 Special.  
Why would you not use it for slow fire as well?

mikemyers wrote:In that case, (no pun intended), I'll try doing so next time I'm doing 38 Special.  
Why would you not use it for slow fire as well?

I will, once I use up my cache of 2.7 gr. Slow fire is 5 minutes and if I am not happy with my hold I can put my gun down. I don't have to rush the shot so a bit more recoil is not an issue. I don't have that privilege during timed and rapid, so I want as little recoil as possible with the 2.5 gr. This gets me back on target faster.

What time is it in India?

mustachio wrote:

At the NNJPRL we shot at 25 yards. At that time one of the members loaded for the entire team, until we realized we could load less expensively and tune our own loads. I did not own a 52 at the time so I loaded Hornady 148 gr. HBWC over 2.7 of Bullseye. Today with my 52-2 I load Precision Delta over 2.5 of Bullseye and get a very soft shooting, accurate load.

I've run my 52-2 with 2.6-2.9 of Bullseye with good results. Mainly Hornady 148gr but lately I've been running Precision Delta and Zero.
I need to ransom rest my 52 to choose between the PD and Z. Then I'll stick with what the RR tells me.
I need to freshen up the recoil spring and see how the cases eject at that point. Right now they are flying which makes me think the spring is due to be changed. 
I find the 52 more of a challenge to be consistent with than the revolver.
Although the 52 is very accurate I prefer the revolvers.
I find the cycling  of the slide to be annoying.

As I'm writing this, it is 22:12 in India, and 12:42 in Miami.

Just add 10 hours ahead from what time it is in Miami, and you'l be close.

I like going to the Hollywood Rifle and Pistol club on weekdays, because it gets pretty empty, especially when it gets hot, so a very few of us have the range mostly to ourselves.  Lots of time to practice and test.

Do any of the commercial companies load 2.5 grains of Bullseye or the equivalent?  Or, just lighter loads than the others?


Meanwhile, back to this topic, since I shoot my reloads in my revolvers anyway, I might just get a lot more ammo from Zero (the reloads).  I keep running out, and most of my reloading lately has been 45.  I thoroughly enjoy shooting revolvers, but I've never known about the concepts that started this thread.

Al W. wrote:......I need to freshen up the recoil spring and see how the cases eject at that point. Right now they are flying which makes me think the spring is due to be changed.......

Some people say the rounds drop at their feet.  If the rounds fly much more than that, is this a sign that I need a new spring?

Wolff make a kit with "standard, lighter, and stronger" springs.  I bought the kit but left on a trip before I could try any of this.  I guess I'll follow their instructions and use the new springs.  I have two 52's, both with original springs as far as I know, and neither gun drops the rounds at my feet routinely.

"Use the net Luke" Just an FYI. Every spring for 52, 952 and 39 will fit in a 52. That gives you a lot of choices. I play with mine until the round just plops into the net. The only reason I would need to change it after getting it figured out once is because I keep tweeking different scopes onto it. My load stays the same. 2.8 gr BE.

Len