Anybody Ever Return a Revolver to Ruger for Thread Choke?

Enigma · Jan 18, 2015

I wrote earlier about firelapping a used .45 Vaquero that I had traded for, but ultimately decided to return it to Ruger. The barrel had .005" thread choke, as verified by my machinist buddy. I had initially measured it at closer to .010", but decided to get a second opinion - from someone who uses a micrometer daily. Turns out I was being a little ham-handed on my mike when measuring the slugs! I was concerned about trying to firelap out that much metal, so I decided to give Ruger a try. Ruger sent me a FEDEX label, and I shipped it off last Friday.

I'm just wondering if anyone else has sent a gun back for this problem, and what the outcome was.

rugerguy · Jan 19, 2015

No Sir, never came up in my almost 50 years of working on and servicing firearms, in 3 different gun shops................. 8) :wink:

WIL TERRY · Jan 19, 2015

YES, I have and it turned out just fine. Mine was a 1965 OM 4 5/8" 357 that could choke a bullet down to a 32 I swear !!!
They opened up the frame threads, re-barrelled it, and in the by'n'by I sent it to Hamilton Bowen who had the BBL re-bored to .400"I.D. and the cylinder rechambered to 10MM NORMA. It now shoots 10MM like a dinky little rifle out to 200 meters and the boys learned, do-not-bet-againts-it !

Enigma · Jan 23, 2015

I'm hoping for the best, but am prepared for the worst. I'm getting anxious to see what the results are once its returned! I figure that if they did nothing - the old 'it's within tolerance' reply, I'll get it Taylor throated and see what that does for it.

phonejack · Jan 24, 2015

I've had it on 2 ruger 44's. 60-70 rnds of jackketed down range and it was lapped out.

Carry_Up · Jan 31, 2015

Enigma, I'm curious to hear more background on this. Are you hunting down reasons that the gun is not an accurate shooter? What made you think about bore diameter at the threads? Rugerguy - thanks. By saying that it never came up in 50 years, did you mean that nobody ever complained about it, or you never saw a constricted barrel?

To my knowledge, anytime you tighten down a barrel in a frame there will be a certain amount of constriction. The metal has to go somewhere. Otherwise the barrel threads would not fit tightly into the frame and eventually would loosen up - I've seen that happen on lots of inexpensive .22's for example. Constriction at the threads isn't on the short list of things to do to achieve accuracy, such as throat diameter, b/c gap, forcing cone angle and depth, chamber to barrel registration, barrel crowning...

Is there a rule of thumb on what amount of constriction is acceptable for various calibers?
Thanks,
CU

Enigma · Feb 1, 2015

Cintorry_Up said:
Enigma, I'm curious to hear more background on this. Are you hunting down reasons that the gun is not an accurate shooter? What made you think about bore diameter at the threads? Rugerguy - thanks. By saying that it never came up in 50 years, did you mean that nobody ever complained about it, or you never saw a constricted barrel?

To my knowledge, anytime you tighten down a barrel in a frame there will be a certain amount of constriction. The metal has to go somewhere. Otherwise the barrel threads would not fit tightly into the frame and eventually would loosen up - I've seen that happen on lots of inexpensive .22's for example. Constriction at the threads isn't on the short list of things to do to achieve accuracy, such as throat diameter, b/c gap, forcing cone angle and depth, chamber to barrel registration, barrel crowning...

Is there a rule of thumb on what amount of constriction is acceptable for various calibers?
Thanks,
CU

I traded into this revolver, and immediately performed two checks that I always perform on Ruger .45 revolvers - I slugged the bore and measured the chamber throats. The chamber throats ran as small as .448", and the bore slug came out the breech end at .447". The rest of the bore has a groove diameter of .452", right where it should be.

I did run 18 rounds through the gun, which was enough to confirm what I already expected - it grouped like a shotgun, and it leaded the bore. I sent the cylinder out and had the chamber throats reamed. My initial plan had been to firelap the thread constriction out, but I decided that .005" was simply too much of a good thing. I contacted Ruger, and they wanted to examine tbe gun so I returned it to them. It will be waiting at FEDEX when I return home next Friday. I'll report on the results.

Carry_Up · Feb 1, 2015

Thanks for the info. Is there a special micrometer used to measure the bore, or did you use hole gauges? It will be interesting to see what the factory does about it.

-CU

Enigma · Feb 2, 2015

Carry_Up said:
Thanks for the info. Is there a special micrometer used to measure the bore, or did you use hole gauges? It will be interesting to see what the factory does about it.

-CU

I tapped a lead slug through the bore (3 of them, actually), and miked them.

kelbro · Mar 19, 2015

Has Ruger returned this to you yet?

cherokeetracker · Mar 19, 2015

Never returned one to Ruger yet,, but have firelapped 3 of them. The Stainless takes a lot of work. I also reamed the throat to 11 degrees and had the cylinders reamed to the correct dimensions. I did not know that Ruger would do much of anything on one of their pistols just because of thread choke.

Enigma · Mar 21, 2015

Ruger returned the gun after graciously replacing my just-reamed cylinder with a new one that has undersized throats. They included a test target displaying two distinct and separate 3-shot groups fired (from one cylinder full) at 15 yards that measures right at 2". They did not touch the barrel at all. Guess I'll be sending the gun off to be Taylor throated and to have it's second cylinder reamed.

DougGuy · Apr 15, 2015

Dang the luck! I have the Taylor Throat reamer in my tooling also, and they work wonders. Send me a PM if you need my assistance, quick turnaround time, EXCELLENT work done, and very affordable pricing.

Doug

cas6969 · Apr 18, 2015

LOL That's how you fix the barrel choke alright, squeeze the bullets down before they get to it. :roll:

Doesn't surprise me in the slightest that they didn't do anything about it.

Jimbo357mag · Apr 19, 2015

Thanks for the report. ...of course they probably threw your old cylinder into the scrap bucket. AAAARRGG!! :?

Anybody Ever Return a Revolver to Ruger for Thread Choke?

Help Support Ruger Forum:

Enigma

Hunter

rugerguy

Hawkeye

WIL TERRY

Buckeye

Enigma

Hunter

phonejack

Single-Sixer

Carry_Up

Single-Sixer

Enigma

Hunter

Carry_Up

Single-Sixer

Enigma

Hunter

kelbro

Single-Sixer

cherokeetracker

Bearcat

Enigma

Hunter

DougGuy

Single-Sixer

cas6969

Buckeye

Jimbo357mag

Hawkeye

Similar threads

Latest posts