45 Colt tight chambers

[Fla Trooper 265]

I checked my Old Model 45 Colt's chambers and they would not allow a 452 inch lead bullet to pass through. The Old Model seems to be accurate. I can shoot one ragged hole groups at 15 yards with the same bullet over 9 grains of Unique. No sighs of excessive pressure. Are the tight chambers something to worry about. I am concerned about long term.

 

[recumbent]

If it shoots that good with no signs of pressure I would not worry about it.
That revolver will out last you.

 

[Rclark]

It is your call. If it isn't leading your barrel, and shooting fine for you, you could leave it alone. Not going to hurt a thing. Gun will outlast you. However, if you want 'correct' dimensional throats, then ream those throats out. I found (as many others) that reaming never hurts accuracy. It can only stay the same or help. In one of my revolvers it reduced the group size by half and leading went away. A couple of others I couldn't tell any difference. Again your call. At 15Ys most big bore guns should shoot close to one ragged holes (5-6 shots). If not something is really wrong. 25Y is where you can see more of an accuracy impact. That's my experience though . Yours may be different.

 

[contender]

15 yds is not a real test of a guns accuracy. Real accuracy begins at 50 yds & goes out beyond that. (Think hunters, silhouette shooters, etc)
Many guns can shoot very good at close ranges,, but not at distance.

Have you slugged the barrel & got a REAL reading of the barrel dimensions? If so, how does it compare the the throats? Have you measured the throats with pin gauges?

With all that,, if YOU are happy,, and YOU are aren't experiencing any issues,, leave it alone.

BUT,,, having a gun that has uniform chambers,, of a proper dimension, (usually .4525 for cast bullets,) that mates with the barrel dimensions, will be a better all around gun. And if you get to shooting at distance,, or a different load,, then you may well choose to have the easy & inexpensive work done to open up those chambers.
We have 2 FINE gentlemen around here that can help with this;
Fermin Garza also known as; "2dogs"
And "DougGuy"


My shooter OM 45's have all had their throats uniformed to a proper .4525.

 

[daveg.inkc]

I reamed my .45 Blackhawks. Leading was a problem. You want to have .001" clearance on throats. All my other Rugers in other calibers had that. Single and double action. No reason not to. I bought the reamers and various pilots. I have pin gages to measure. A small , .450". .451" throats are compressing bullets. That was the size on a Vaquero of mine.

 

[Fla Trooper 265]

Thanks everybody.

 

[haymaker]

I didn't slug the bore and I didn't use any pin gages, The only gages I used were .452 bullets. The gun seemed to shoot just fine but I couldn't push a bullet through the cylinder bores. I couldn't drive a bullet through with a small hammer and punch. I knew that couldn't be good so I rented the reamer from 4D Rentals and did both the .45Colt and .45acp cylinders. I haven't had a chance to shoot much since then so I can't really say it's any more accurate but I'm confident I won't have any over pressure or leading issues.