oldcrab
Bearcat
Happy holiday-weekend, folks!
I have a stainless 6" barrel GP100 357 magnum that is a 2013 vintage.
I would like to occasionally shoot some hard cast bullets in very moderate quantities in the gun, but don't want to hurt it.
Here's what I know about my revolver:
- After finding a couple jacketed bullets that have an exact diameter of .357, I've verified that they will slide through all six chamber throats without putting any "helping pressure" on them. (just barely, so I'm estimating the cylinder throats are somewhere between .375 and .3755)
- I have a couple hard cast lead bullets that are .358 (using a micrometer), and they will NOT slide through the chamber throats... so they are somewhere between .0005 and .001 oversize to the throats.
- I don't know the forcing cone angle, but have seen that many think it is "probably" 5-degrees.
- The gun shoots jacketed bullets very accurately, with no fouling whatsoever.
Do you think I could load up some hard cast at moderate speeds and give it a whirl and see what the leading looks like?
Or, should I forget about testing it with hard cast without reaming the throats to .358?
Or ?????
Thanks much for your thoughts.
I have a stainless 6" barrel GP100 357 magnum that is a 2013 vintage.
I would like to occasionally shoot some hard cast bullets in very moderate quantities in the gun, but don't want to hurt it.
Here's what I know about my revolver:
- After finding a couple jacketed bullets that have an exact diameter of .357, I've verified that they will slide through all six chamber throats without putting any "helping pressure" on them. (just barely, so I'm estimating the cylinder throats are somewhere between .375 and .3755)
- I have a couple hard cast lead bullets that are .358 (using a micrometer), and they will NOT slide through the chamber throats... so they are somewhere between .0005 and .001 oversize to the throats.
- I don't know the forcing cone angle, but have seen that many think it is "probably" 5-degrees.
- The gun shoots jacketed bullets very accurately, with no fouling whatsoever.
Do you think I could load up some hard cast at moderate speeds and give it a whirl and see what the leading looks like?
Or, should I forget about testing it with hard cast without reaming the throats to .358?
Or ?????
Thanks much for your thoughts.