Where to get Blackhawk cylinder throats reamed?

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GarrettJ

GarrettJ

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So I recently found a .38-40 / 10mm Buckeye Blackhawk for a price that I didn't consider to be excessive. I've been reloading a lot of calibers for a lot of years, but this is the first time I've loaded the .38-40. I've been having a tough time getting that one to shoot very well at all.

In comparison, the 10mm shoots very well.

I finally started measuring cylinder throats. I have been measuring by driving a lead bullet through the cylinder and then measuring with a micrometer. The throats all measure .3990" and ..3985".

The one 10mm chamber I checked measured at .4005". The way it runs, I expect them all to be around the same.

So is there a go-to gunsmith for throat reaming? Anyone out there that would have a correct .40-caliber throat reamer?
 
I had to send my blackhawk 45 Colt with the convertible 45 ACP cylinder back to Ruger, both cylinders were similarly out of spec. They took care of it promptly at no charge. I did buy the pistol new but I don't remember them asking for proof of purchase. Try contacting customer support, it's certainly worth a try.
 
CylinderHone is a standup guy, he did the throats on 2 of my Ruger cylinders. He should get with you on what diameter bullet you should use going forward, to match the throats.
 
I had DougGuy over on castboolits do the cylinders on my BH 41 magnum it shoots better than ever and got rid of the terrible leading problems that I had turnaround was super fast
 
Cylinder Hone did a S&W 21 for me and did a good job. Just make sure he reams it to the dimensions YOU want.

35W
 
I've heard DougGuy does awesome work and I'm sure he does. I messaged him about making my S&W 610 10mm into a 10mm magnum. He informed me that under Obama era Executive Order he didn't do them any more because it made him a manufacturer and he doesn't have that license. Bummer for me :( I'm pretty sure he can still do throat reaming tho as it doesn't change the cartridge.
 
I don't mean to hijack the thread, but has anyone here rented the reamers and done it yourself?
 
hms365 said:
I don't mean to hijack the thread, but has anyone here rented the reamers and done it yourself?
Click to expand...

We have the same Ruger; 10mm/38-40. The throats were undersized on the 38-40 and really under with the 10mm. I could not find anyone renting the 10mm reamer so I bought one. The revolver shoots markedly better and no leading problems.
 
Before you go and ream your cylinder throat, slug your bore and see what you're working with.
 
GarrettJ said:
Good comment. I had done that and found a groove diameter of .4005", which is right on the SAAMI spec.
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Okay, that's good and now you know why the accuracy was poor: the throats were squeezing the bullet too small.

Now the tricky part here is most lead bullets are going to come in at .401, so you don't want to open your throats over .401 or else that's going to cause problems with gas blow by softening the lead and causing leading problems.

Before you do any hand reaming yourself, get a piece of test steel, drill a hole a few thousandths under the .401 size, then hand ream that hole and measure to see what you get. What could happen is the reamer you rent could be dull or could cut oversize than what it's supposed to.
 
hms365 said:
I don't mean to hijack the thread, but has anyone here rented the reamers and done it yourself?
Click to expand...

I used to do the old "split rod with crocus cloth" trick to bring all the throats to the same diameter, and it does work, at least according to the pin gauges. I stopped doing it when a gunsmith whom I respect measured some throats that I had done that way and discovered that the walls were not parallel with each other and the throats were somewhat cone shaped.
 
I'm thinking buy time you spend the money on the tools you would be way ahead if you just send it to DougGuy and have it done right just my opinion
 
I just recently rented the reamer from 4D Rentals for my .45 Blackhawk convertible. There are videos on YouTube that show you how to do it. Also, on the rugerforum.net in their elibrary where Iowegan explains how to do it. He suggests using a .45colt case as a pilot but I ended up using the pilots that came with the reamer. I don't know if I improved my accuracy but I can now push a bullet through the cylinder bores with just finger pressure which was the goal. I reamed both the .45Colt cylinder and the .45acp cylinder. You can find 4D Rentals on the internet. The rental fee is $36.00 for 7 days.
 
GarrettJ said:
Yeah. I thought so as well. Cylinder was shipped off a couple days ago. I’ll report back when it returns to me. Thanks all for the advice.
Click to expand...
Just let the smith know what your bore slugged out to so he'll know what to work around.
 
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