Ian
Notorious member
This revolver is one of my absolute favorites but is almost unshootable because the POI is about a foot high and 4" to the right at 15 yards. The rifling grooves don't follow the bore, either; they get deeper on the left side at the muzzle and shallower on the right, just barely visible. It doesn't lead.
I bought another barrel for it from an Italian revolver parts house and it seemed better inside, but when I went to fit it tonight I noticed the muzzle wasn't cut square. Hmmm.....so I checked the original one with a machinist's square and it wasn't square either, apparently they just cut these with a saw and file/buff the marks out. SMH.
Anyway, here's how I had to set it up in my mini-lathe to recrown it. Pin-gauged the muzzle bore at .443", chucked up a scrap of 1/2" extruded aluminum rod, turned it to .448" and tapered the end slightly, and pressed the barrel onto it about 3/8" with the tailstock screw. Then I faced the muzzle at 90⁰ to clean it up, cut a radius on the outside, then went in and cut a 15⁰ crown, cutting all the way past the bore diameter into the aluminum a bit.
Maybe tomorrow I'll go shoot it and see if it shoots straight now.
I bought another barrel for it from an Italian revolver parts house and it seemed better inside, but when I went to fit it tonight I noticed the muzzle wasn't cut square. Hmmm.....so I checked the original one with a machinist's square and it wasn't square either, apparently they just cut these with a saw and file/buff the marks out. SMH.
Anyway, here's how I had to set it up in my mini-lathe to recrown it. Pin-gauged the muzzle bore at .443", chucked up a scrap of 1/2" extruded aluminum rod, turned it to .448" and tapered the end slightly, and pressed the barrel onto it about 3/8" with the tailstock screw. Then I faced the muzzle at 90⁰ to clean it up, cut a radius on the outside, then went in and cut a 15⁰ crown, cutting all the way past the bore diameter into the aluminum a bit.
Maybe tomorrow I'll go shoot it and see if it shoots straight now.