Undersized throats

[Bruce in WV]

+1 for cylinderhone (Doug Guy). He has worked on every modern revolver I have built or rebuilt, from a S&W 5-screw K38 bullseye match gun to a Ruger 3-screw 44 magnum hunting gun. His equipment and skills are lab grade, and his prices are very reasonable.

[Pistol Pete 10]

I have several .38/.357 S&W revolvers(8 at the moment). I shoot .358/357 dia bullets in them with very little leading in all 8 of them. I've not tried to push a .358 diameter bullet thru any of them. I shoot so called hard cast as well as Hornady soft hbwc bullets. Most recently bought some soft 158 HPSWC, they measure .357, no leading but they are pulled from recoil in my 642 revolver. I'm gonna check my guns just for the heck of it but I don't plan on changing anything.

[jtcarm]

S&W .357 throats tend to be very tight. If you want to shoot as-cast bullets, opening throats to .358 is pretty much a necessity.
.358 cast boolits will fill the grooves better

I’ve had a couple of cylinders honed by Doug. He does indeed do good work.

I initially rented a Manson reamer from 4D rentals and did it myself since I had several guns. While that made the throats more uniform, I still couldn’t slip a .358 through. I could, as I’ve done in the past, hone them myself, but that is one tedious and time consuming chore.

Interesting note: Doug switched to a Sunnen hone after discovering cylinders, Ruger in particular, vary in hardness, and the chamber throats on some would actually “spring back” to their original dimensions after being reamed.