Mikey 357 go over to RevolverGuy.com on page 5 an article entitled"Evolutionary improvements in Smith and Wesson Revolvers", how J frame barrels are now produced MIM. Great articles from the guys there on how S&W are building their roundguns.
Mikey 357 go over to RevolverGuy.com on page 5 an article entitled"Evolutionary improvements in Smith and Wesson Revolvers", how J frame barrels are now produced MIM. Great articles from the guys there on how S&W are building their roundguns.
Last edited by Zeke38; 03-23-2024 at 05:23 PM.
The article says the ONLY Barrel that's MIM'ed is for the Model 36--They can't MIM Stainless or .357 Barrels because of the increased working pressures over the lowly .38 Special, apparently...Originally Posted by Zeke38
Mikey 357 you are correct! Pardon my mistake.
Post 721 to 723:
https://revolverguy.com/all-about-mim-part-three/
Here's a link to the article regarding an MIM Model 36 .38+P barrel.
What I read/saw was the MIM process didn't allow good enough color matching of a stainless steel MIM barrel to the rest of the gun (the frame), but was OK enough with the blued-finish Model 36.
If there are no problems with the Blued Barrels why don't they use MIM Barrels on Model 19's, 27's & 29's? It's because MIM Barrels won't stand up to the increased pressure of Magnum rounds long-term...Got that from a Smith & Wesson PC Gunsmith last time we were at the Factory some years ago...
Was also told during that visit that the ECM-rifled Barrels tended to shoot Jacketed Bullets at least as well.as the older Barrels that were rifled with a Broach, but that the "Old Style" Barrels tended to group Lead Bulleted Ammo into tighter groups than the newer ECM Tubes, but not having a Machine Rest & an unlimited Ammo Budget I cannot confirm...
Last edited by mikey357; 03-24-2024 at 12:26 AM.
I think that's true of most of the traditional ways to develop rifled barrels prior to MIM and hammer forging. The lead is softer and has more give when it is confronted with the tiny imperfections in the barrel that the cutting methods leave behind. Copper eventually does the same, but it takes more rounds for the copper to smooth over the imperfections.
I happen to know a good video explainer. he's an old armorer for S&W and Ruger, but I think this video is framed more broadly about any rifled firearms. The tl;dr of this video is to season your barrel with copper and then never hit that barrel with a harsh solvent that will clean the copper as well as carbon ever again.
Speaking of the RevolverGuy... part 2 of the UC deep dive is up on his page (and there is a link at AFR too) if anyone would like to read it.
https://revolverguy.com/the-lipseys-...rames-part-ii/
ETA: The details about the 2 piece barrels make me curious what barrel - cylinder gap they are shooting for, spec wise on the UC guns. My 442 Pro's gap is... generous.
IIRC, Bryan Eastridge was miking the gaps at 0.005.
"It's surprising how often you start wondering just how featureless a desert some people's inner landscapes must be."
-Maple Syrup Actual
WDR,
All the ones I have measured have been .005 to .006 which seems to be the sweet spot for reliability and keeping velocities up.
My wife fired a little over 100 rounds through "Her" 432UC today.
We had 5 or 6 light strikes, all with commercial ammo. My handloads with Federal primers all worked ok. I have an Apex kit and I'm not afraid to use it. I wonder if there might be crud around the firing pin or something.
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