About 5 years ago my late 50's vintage S&W Mdl 28 began showing forcing cone erosion. Within 2 years I had to lay it aside because it was spitting lead and fragments so bad it made me blead.
It took almost 20 years and thousands of rounds of full house jacketed and lead magnum loads for this to happen.
I took it to several gunsmiths who agreed it was burned out. None of them agreed about why.
One said, gas cutting, another said unburned powder was the abrasive cause. A third said yes to the first two then said it was agravated by excessive barrel cylinder gap.
Finally I got the barrel set back a turn, the b.c. gap reset and the forcing cone recut to what looks like 11 degrees.
My old compaion is now shooting up to par again.
Much of the ammo I have fired in this gun has used the old Win 630 before it was discontinued, 2400, and Blue Dot. There were minor ammounts of 231, Unique, Herco, and PB.
Recently I read in a post somewhere that the powder / bullet combination should cause the powders pressure peak to occur either before or after the barrel / cylinder gap, not right at it. The article stated that this was what caused the top strap erosion on the Ruger .357 Maximum when Remington switched to a different powder. Since my revolver suffered both top strap erosion and rear of the barrel erosion, I'm thinking this may be what happed.
Now my questions: I shoot mostly 158gr jacketed, and 158-168 lead bullet magnum loads. I almost never shoot 38's out of it.
Does anyone know of a powder or powders that when used with the above bullets will not cause the forcing cone erosion like happened before.
I don't like to use 296 or any real slow ball powders, because when I did I saw the signs of forcing cone erosion within a couple hundred rounds. I usually avoid real fast ones like Bullseye too.
I don't intend to retire this revolver yet, and I would like to load ammo that will minimize the likelyhood of future forcing cone erosion.
Please forgive this long post. I get wordy sometimes.
***"If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride"***
It took almost 20 years and thousands of rounds of full house jacketed and lead magnum loads for this to happen.
I took it to several gunsmiths who agreed it was burned out. None of them agreed about why.
One said, gas cutting, another said unburned powder was the abrasive cause. A third said yes to the first two then said it was agravated by excessive barrel cylinder gap.
Finally I got the barrel set back a turn, the b.c. gap reset and the forcing cone recut to what looks like 11 degrees.
My old compaion is now shooting up to par again.
Much of the ammo I have fired in this gun has used the old Win 630 before it was discontinued, 2400, and Blue Dot. There were minor ammounts of 231, Unique, Herco, and PB.
Recently I read in a post somewhere that the powder / bullet combination should cause the powders pressure peak to occur either before or after the barrel / cylinder gap, not right at it. The article stated that this was what caused the top strap erosion on the Ruger .357 Maximum when Remington switched to a different powder. Since my revolver suffered both top strap erosion and rear of the barrel erosion, I'm thinking this may be what happed.
Now my questions: I shoot mostly 158gr jacketed, and 158-168 lead bullet magnum loads. I almost never shoot 38's out of it.
Does anyone know of a powder or powders that when used with the above bullets will not cause the forcing cone erosion like happened before.
I don't like to use 296 or any real slow ball powders, because when I did I saw the signs of forcing cone erosion within a couple hundred rounds. I usually avoid real fast ones like Bullseye too.
I don't intend to retire this revolver yet, and I would like to load ammo that will minimize the likelyhood of future forcing cone erosion.
Please forgive this long post. I get wordy sometimes.
***"If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride"***