SHOOTS AROUND CORNERS

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SHOOTS AROUND CORNERS?

by Mitchell Cox (aka "Shootin' Creek)

About a year ago I was perusing the local flea market and ran across a NMBH in .45 Colt, blue with a 5 1/2" barrel that looked brand new. I was a little suspicious of the gun as the price tag read $ 150.00. As I picked the gun up to take a closer look the gentleman behind the table started to explain to me that it wasn't his gun and that he was selling it for a friend. I closely inspected the sixgun and found it to be hardly used. As I fished through my pockets to pay the man he said, " but I gotta tell ya, it won't shoot", I responded, "do you mean it won't fire"? " No", he said, " I mean it shoots around corners, that's why the price is so cheap". You don't find many flea marketer's so honest but as he explained he leased the table for 5 years and three other guys had already purchased the gun and brought it back for a refund and a bad name, he didn't need. I removed the cylinder and looked down the barrel and found it to be full of lead to the point that the rifling was hard to make out. I said, "I will take it and don't worry I won't bring it back", thinking ( and grinning ) all the way home that the lead in the barrel was all the problem. Little did I know. After arriving home I stuck the gun in the gunsafe and there it remained for about a year.

One day while puttering around the house the thought occurred to me that I had a new gun in the safe that needed some attention. I took the gun to the work bench and using the last few brass patches of my old Lewis Lead Remover got the shards of lead from the barrel. A few strokes of a bore brush later the barrel was clean then outside to the back yard shooting range. I set up my pistol perch on the shooting table and began trying to load the Ruger. I say trying because it seemed that none of my handloaded ammunition wanted to chamber fully without some undo force. I had 8 old Remington factory loads that still needed a nudge to seat fully in the chamber. Sitting at 25 yards I shot 6 of the Remington rounds and to my surprise none hit the target, not only did they not hit the target I could find no bullet holes even close to the paper the target was mounted on. Next I tried to unload the empty cases in the gun and they wouldn't budge. After removing the cylinder and pounding the empty hulls out with a brass rod I knew I was in a little trouble. Back to the work bench while scratching head.
Close inspection of the chambers revealed some very rough chambers and some leaded chamber mouths. I took a look up the barrel and the rifling again was hard to make out. Now this was something I have never seen, not from a Ruger. My first step was to slug the barrel, according to my digital Starrett it read .451 with a tight spot in the barrel at the point where it screws into the frame. The muzzle end of the barrel read .451.65. Next the cylinder mouths, they read a shocking .448. It was at this point that I started putting the puzzle together. The small chamber mouths was causing the high pressure, spitting and sizing the bullets way too small to seal the bore and therefore the terrible leading and lack of accuracy. My next move was to call Brownell's and order their Basic Chamfer Kit, a Manson .45 Colt throater and a Flex Hone in .45 caliber, fine and medium. I cleaned the gun and waited for the parts to arrive.

Finally the communist brown truck arrived with all my goodies and I started the project immediately. My first snag was that the Hanson cylinder mouth throater came with a .448 pilot that would not enter the chamber mouths. Hanson offers a kit of pilots for $ 36.00 but that would take another week so off to the machine shop. I had the pilot turned down to .447 and it slid right in. After making some padded jaws out of aluminum angle and 10 oz. leather I mounted the clyinder into my vice. The Hanson throater worked just as advertised and easily cut each cylinder mouth to an exact .452.25. After throating each cylinder I oiled and inserted the medium Flex Hone and ran it a few seconds in each chamber with my cordless drill, paying close attention not to let it enter the chamber mouth, next the fine hone or finishing hone, same drill, I ran it in each chamber for a few seconds not trying to remove any metal, just polishing what's there. After cleaning out the honing oil with a patch, brush and some Pro-Shot the cylinders were all bright and shiny and slick as a baby's butt. Next, fire lapping to ease the tight spot in the barrel.

After rummaging through moving boxes that had been placed in the basement 5 years earlier I found my LBT fire lapping kit which consists of pure lead bullets, a can of lapping paste and two small steel plates. I prepared 8 bullets buy applying lapping paste to the bottom steel plate and rolling the slugs between the two steel plates until they were embedded with the lapping compound. Found 8 fired cases, primed them and dropped 3 grains of unique in each then I seated the prepared bullets to compress the powder charge. Out to the range.
I fired the lapping bullets making sure each one exited the muzzle and cleaning the bore between each round, after the final round I cleaned the bore and inserted a greased pure lead round ball and pushed it down the barrel, as it should it started tight and as it should it got easier as I pushed it until it fell from the gun. The tight spot was gone and the bore was now tapered, larger at the forcing cone and smaller at the muzzle. I slugged the bore again and found the breech to read .451.8 and the muzzle .451.68. Perfect! Inserting the gauge that I ordered from Brownell's into the forcing cone showed the forcing cone to be a little shallow even after opening the tight spot in the barrel. If memory serves me I believe Ruger uses a 5 degree cut on their forcing cones and while it works I much prefer 11 degrees on a gun that will see mostly cast bullets so I mounted the Ruger in the padded jaws and inserted Brownell's forcing cone cutter. This can be overdone in a hurry so I cut slowly and checked with the supplied gauge often and in a few turns the gauge was showing , that's enough! Then the brass lapp was screwed into place with a little LBT compound applied and a few turns later a bright, slick forcing cone emerged. Now for the acid test.

After a very good cleaning I was back at the shooting bench and the anticipation was killing me. Six rounds later at 25 yards reveled a cloverleaf of six shots all touching ( see me with my chest stuck out ) the load used was the LBT WFN, 21.5 of H-110 in Starline brass. The loaded rounds dropped right into place and once fired fell out of the gun. If you think i am happy you are correct. It's amazing what you can do at home in a few hours using the great stuff from a fine company like Brownell's. I am so proud of how the used to be dog that " shot around corners " that I have accessorized it to the max, it now wears a bird's head brass grip frame from Qualite', a steel ejector tube from same, a Bowen rear sight, a Belt mountain base pin, a post front sight from Gann's custom guns, and Super Blackhawk hammer and has become my favorite carry gun in the woods around the Blue- ridge mountains.

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