Revolvers

When I got into revolver shooting with speedloads (PPC) in 1972, shooters were already chamfering the edges of the charge holes in their cylinders. This was particularly important because the typical load was a flat wadcutter, which needed all the help available to quickly insert six of them into six exactly sized chambers.

But there was a devil in the bevel — I’ve heard experienced revolversmiths warn an out-of-hand do-it-yourself job could remove enough metal to leave the case head partially unsupported, resulting in a case head blowout. This could be particularly ugly with a hot Magnum load. The best ’smiths advise to just break and polish the edges of the charge holes and leaving the ejector alone to avoid a spent case slipping under the star. Don’t bevel like the devil — rounding the edge just a tiny bit will increase reloading speed, especially with the full wadcutter .38 loads that have come into popularity for self-defense lately in the super-light small-frame snubs.

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