Steve, I did think about it before taking the time to post-

Since there are so many tolerances involved- chamber to forcing cone alignment (each chamber being an individual in that respect) and bullet alignment in chamber I thought perhaps minimizing the latter might help accuracy. Chamber misalignment is a wild card and might even work for you on specific chambers but like in poker you play the odds.

No, I would not be segregating brass according to chambers. I wouldn't mind improving hunting accuracy a bit but it's not worth the logistical trouble of doing that.


(In retrospect, insertion is not an issue unless extraction is. Then polishing the case would probably solve it.)

Geo- Thanks to you, too. I won't buy any dies- just use the RCBS I have but I will try floating them. This is a thick-cover hunting gun, not silhouette or bullseye. I'm getting about 2.5" at 25yds from this 6" 629 and 250gr Nosler Partition-HG.

If you're shaving your lead bullets, and a few bits come back and hit you, then you have a timing problem. Is your extractor star a little wobbly? If it is, then your hand won't have a chance to ratchet the extractor star into place to line up the chambers the same way each time. The above suggestions on brass care is spot on. I've shot Mod 29's since back in the sixties and S&W's have always gotten out of time because of too many full power rounds. The Smiths were not made to shoot full loads on a regular basis.

>This is a thick-cover hunting gun,<

If that is the case, then by all means fully size your cases. It's a matter of feeding reliability in the field, not accuracy. You can still float your die. I would prefer the Redding Pro Crimp die for this scenario, as it puts a gentle taper on the loaded round, which theoretically increases ease of feeding.

Not to worry about that other stuff about chamber misalignment. It only counts in two cases: 1)when it is really off by a lot, and 2)in target guns. Chambers are cut with a single reamer for each hole (6 at a time) and the alignment for the chamber throat and the rest of the chamber is built into the reamer when it is ground.

If you are really interested in precision and performance, send your revolver to a good pistolsmith. He can make sure all the exit holes on the cylinder are the same, tune the action and trigger, and get the cylinder to barrel alignment just exactly right. Costs a bit, but is generally worth it. I am willing to state, as a matter of conjecture, that a good tune and alignment job is probably more important than perfect ammo. The 'smith can also do stuff like chamfer the entrance holes to the chambers to improve loading reliability, etc. It just depends on how many shekels you are willing to part with. Have fun.