I have been hand loading for my 454 super redhawk for a while now and I have noticed that if I load any hotter than middle-of-data loads for my 300gr bullets I end up with brass sticking in the chambers. I also have the same problem with my 14" S&W 460. I use starline and hornaday brass in both guns.

I have reviewed my load data over a chronograph and feel that I am not into dangerous pressures especially when you consider the sheer strength of the super redhawk.

Both of these guns are hunting guns for me so terminal energy is important to me.

I have noticed that both guns have tool marks in the chambers and I feel that in order to achieve top loads with easy extraction I need to do something about these tool marks.

My question is what methods can I use to smooth out or polish the chambers with out causing them to become oversize or have ripples in them?

Every gun is different. What might be dangerous pressures in one, won't be for the other. If you're getting sticky extraction, that means you need to drop a grain in your load, and that's the max for those revolvers.

If you're intent on smoothing your cylinders, your best bet would be to get a dowel slightly undersized of the chamber, roll a piece of sandpaper onto the dowel, and lightly polish. I would start at 200 grit and move up to 1000. Then finish with Mothers or Flitz to polish.


I find it very unlikely that both guns have such poorly machined chambers that it's causing sticky extraction.

I have not owned any other super redhawks to compare mine to but I will say that with the loads that stick there will be tool marks from the chambers embossed on the case walls.

Same goes with my S&W 460. The thing with that is I have owned another S&W 460 which had perfectly smooth chambers and I had no issues with extraction in that gun. I have also been told from a number of 460 and big bore revolver aficionados that the 14" performance center some times have tight chambers.

One acquaintance who I speak with ("ruggy" from the s&w forum) owns three 14" 460's and he says one of them does exhibit hard extraction vs the other two with the same loads.

In the case of the Ruger, contact them and send it back, if it's bad enough that it's leaving visible damage on the brass, that should've never left the factory.

A "tight chamber" shouldn't have any impact on extraction. If the cartridge will fit in the chamber, it's properly sized. You want to make sure your chambers are bone dry, any lube will cause extraction problems. Like I said every gun is different, if you really don't like it, contact S&W and have it sent back.

You are correct in your assumption that rough chamber walls can and will cause extraction problems at higher pressures.  This can be remedied by polishing the chamber walls.  Whatever you do do not follow the advice of the poster who suggested using a dowel and sandpaper.  If you choose to tackle this yourself then the correct tool for the job is a cylinder hone or chamber hone.  They look just like a tiny version of an engine cylinder hone.  They look kind of like a cleaning brush with ceramic beads on the ends of the bristles.  These are chucked in a drill and rotated and moved back and forth through the chamber to polish it without removing too much material.  If you are adventurous then do it yourself.  If you are not mechanically inclined then I would send the gun to someone like Mag-Na-Port to have it done.

This! Go slow and evenly polish... don't remove any measurable amount of material just polish each chamber. A glass like hone will do wonders for brass extraction... even more noticeable on hotter loads.