Flame Cutting

[F-16 CHIEF]

So, I've been into weapons for almost 20 years now. I'm not an expert or anything, but I do read a lot and shoot a lot.

I don't know if I've ever seen this much discussion on flame cutting before? Is this a really hot topic now? I see flame cutting discussion on the Ruger polymer revolver. I saw an auction for a S&W 66 that said no evidence of flame cutting.

Am I crazy? You just never heard people talk about it much. Now it seems like it's a newly discovered word?

Is it that big of a deal?

[Richard Simmons]

As I understand it flame cutting is/was/has been most prevelant in .357 magnums when firing rounds with lightweight bullets at higher velocities such as 110gr and I believe 125gr.
You might run across it in a .44 or .41 mag as well though it can happen in about any revolver with the right load. Unless you're shooting a lot of souped up loads, again with the lighter bullet weights I doubt you'll even see any flame cutting and even if you do it only cuts so far and then stops. Don't recall ever hearing about any failures of a revolver due to flame cutting. HTH


FWIW I've got a S&W 38/44 Heavy Duty (.38 Special) that's around 60 years old. It's been fired enough that the barrel to cylinder gap is on the far side of spec. I presume a good about of the ammo it's seen has been hot .38 loads which is what it was intended for. The amount of flame cutting on it is so minor you can barely feel it if you run the point of a knife across the top strap. Just not an issue. Now an allow revolver may be a different story but again, unless you shoot a fair amount of the right loads I doubt you'll see much cutting.

[deth502]

may be more of an issue now due to the market starting to produce more aluminum, polimer, and such revolver frames.