Revolver ammo prices...

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Originally Posted by ray1970

Or bite the bullet (no pun intended) and buy a 9mm revolver.

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I was on GB yesterday looking and I guess S&W makes a version of the 686 in 9mm. But it's a big honkin' thing with a 6" barrel and fugly as hell.

https://www.smga.com/smith-and-wesso...-revolver-1126

OK, Googling I came across this: A company that will convert a .38/.357 S&W to 9mm for $350:

https://tkcustom.com/pages/9mm-rechambering

Might have to give this one some thought. Apparently even a converted gun can still shoot .38 or .357. I'm wondering if I might want to do this with my S&W M64.

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Or possibly start enjoying some rimfire therapy?

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Well, yeah, that goes without saying. Happy to see that .22LR is now pretty widely available at semi-reasonable prices (price seems to have stabilized around $0.07/round which is not the pre-panic price but still not awful.)

On Ammoseek I see .22LR selling for as little as $0.048/round but by the time you factor in shipping it's back up to $0.07 round so I might as well buy locally. Local Wally World has 325 rd boxes for $22.50 which works out to just under 7 cents/round.

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Originally Posted by gnihcraes

Have a friend to reload for you?

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As long as the friend does it for free. [dig]

9mm Revolver is an option.

Or just bite the bullet and get a Lee Pro-1000 for $200.

Hmmmm.....the more I think about the 9mm conversion the more interested I get.

Question for the group: If I were to just buy a spare cylinder and have it converted, would it need to be "fitted" to the revolver or are they fairly swappable?

I've always heard (anecdotally) that unlike semi-autos which rely on interchangeable parts, revolvers have to have their parts "fitted" by a gunsmith. Is this true?

Just thinking that a cylinder in 9mm could be the best of both worlds - allow me to keep my S&W revolvers intact, but be able to swap in a 9mm cylinder when I want to shoot 9mm.

The TK conversion doesn't require shipping the whole gun, just the cylinder. Which means no FFL hassles.

EDITED TO ADD: Next question would be: Where can I buy just a cylinder? Does S&W sell them directly to customers or do I need to go through a parts company like Numrich?

As far as I understand it should need to be fitted unless you get lucky and find one that fits already.

Taurus makes a 692 revolver, it has a quick change cylinder system so you in seconds swap from 9mm to 357 cylinders. With just a push of a button. They?re about $550-600 but they are a 686 size revolver.

They also have a 905 which is nearly identical, dimensionally, to a S&W J-Frame. And it costs as much as a TK customs conversion.

I know people turn their nose up to Taurus, but Ruger makes an SP101 and LCR in 9mm as well.


also eBay has a bunch of cylinders.

Also the more I think about it the more I wonder how the conversion lets you shoot both?

9mm headspace’s off the case mouth. And 38/357 off the rim. 9mm cylinders have the chamber cut into the cylinder for that reason. So it wouldn’t have the chamber cut into it. It says you MUST use a moon clip to shoot, so now the round is head spacing off the moon clip since it’s now cut deeper to also allow 38/357. The cynical side me wonders if you HAVE to use TK customs moon clips.
But also wider now too, for the 9mm. 9mm technically isn’t a straight walled cartridge, it has a slight taper to it. Which is wider than 357, hence why a 9mm won’t fit in a 357 cylinder unmodified. So I wonder how the 357 cases would look after being fired from a now wider and tapered chamber? And would that cause issues with hot 357 loads?

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Originally Posted by Scanker19

Also the more I think about it the more I wonder how the conversion lets you shoot both?

9mm headspace?s off the case mouth. And 38/357 off the rim. 9mm cylinders have the chamber cut into the cylinder for that reason. So it wouldn?t have the chamber cut into it. It says you MUST use a moon clip to shoot, so now the round is head spacing off the moon clip since it?s now cut deeper to also allow 38/357. The cynical side me wonders if you HAVE to use TK customs moon clips.
But also wider now too, for the 9mm. 9mm technically isn?t a straight walled cartridge, it has a slight taper to it. Which is wider than 357, hence why a 9mm won?t fit in a 357 cylinder unmodified. So I wonder how the 357 cases would look after being fired from a now wider and tapered chamber? And would that cause issues with hot 357 loads?

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The Ruger convertible Blackhawks are supplied with two separate cylinders- 9 mm and .357/.38.

They are! I just picked up a Blackhawk convertible for this very reason.

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Originally Posted by Scanker19

They are! I just picked up a Blackhawk convertible for this very reason.

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I think the few guns that have tried to have just a single cylinder have not been very successful. As you indicated, the dimensional requirements promote undesirable case expansion issues. It's kinda like shooting .38 Special in the .38 S&W Commonwealth Victory Revolvers that had their cylinder chambers reamed-out in the pre-'68 era- it works, kinda...

Dad's wholesale off washington and 62nd used to have good reloads at a decent price. I used to buy ammo from him all the time. it was a bit dirty but never had a reliability issue. Great for range plinking.

TKs conversions are awesome and worth every penny.

However they require moon clips for 9mm which you need to factor into your budget.