The Taylor Throat
A System For Accurizing Revolver Barrel Throats

Back in the '80's I burned the barrel throat in one of my revolvers to the point that it was starting to cut the cylinder face and the top strap. I asked my Dad what he thought we could do about it. After studying it he decided on a radical approach. We screwed the barrel out of the gun, set it back 2 threads to clean it up, and re-cut the forcing cone. In addition Dad reamed a special throat into the barrel which consisted of an 11 degree forcing cone and a freebored section approximately 1 caliber long.

We hoped the freebored barrel would help stop forcing cone erosion. Whether it does or not I have never determined.(NOTE ADDED:20-some years later I am still shooting this gun with erosion problems.) What we did find was that accuracy increased a lot. I fired 25 5-shot groups at 25 yards with 3 different bullet diameters. Where the gun originally was particular to the bullet diameter, now it shot well with any of these sizes:

.450" diameter averaged 2.3"
.452" diameter averaged 1.8"
.454" diameter averaged 1.99"

The velocity increased also. Statistical analysis confirmed this to be due to the throating.

Sometime after this two friends, Ed Wosika of Hanned Precision and Bud McDonald took this idea and began playing with it. They experimented on several guns and confirmed what we had found. They had reamers made up to cut the throating in several different calibers. When they had finished most of the tests they took the results to Wesson Arms. Wesson Arms began testing, again confirming what we had "discovered". (I am sure someone, someplace, had already done something similar.) They contacted Dad and asked his permission to use it in their firearms. Dad had been befriended by Major Doug Wesson in WWII and thought, "What a neat way to repay an old favor!" He gave Wesson Arms his permission to use the throating system. In return they named it "The Taylor Throat". Today Wesson Arms offers it in their revolvers.

In addition, during the 1993 NRA Show, Wesson Arms presented Dad with a custom-built .445 SuperMag. The gun is made of stainless steel, coated with titanium, and the serial number is "A.Taylor 93", and both barrels are Taylor Throated.

This is one fine-shooting handgun. I have fired groups under 1" center-to-center for 5 shots at 25 yards from the bench with it. What a treasure.

You can read what an award-winning top Pistolsmith thinks of the Taylor Throat at Alpha Precision in the "Revolver Accuracy" section.

Results In My Guns
(your guns may be different)

NOTE ADDED: I am not sure who is doing this throating any more other than Gary Reeder. He improved it by making the throat longer for those who shoot heavier-for-caliber bullets.

the fine folk from this forum, former denizens of the Sixgunner Forum and such, pooled together to enable yours truly to purchase a Llama Cassidy in 38 spl. The first one I took back for guarantee and the second one was similar in the issues it presented - so I "ran with it". The cylinder locks up just out of perfect alignment with the barrel, leading to leading on the left side of the forcing cone. So while we were up north one time an order was placed at Brownell's for one 38 caliber Taylor Throating Reamer. Once back down here I removed the cylinder and carefully cut the throat into the barrel. Whereas before the work I'd find a definite "shelf" when sliding a rod along the inside of the barrel as the rod encountered the cylinder, the throating job took care of that and there was a smooth transition from the barrel to the chamber, or from the chamber to the barrel which is what I was looking for. So it's still misaligned (I've no access to spare parts and thus hesitate to attempt fixing that) but now it no longer leads. This improved accuracy somewhat, although it's no prize winning bullseye gun (unless I'm shooting against locals who never shoot) it is good enough for its purpose.

At the time the job was done I'd no chronograph so no way to measure changes in the velocity. What I HAVE found is that every Llama assembled in country has the same misalignment of cylinder to barrel. I've throated a couple such revolvers to help improve their performance.

All that to say, it's a very useful modification. And the folks who made up the reamers for Brownell's kindly emailed me upon my inquiry to inform me that they no longer make the reamers, more's the pity.

Picked up a 7-1/2" EAA Bounty Hunter .44 way back when they first came out. Throat was cut so large and deep a 300 gr. jacketed 454 bullet would drop in the throat past flush. Patterned like a shotgun at 15 yards. Returned for warranty. Came back with a note, function checked "within factory specs". I had read about your "Taylor Throat" and working in a metallurgical lab with a complete machine shop, I did a lot of Gunsmitting during lunch hours. Cylinder throats all measured .431"/.432". Set the barrel back 1/2" lathe bored a 10 deg. forcing cone, 1/2" of .430" Taylor Throat", and 10 deg transition. Cast bullets hovered around 2" at 25 yards after that. So a sows ear was turned into a silk purse. I Thank you.

I ordered the Reamer from Brownell's when they offered it. Mine was for a 44. They sent it with a cleaning rod for a handle. I used the T-handle from the forcing cone cutter kit and ordered some extra bushings. With four bushings in the barrel and the cutter mounted on the T-handle I cut a caliber and a half throat in some of my guns. I still have that set up. I called Brownell's and suggested they offer a kit with a T-handle. They seemed insulted at that suggestion so I said no more. It is one of my most prized tools.