gary reeder
you are comparing apples and oranges. The Redhawk is much
Friday, November 08, 2019, 22:55

stronger than the S&W N frame for instance, not due to superior steel. It is mainly because the cylinder walls are about 3 times thicker than the N frame Smith plus the locking notches on the side of the cylinder are offset to one side rather than directly over the chamber as most other DA cylinders are. The fact is that the larger amount of steel that the cylinders are made of makes for a much stronger piece of metal than the smaller, thinner and weaker cylinders. They don't have the weaknesses other cylinders do.

True, the newer steels are stronger and have more elasticity than earlier steels that are a lot more brittle but still the pure beef the cylinders have around the chambers have a lot to do with it's strength. I am not a metallurgist so I can't argue the merits of the new steels but a .150 thick cylinder wall is much stronger than a .045 thick chamber wall.