Barrel throating pros & cons

Again, this is not meant to be argumentative but rather a continuation of the process of discussing these problems or concepts.

I can understand the hesitation of using a second or even a third cutting tool in a chamber, no matter if it's for a hunting rifle or competition rifle. The fear of failure runs high when you rapid an expensive, small, sharp cutting tool into a small hole spinning at who knows what RPM. The potential for a mistake is always there. Ordering a single new reamer and waiting for it to arrive is part of the process but for your consideration...

I often find myself in the position of needing a different freebore for a client than any found on the reamers I have on hand. As a simple example, I get a call for a .308 Win. chamber but cut for the newest, Whammo-Special bullet which requires a different freebore. Now, I already have eight (8) specific reamers for the .308 Win. so adding another one might be a little superfluous. The solution is a rigid set up which I have for anything to do with rifle barrels and adding in the second reamer for the freebore. The client gets their one-of-a-kind chamber cut for the new bullet and everyone lives happily ever after. This same situation occurs with quite a few of the standard chamber reamers when someone comes up with a 'new' idea for a cartridge/bullet combination. The need for a bore rider design is another example.

This is not an unusual circumstance in my business. While I do get requests for run-of-the-mill chambered barrels, I also get lots of requests for experimental rifles, barrels and chambers, so ordering new reamers all the time to accommodate an experiment is out of the question. Now if one of these proves out in such a way that it becomes successful for the client or popular then I'll order a complete reamer, no questions asked. This also gets applied to requests for older rimmed cartridges when using updated bullets. The 'new' solid bullets can present a problem for testing as well so I can throat or add freebore to a chamber in order to get the balance right before ordering a brand new reamer.

When properly executed, the use of a secondary reamer is perfectly acceptable.

Regards.
 
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