Cleaning up existing chambers

[MNbogboy]

No, I wouldn't trust his work. Was this a brand new blank that he did this to? I've always wondered what happens when a smith screws up a customers barrel.

According to the dealer/smith this was a brand new Wilson blank.
He sold this on eBay as a brand new "test fired only" barrel that a customer changed their mind on......mmmm
His arrogance not only pi**ed me off but I imagine the guy he made it for first wasn't happy either.....The test firing was enough to load the barrel with copper.....
Hard to understand a man's greed would allow him to ruin his reputation by advertising a product as premium, charging a "premium" price and then not standing behind his work.
In our age of affordable bore cameras hopefully there will be less "shenanigans" perpetrated by unscroupulus barrel makers.

 

[DJ Fergus]

According to the dealer/smith this was a brand new Wilson blank.
He sold this on eBay as a brand new "test fired only" barrel that a customer changed their mind on......mmmm
His arrogance not only pi**ed me off but I imagine the guy he made it for first wasn't happy either.....The test firing was enough to load the barrel with copper.....
Hard to understand a man's greed would allow him to ruin his reputation by advertising a product as premium, charging a "premium" price and then not standing behind his work.
In our age of affordable bore cameras hopefully there will be less "shenanigans" perpetrated by unscroupulus barrel makers.

I Know who this is. I asked them about chambering a Savage threaded barrel with their reamer. I asked how much freebore their reamer had. They told me that they couldn't say for sure how much freebore I would have because it was a Savage prefit barrel. What does that have to do with how much freebore the reamer has? I knew then that I didn't need anything from them.

 

[MudMarine]

Even tomato farmers know not to buy barrels intended for shooting off ebay...

 

[25WSM]

I'm not advocating to make crooked Chambers. I myself dial them in to less than . 0005 but if you get one slightly off its not the end of the world as you know it. It may still shoot pretty good. I have got almost every remington 700 I have worked on to shoot 1/2 moa and I have not seen a straight chamber on any of them. I think they must just Chuck them up on the outside and run the reamer in without dialing in the bore. I will say they are some of the straightest barrels I have ever had in my lathe. I still say a 788 will outshoot a 700 any day.
Shep

 

[MNbogboy]

Even tomato farmers know not to buy barrels intended for shooting off ebay...

Learned my lesson, this is all the better I can get it to shoot. 130 grain Bergers at 3010 fps. Could be the $200 Athlon Talos but I'm betting it is the chamber. Might do better with an aftermarket trigger & stock. But it is what it is.

 

[bigngreen]

I will say they are some of the straightest barrels I have ever had in my lathe.
Shep

I don't know anyone who shares that sentiment! I've cut a lot of them in half and the bore is so far of you can measure it with a tape measure. I've NEVER had a straight Remington in my lathe, dial in the chamber to zeros and the barrel is whipping air like a helicopter!!

 

[25WSM]

If you dial in a crooked chamber the barrel will be whipping around. If you dial in the bore with a long range rod then the barrel will be straight.

 

[25WSM]

If you dial in a barrel on the chamber your barrel will only be as straight as the chamber was cut to the bore. I never use the chamber to dial in a barrel. Even barrels I chambered myself. If there is already a chamber in the barrel I use a Gordy rod to get to the bore and dial it in that way.
Shep

 

[bigngreen]

If you dial in a crooked chamber the barrel will be whipping around. If you dial in the bore with a long range rod then the barrel will be straight.

I'm not talking dialing in the old but where the new one will be. Same if you flip it for a brake dial in a couple inches of bore and it'll be wobbling like a snake.

 

[J E Custom]

This is exactly what a well known "smith" told me about this chamber!
He said to me over the phone; "There is nothing wrong with that chamber, it is perfect."........he may have been right but the angle it meets the bore seems like a problem to me!.......lol......he offered me a replacement at a higher cost...
I refused....would you trust his work?


View attachment 180787

This is exactly what a well known "smith" told me about this chamber!
He said to me over the phone; "There is nothing wrong with that chamber, it is perfect."........he may have been right but the angle it meets the bore seems like a problem to me!.......lol......he offered me a replacement at a higher cost...
I refused....would you trust his work?


View attachment 180787

This attitude is just like the Corona Virus, It will keep spreading as long as there is little concern for quality and workmanship, and the philosophy that It's "ok" or It's "good enough" is terminal. A true craftsman never uses or considers ether. I hear this all the time and some say they proved it. It can be as good as possible and still not be perfect, but it is always better than "Ok".

If a person believes that poor workmanship is not a problem, then they are just kidding themselves. I have seen many cases where a rifle shot ok. (1 MOA) but had many flaws in the accuracy of the machining. and as it proved out many times one problem cancelled out another problem, But when the rifle was trued and all of the discrepancies were removed, it became a 1/4 MOA rifle. (Same barrel, same action, same stock and the same ammo).

Saying that Poor quality is ok is just a way to justify poor workmanship at a high cost. Would you want a brain surgeon operating on you and saying "That's good enough" or "It doesn't make any difference" I think not.

J E CUSTOM

 

[J E Custom]

If you dial in a barrel on the chamber your barrel will only be as straight as the chamber was cut to the bore. I never use the chamber to dial in a barrel. Even barrels I chambered myself. If there is already a chamber in the barrel I use a Gordy rod to get to the bore and dial it in that way.
Shep

You are absolutely right. To do a proper job of finding center of bore, the rifling must be used on both ends and like others 2 to 4 inches of bore is needed. I like to use the Grizzly rods, indicator rods, and the range rods for this. there are even bore straightness gauges available.

J E CUSTOM

 

[bigngreen]

There are also symptoms of what guys are willing to pay, we basically have guys who are happy with a Chinese steel barrel chucked in a collet and a reamer plowed into it for a couple hundred, we see threads everyday bemoaning gunsmiths when in fact many are just putting out the work your willing to pay for!
If you want premium you will pay what that's worth and it's going to get more expensive as those guys who try to do both cheap and quality find out they can't live on that!!!

 

[Mram10us]

Even tomato farmers know not to buy barrels intended for shooting off ebay...

I've bought some takeoffs in the past from eBay and they work well

 

[Mram10us]

So glad I'm not a gunsmith....
I'm not grasping how cleaning up a chamber with only .062" (1 thread) of cleanup can fix much. Lets say a 300wm is our rifle to fix. The rear of the chamber will be .5136". Let's say the worst wall is off by .003". That is .006" in circumference difference. The thread worth of correction puts us at .0068", which is just enough to fix it.
Just thinking out loud, but why not 2 threads worth? That gives over .013" worth of correction for a chamber and on most tenons, the same number of threads actually touching the reciever threads. Again, just spit balling here.