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Hack Gunsmith Wins With First Chamber Job

The several times you attempted to chamber, thread and cut the cone is called tuition. There are very few times in our lives that we don't pay tuition when attempting a new endeavor. If there is one take away from this, it's the fact that you proved to YOURSELF that you can do it!
Good on ya!
 
As I read your post ,this took me back to my days of being an apprentice and learning my trade (tool and die maker) oh all the frustration....days that would not end.....spoiled jobs.....it will get better the more you practice
May I suggest, A) do a bunch of tool box projects, i.e. screw Jack's, layout hammer, the web is full of beginner projects, this will teach you machining! B) look to see if there is a machinist club in your area.
Good luck!

If you ever need some advise I am just a PM away

Aaron
 
You can get 10+ chambers on a sub $100 blank. You dont have to shoot it but get it completely fit up. Its good practice trying to hit specific numbers

S’what I was thinking too, reading OP’s post thru’n’thru!

Practice... practice... practice... again!

Makes perfect!
 
In 1974 I made my first tool on a Computerized Milling machine.. It took 2 boxes of punch cards, a day at a sorter, another day to convert to paper tape then to huge floppy disc, Then I ran the program that made me a one inch block. It was the Best feeling in the world to work so hard for so little...Congrats. Your story reminded me of that feeling.
 
Many of you will find this humorous. I am the kind of “gunsmith” you guys like to ridicule. The kind you like to tell to stop doing gunsmith for himself and go find a real gunsmith. Sometimes I would have to agree with you...... ;)

I have no machining background. I flew USAF jets and now work in a corporation. I bought a nice new Taiwan built lathe (PM 1340GT) and mill (PM 833T) a year ago and jumped headfirst into all this. After having my lathe six months I chambered my first barrel, a fireforming barrel and it came out good. The next barrel was six months later when I decided the barrel I was shooting in LR BR just wasn’t competitive.

So I indicated in the new barrel, predrilled, bored, and the used a Mitituyo long reach indicator. The indicating took several hours over a couple days. I started with a drill bit just barely larger than the indicator body. The finish was so bad that by the time I had bored out a good finish, I wound up boring the hole out too much. So I parted it off and stared over, and predrilling has gone the way of the Dodo for me. Butch and Gordy notwithstanding..................

A couple days later I had the barrel re-indicated in, this time with the Interapid long reach. Threading was not going well, but I did the whole chamber job (BAT SV) anyway. I just didn’t like how the threads and tenon looked so I ordered another barrel.

Which the old barrel still in the lathe I turned off the threads and was determined that I would figure out how to make good threads and eliminate the lathe dial from jerking. I was told by my BR Smith friend to lower the threading cutter below center line, and that fixed it. I now have a Krieger 7.5 twist .237 4-groove barrel that will make a great 26.75" barrel for something..............

A couple days after the new barrel arrived, a 31 incher this time, I had it indicated in. I learned that I can push on the chuck and get .0002” movement. I called Matt of Precision Matthews and he said he said that was normal, and that he in fact had seen even more movement on heavier and higher end lathes. I also learned that when the barrel is centered the indicator will wobble around at about .0002”. I figured it just like shooting when the mirage is making the bull dance around and I aim for the center of the movement.

I was getting a nice finish on my tenon and it was cutting right in line with the cross slide movement as measured by a Mitituyo 1-2” digital mic. I was down to the last .009” and I made a cut just shy of .009”. Except when I measured it with the Mitituyo I said I didn’t make a cut. Well, the Mitituyo doesn’t lie so I cut again. I got the same measurement. That’s when I learned that the data hold button was easy to bump (who the hell would design it that way?). So I parted off the barrel and started again. And lectured myself--as ONLY a crusty old field grade officer can do--about how idiotic it was to not trust the lathe dials when measurements were confirming dial movement to well within .001" for the last 15 times I had checked..................

I indicated the barrel in again, and this time it only took an hour, which was a six-fold improvement from my earlier efforts. I used grizzly rods to get it close, then the Interapid to get it to zero.....and by that I mean the Interapid had movement within .0002" as best I could interpolate on a .0005" high quality indicator.

Things were going quite well this time. I had the cone within spec and with a good finish, the threads looked decent (even at 45 rpm), and I had .003 to .004" of gap with the action tightened on the barrel and the STD 6 BR go gauge inserted. I checked everything about 50 times then removed the barrel from the lathe, put it back in to crown in, the removed it again. As I was tightening the action to the barrel in the barrel vise, it went almost a 1/4 turn past where I did on the lathe. I went to bed.

I indicated the barrel in again. I had to cut the shoulder back, take a little off the cone, and deepen the chamber some. As I was pushing the reamer in the chamber, with a style floating reamer holder I'll not use again, it kissed the back of the chamber. CRAP!!! I just made my chamber slightly oversize. And I scratched it too. It took another .015" to clean up the scratch, and I obviously had to cut the shoulder back and trim the cone some more.

I was having a problem getting the action to make contact with the shoulder. I measured the tenon and it was at the minimum length, and I could see plenty of room left in the action for the barrel to screw in deeper. I thought and thought about it, and remembered that after cutting the cone that I had to clean up the threads so the action would start on the barrel threads. I wondered if the same thing could happen on the other end of the threads?

So I got out the 60 degree thread file and worked on the last couple threads immediately before the shoulder. Lo and behold that fixed it! I finally was able to complete everything. I discovered that by having my shoulder cutter at too much of an angle, I was collapsing the last thread before the shoulder. This time I really had it. Everything was within desired tolerances and I had excellent action to shoulder contact.

I was bothered by the oversize chamber but I decided to shoot it and see how bad it was. The brass comes out .001" larger in the butt than my fireforming barrel and the other barrel chambered with his reamer. Not optimum, but not a disaster either. I am a little concerned that brass life might be shorter than it should be.

I started load development very concerned if my hack gunsmithing had messed up this barrel. It actually seemed to shoot a little better than my previous barrel. The best load in excellent conditions gave me a 1/4" 5-shot group at 200 yds with a velocity ES of 6 fps. In subsequent short range testing that load only gave me 9/16" groups at 200, but it was in variable wind and the vertical was still about 1/4" and ES at 5 or 6.

Last weekend I took it to a 600 yd NBRSA match. I tweaked seating depth at 600 on Saturday and shot the match on Sunday, still wondering if I had messed up the barrel. I managed to take first for six target aggregate group size. It was windy and no one's groups were great, but given I shot as well as anyone else I am starting to think that maybe I didn't mess it up too badly.

Next barrel will be faster and easier with the 3,000 lessons I learned on this one.

The End. :):):)
Thanks so much for sharing this and congradulations on your success. I started out that way to, I just used Gm blanks like dusty said.
 
As I read your post ,this took me back to my days of being an apprentice and learning my trade (tool and die maker) oh all the frustration....days that would not end.....spoiled jobs.....it will get better the more you practice
May I suggest, A) do a bunch of tool box projects, i.e. screw Jack's, layout hammer, the web is full of beginner projects, this will teach you machining! B) look to see if there is a machinist club in your area.
Good luck!

If you ever need some advise I am just a PM away

Aaron
^^^This guy is a wealth of knowledge and one of the nicest people that I've never met. Take him up on his offer of PM.

My first rifle that I did myself is a 6br on an M24 Rock Creek barrel. I chambered it 5 times. Kept screwing it up (thank God for the long breech on the M24!). Kept at it. Almost cried. All of it was just me learning what not to do. I am blessed that a 'smith was willing to help me out by allowing me in his shop to observe him build a rifle. But as invaluable as that was, I still kept messing it up.
Gun is a .3 shooter with no load development. I put 29 grains of Varget under a 107 and there she is.
One of the achievements I'm most proud of.
 
Yesterday I shot my second match with this barrel. Wound up in second relay and it was windy. Managed to shoot small HG group of the match, and I did better than anyone else on that relay. The day before, while tuning at 600 yds, I shot a 9/16” 3 shot group and about an hour later a 5/8” 3 shot group.

I have wound up in second relay the last four matches. However, next month we have the NBRSA regionals. They are two day matches, the first at 600 yds and the next weekend at 1000. So I will finally get to shoot first relay.

As I predicted, the oversize chamber is causing issues with primer pockets. That said, all I will have to do is Prep another 200 rounds and they will last the remaining life of this barrel. Next barrel I chamber won’t be oversized. See my original post for how that happened.
 
Congrats!

I would like to reinforce what some of the others have said, doing a lot of simple jobs with a little precision (indicating parts and hitting numbers) will get you ready for the trickier stuff. You want to create muscle memory and trust in the tool and yourself.

If you do the little stuff, it will only take you a few attempts at chambering before you can nail it on the first attempt. If you just chamber a barrel every six months, you might not retain enough between attempts to reach that level.

Machining technique is a perishable skill but if you can get to a suitably high level, you'll retain the base just like riding a bicycle.
 
The several times you attempted to chamber, thread and cut the cone is called tuition. There are very few times in our lives that we don't pay tuition when attempting a new endeavor.
Couldn't agree more. I tell my youngest son regularly that the things he screws up (there have been a few) and eventually learn are part of life's cheap tuition.
 
Congratulations! I fly also. Machine work is like
Learning how to land a plane. You will bounce along for a while, then things start improving and before you know it your greasing them in.
Nice write up
 
I have produced the first few videos of what I hope to be an ongoing series. Production quality is at a level which is a long drop below mediocre, but I'm improving. Anyway, I am intending to show all sorts of gunsmithing, as it is done by an old guy in a modestly equipped basement shop. I have plans to demonstrate various barrel fitting methods and set ups but mostly it's just my way. I'm trying to gear a lot toward people who are starting out. It's a one man show, and camera placement is often an issue but I'm working on it. The next chambering job should be taking place in a couple of days (I'm travelling for a couple). It's not a high precision long range rifle (a re-barrel on a 1895 Winchester in 30-40 Krag), but it's still a barrel. Will Henry's Workshop, on You Tube. WH
 
INTJ,
Take a moment to write up ur process for fitting n chambering. Most of us are doing work for our own rifles. Having several different rifles I use in competition means that I am fitting n chambering a bbl perhaps every second or third year. The machining skills are perishable. If u are not constantly doing this kind of work, it is easy to forget the little steps that helped u produce a quality job u are satisfied with.
It is similar to ur pilots checklist. Make sure u don’t miss a step.
Writing little note to ur self on the list will jog ur memory and help keep the process on track to success.
There is tremendous satisfaction in doing ur own work n getting great results on target. It isn’t rocket science to fit n chamber a bbl, just good machining practices.
Have fun!
 
Many of you will find this humorous. I am the kind of “gunsmith” you guys like to ridicule. The kind you like to tell to stop doing gunsmith for himself and go find a real gunsmith. Sometimes I would have to agree with you...... ;)

I have no machining background. I flew USAF jets and now work in a corporation. I bought a nice new Taiwan built lathe (PM 1340GT) and mill (PM 833T) a year ago and jumped headfirst into all this. After having my lathe six months I chambered my first barrel, a fireforming barrel and it came out good. The next barrel was six months later when I decided the barrel I was shooting in LR BR just wasn’t competitive.

So I indicated in the new barrel, predrilled, bored, and the used a Mitituyo long reach indicator. The indicating took several hours over a couple days. I started with a drill bit just barely larger than the indicator body. The finish was so bad that by the time I had bored out a good finish, I wound up boring the hole out too much. So I parted it off and stared over, and predrilling has gone the way of the Dodo for me. Butch and Gordy notwithstanding..................

A couple days later I had the barrel re-indicated in, this time with the Interapid long reach. Threading was not going well, but I did the whole chamber job (BAT SV) anyway. I just didn’t like how the threads and tenon looked so I ordered another barrel.

Which the old barrel still in the lathe I turned off the threads and was determined that I would figure out how to make good threads and eliminate the lathe dial from jerking. I was told by my BR Smith friend to lower the threading cutter below center line, and that fixed it. I now have a Krieger 7.5 twist .237 4-groove barrel that will make a great 26.75" barrel for something..............

A couple days after the new barrel arrived, a 31 incher this time, I had it indicated in. I learned that I can push on the chuck and get .0002” movement. I called Matt of Precision Matthews and he said he said that was normal, and that he in fact had seen even more movement on heavier and higher end lathes. I also learned that when the barrel is centered the indicator will wobble around at about .0002”. I figured it just like shooting when the mirage is making the bull dance around and I aim for the center of the movement.

I was getting a nice finish on my tenon and it was cutting right in line with the cross slide movement as measured by a Mitituyo 1-2” digital mic. I was down to the last .009” and I made a cut just shy of .009”. Except when I measured it with the Mitituyo I said I didn’t make a cut. Well, the Mitituyo doesn’t lie so I cut again. I got the same measurement. That’s when I learned that the data hold button was easy to bump (who the hell would design it that way?). So I parted off the barrel and started again. And lectured myself--as ONLY a crusty old field grade officer can do--about how idiotic it was to not trust the lathe dials when measurements were confirming dial movement to well within .001" for the last 15 times I had checked..................

I indicated the barrel in again, and this time it only took an hour, which was a six-fold improvement from my earlier efforts. I used grizzly rods to get it close, then the Interapid to get it to zero.....and by that I mean the Interapid had movement within .0002" as best I could interpolate on a .0005" high quality indicator.

Things were going quite well this time. I had the cone within spec and with a good finish, the threads looked decent (even at 45 rpm), and I had .003 to .004" of gap with the action tightened on the barrel and the STD 6 BR go gauge inserted. I checked everything about 50 times then removed the barrel from the lathe, put it back in to crown in, the removed it again. As I was tightening the action to the barrel in the barrel vise, it went almost a 1/4 turn past where I did on the lathe. I went to bed.

I indicated the barrel in again. I had to cut the shoulder back, take a little off the cone, and deepen the chamber some. As I was pushing the reamer in the chamber, with a style floating reamer holder I'll not use again, it kissed the back of the chamber. CRAP!!! I just made my chamber slightly oversize. And I scratched it too. It took another .015" to clean up the scratch, and I obviously had to cut the shoulder back and trim the cone some more.

I was having a problem getting the action to make contact with the shoulder. I measured the tenon and it was at the minimum length, and I could see plenty of room left in the action for the barrel to screw in deeper. I thought and thought about it, and remembered that after cutting the cone that I had to clean up the threads so the action would start on the barrel threads. I wondered if the same thing could happen on the other end of the threads?

So I got out the 60 degree thread file and worked on the last couple threads immediately before the shoulder. Lo and behold that fixed it! I finally was able to complete everything. I discovered that by having my shoulder cutter at too much of an angle, I was collapsing the last thread before the shoulder. This time I really had it. Everything was within desired tolerances and I had excellent action to shoulder contact.

I was bothered by the oversize chamber but I decided to shoot it and see how bad it was. The brass comes out .001" larger in the butt than my fireforming barrel and the other barrel chambered with his reamer. Not optimum, but not a disaster either. I am a little concerned that brass life might be shorter than it should be.

I started load development very concerned if my hack gunsmithing had messed up this barrel. It actually seemed to shoot a little better than my previous barrel. The best load in excellent conditions gave me a 1/4" 5-shot group at 200 yds with a velocity ES of 6 fps. In subsequent short range testing that load only gave me 9/16" groups at 200, but it was in variable wind and the vertical was still about 1/4" and ES at 5 or 6.

Last weekend I took it to a 600 yd NBRSA match. I tweaked seating depth at 600 on Saturday and shot the match on Sunday, still wondering if I had messed up the barrel. I managed to take first for six target aggregate group size. It was windy and no one's groups were great, but given I shot as well as anyone else I am starting to think that maybe I didn't mess it up too badly.

Next barrel will be faster and easier with the 3,000 lessons I learned on this one.

The End. :):):)
Please copy and paste this text in every thread that someone starts on the topic of "Which Lathe should I get" or "I want to start chambering barrels" :)
 
I have produced the first few videos of what I hope to be an ongoing series. Production quality is at a level which is a long drop below mediocre, but I'm improving. Anyway, I am intending to show all sorts of gunsmithing, as it is done by an old guy in a modestly equipped basement shop. I have plans to demonstrate various barrel fitting methods and set ups but mostly it's just my way. I'm trying to gear a lot toward people who are starting out. It's a one man show, and camera placement is often an issue but I'm working on it. The next chambering job should be taking place in a couple of days (I'm travelling for a couple). It's not a high precision long range rifle (a re-barrel on a 1895 Winchester in 30-40 Krag), but it's still a barrel. Will Henry's Workshop, on You Tube. WH
You let the cat out of the bag…I didn’t realize you were Bill, good to see you around and I subscribed and looking forward to seeing what you share. I always enjoyed your emails of your travels you used to share, this will be fun too.

At some point I’d like one of you experts to talk more specifically about tuning bottom metal and magazine feed lips. I normally get it right but it normally takes the wrong direction before it goes the right way. Seems everyone I’ve done is way more time consuming that it should be. I bought Kevin Wyatt’s $10 book but I guess I’m more visual because it hasn’t helped that much.
 
Many of you will find this humorous. I am the kind of “gunsmith” you guys like to ridicule. The kind you like to tell to stop doing gunsmith for himself and go find a real gunsmith. Sometimes I would have to agree with you...... ;)

I have no machining background. I flew USAF jets and now work in a corporation. I bought a nice new Taiwan built lathe (PM 1340GT) and mill (PM 833T) a year ago and jumped headfirst into all this. After having my lathe six months I chambered my first barrel, a fireforming barrel and it came out good. The next barrel was six months later when I decided the barrel I was shooting in LR BR just wasn’t competitive.

So I indicated in the new barrel, predrilled, bored, and the used a Mitituyo long reach indicator. The indicating took several hours over a couple days. I started with a drill bit just barely larger than the indicator body. The finish was so bad that by the time I had bored out a good finish, I wound up boring the hole out too much. So I parted it off and stared over, and predrilling has gone the way of the Dodo for me. Butch and Gordy notwithstanding..................

A couple days later I had the barrel re-indicated in, this time with the Interapid long reach. Threading was not going well, but I did the whole chamber job (BAT SV) anyway. I just didn’t like how the threads and tenon looked so I ordered another barrel.

Which the old barrel still in the lathe I turned off the threads and was determined that I would figure out how to make good threads and eliminate the lathe dial from jerking. I was told by my BR Smith friend to lower the threading cutter below center line, and that fixed it. I now have a Krieger 7.5 twist .237 4-groove barrel that will make a great 26.75" barrel for something..............

A couple days after the new barrel arrived, a 31 incher this time, I had it indicated in. I learned that I can push on the chuck and get .0002” movement. I called Matt of Precision Matthews and he said he said that was normal, and that he in fact had seen even more movement on heavier and higher end lathes. I also learned that when the barrel is centered the indicator will wobble around at about .0002”. I figured it just like shooting when the mirage is making the bull dance around and I aim for the center of the movement.

I was getting a nice finish on my tenon and it was cutting right in line with the cross slide movement as measured by a Mitituyo 1-2” digital mic. I was down to the last .009” and I made a cut just shy of .009”. Except when I measured it with the Mitituyo I said I didn’t make a cut. Well, the Mitituyo doesn’t lie so I cut again. I got the same measurement. That’s when I learned that the data hold button was easy to bump (who the hell would design it that way?). So I parted off the barrel and started again. And lectured myself--as ONLY a crusty old field grade officer can do--about how idiotic it was to not trust the lathe dials when measurements were confirming dial movement to well within .001" for the last 15 times I had checked..................

I indicated the barrel in again, and this time it only took an hour, which was a six-fold improvement from my earlier efforts. I used grizzly rods to get it close, then the Interapid to get it to zero.....and by that I mean the Interapid had movement within .0002" as best I could interpolate on a .0005" high quality indicator.

Things were going quite well this time. I had the cone within spec and with a good finish, the threads looked decent (even at 45 rpm), and I had .003 to .004" of gap with the action tightened on the barrel and the STD 6 BR go gauge inserted. I checked everything about 50 times then removed the barrel from the lathe, put it back in to crown in, the removed it again. As I was tightening the action to the barrel in the barrel vise, it went almost a 1/4 turn past where I did on the lathe. I went to bed.

I indicated the barrel in again. I had to cut the shoulder back, take a little off the cone, and deepen the chamber some. As I was pushing the reamer in the chamber, with a style floating reamer holder I'll not use again, it kissed the back of the chamber. CRAP!!! I just made my chamber slightly oversize. And I scratched it too. It took another .015" to clean up the scratch, and I obviously had to cut the shoulder back and trim the cone some more.

I was having a problem getting the action to make contact with the shoulder. I measured the tenon and it was at the minimum length, and I could see plenty of room left in the action for the barrel to screw in deeper. I thought and thought about it, and remembered that after cutting the cone that I had to clean up the threads so the action would start on the barrel threads. I wondered if the same thing could happen on the other end of the threads?

So I got out the 60 degree thread file and worked on the last couple threads immediately before the shoulder. Lo and behold that fixed it! I finally was able to complete everything. I discovered that by having my shoulder cutter at too much of an angle, I was collapsing the last thread before the shoulder. This time I really had it. Everything was within desired tolerances and I had excellent action to shoulder contact.

I was bothered by the oversize chamber but I decided to shoot it and see how bad it was. The brass comes out .001" larger in the butt than my fireforming barrel and the other barrel chambered with his reamer. Not optimum, but not a disaster either. I am a little concerned that brass life might be shorter than it should be.

I started load development very concerned if my hack gunsmithing had messed up this barrel. It actually seemed to shoot a little better than my previous barrel. The best load in excellent conditions gave me a 1/4" 5-shot group at 200 yds with a velocity ES of 6 fps. In subsequent short range testing that load only gave me 9/16" groups at 200, but it was in variable wind and the vertical was still about 1/4" and ES at 5 or 6.

Last weekend I took it to a 600 yd NBRSA match. I tweaked seating depth at 600 on Saturday and shot the match on Sunday, still wondering if I had messed up the barrel. I managed to take first for six target aggregate group size. It was windy and no one's groups were great, but given I shot as well as anyone else I am starting to think that maybe I didn't mess it up too badly.

Next barrel will be faster and easier with the 3,000 lessons I learned on this one.

The End. :):):)
I think many of us have been there. Persistence pays.;)
 
Many of you will find this humorous. I am the kind of “gunsmith” you guys like to ridicule. The kind you like to tell to stop doing gunsmith for himself and go find a real gunsmith. Sometimes I would have to agree with you...... ;)

I have no machining background. I flew USAF jets and now work in a corporation. I bought a nice new Taiwan built lathe (PM 1340GT) and mill (PM 833T) a year ago and jumped headfirst into all this. After having my lathe six months I chambered my first barrel, a fireforming barrel and it came out good. The next barrel was six months later when I decided the barrel I was shooting in LR BR just wasn’t competitive.

So I indicated in the new barrel, predrilled, bored, and the used a Mitituyo long reach indicator. The indicating took several hours over a couple days. I started with a drill bit just barely larger than the indicator body. The finish was so bad that by the time I had bored out a good finish, I wound up boring the hole out too much. So I parted it off and stared over, and predrilling has gone the way of the Dodo for me. Butch and Gordy notwithstanding..................

A couple days later I had the barrel re-indicated in, this time with the Interapid long reach. Threading was not going well, but I did the whole chamber job (BAT SV) anyway. I just didn’t like how the threads and tenon looked so I ordered another barrel.

Which the old barrel still in the lathe I turned off the threads and was determined that I would figure out how to make good threads and eliminate the lathe dial from jerking. I was told by my BR Smith friend to lower the threading cutter below center line, and that fixed it. I now have a Krieger 7.5 twist .237 4-groove barrel that will make a great 26.75" barrel for something..............

A couple days after the new barrel arrived, a 31 incher this time, I had it indicated in. I learned that I can push on the chuck and get .0002” movement. I called Matt of Precision Matthews and he said he said that was normal, and that he in fact had seen even more movement on heavier and higher end lathes. I also learned that when the barrel is centered the indicator will wobble around at about .0002”. I figured it just like shooting when the mirage is making the bull dance around and I aim for the center of the movement.

I was getting a nice finish on my tenon and it was cutting right in line with the cross slide movement as measured by a Mitituyo 1-2” digital mic. I was down to the last .009” and I made a cut just shy of .009”. Except when I measured it with the Mitituyo I said I didn’t make a cut. Well, the Mitituyo doesn’t lie so I cut again. I got the same measurement. That’s when I learned that the data hold button was easy to bump (who the hell would design it that way?). So I parted off the barrel and started again. And lectured myself--as ONLY a crusty old field grade officer can do--about how idiotic it was to not trust the lathe dials when measurements were confirming dial movement to well within .001" for the last 15 times I had checked..................

I indicated the barrel in again, and this time it only took an hour, which was a six-fold improvement from my earlier efforts. I used grizzly rods to get it close, then the Interapid to get it to zero.....and by that I mean the Interapid had movement within .0002" as best I could interpolate on a .0005" high quality indicator.

Things were going quite well this time. I had the cone within spec and with a good finish, the threads looked decent (even at 45 rpm), and I had .003 to .004" of gap with the action tightened on the barrel and the STD 6 BR go gauge inserted. I checked everything about 50 times then removed the barrel from the lathe, put it back in to crown in, the removed it again. As I was tightening the action to the barrel in the barrel vise, it went almost a 1/4 turn past where I did on the lathe. I went to bed.

I indicated the barrel in again. I had to cut the shoulder back, take a little off the cone, and deepen the chamber some. As I was pushing the reamer in the chamber, with a style floating reamer holder I'll not use again, it kissed the back of the chamber. CRAP!!! I just made my chamber slightly oversize. And I scratched it too. It took another .015" to clean up the scratch, and I obviously had to cut the shoulder back and trim the cone some more.

I was having a problem getting the action to make contact with the shoulder. I measured the tenon and it was at the minimum length, and I could see plenty of room left in the action for the barrel to screw in deeper. I thought and thought about it, and remembered that after cutting the cone that I had to clean up the threads so the action would start on the barrel threads. I wondered if the same thing could happen on the other end of the threads?

So I got out the 60 degree thread file and worked on the last couple threads immediately before the shoulder. Lo and behold that fixed it! I finally was able to complete everything. I discovered that by having my shoulder cutter at too much of an angle, I was collapsing the last thread before the shoulder. This time I really had it. Everything was within desired tolerances and I had excellent action to shoulder contact.

I was bothered by the oversize chamber but I decided to shoot it and see how bad it was. The brass comes out .001" larger in the butt than my fireforming barrel and the other barrel chambered with his reamer. Not optimum, but not a disaster either. I am a little concerned that brass life might be shorter than it should be.

I started load development very concerned if my hack gunsmithing had messed up this barrel. It actually seemed to shoot a little better than my previous barrel. The best load in excellent conditions gave me a 1/4" 5-shot group at 200 yds with a velocity ES of 6 fps. In subsequent short range testing that load only gave me 9/16" groups at 200, but it was in variable wind and the vertical was still about 1/4" and ES at 5 or 6.

Last weekend I took it to a 600 yd NBRSA match. I tweaked seating depth at 600 on Saturday and shot the match on Sunday, still wondering if I had messed up the barrel. I managed to take first for six target aggregate group size. It was windy and no one's groups were great, but given I shot as well as anyone else I am starting to think that maybe I didn't mess it up too badly.

Next barrel will be faster and easier with the 3,000 lessons I learned on this one.

The End. :):):)

I think the most sad thing is that there are indeed gunsmiths and shooters who ridicule other people for being "unqualified". It makes me throw up in my mouth a bit.

Then a hack wins.

Then I just smile.

Thank you for the smile.
 
When being ridiculed for trying something new, just remember that is why you have a middle finger. Keep at it and don't listen to the nay sayers.
 

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