348 Winchester throat reamer

Jim, 

Back on March 10th, Jeff suggested you contact Dave Kiff.  That was some very good advice. In my gunsmith business, I used to buy several new reamers a year. ( many of my customers owned their own reamers) After having problems ( 6 of the last 7 were not to the specified dimensions) from another reamer making company , I changed over to Pacific Precision and never looked back.  The great thing about Daves operation is that he charges the same for custom dimension reamers as for standards.  Thus, if you want to improve your chamber from the standard throat, Kiff can give you a shallow taper throater reamer for the same price as a standard.    And,   it will be on spec. 

A bunch of years ago, my wife and I towed the camper out to the Nat. Match in Oregon. On the way home, we stopped at Dave's business (Pacific Precision Reamers) and he gave me a tour of his shop. It's always nice to get to know the man you have been dealing with personally.  His operation is top notch and the dimensions I specified were always right on the money. I couldn't ask for any better service.

The secret to getting cast bullets to shoot well is mostly in the throat. If the throat is such that the bullet is a slight interference fit in the freebore when it's chambered, it is held straight and enters the bore straight.  That's why I mentioned the freebore dia. which is best if not more than .002” over groove. With a single shot, you don't have to be concerned with Ctg. OAL. being too long to go thru the action. Thus, you can throat it way out so that just the last tenth of an inch of the bullet is seated into the case.  Throat it so that when you close the breech the bullet pushes back at least .020” to insure it is seated into the taper solidly. If you throat the gun properly the throat will be very concentric to the bore and the throat will take care of aligning and guiding the bullet into the rifling straight. This negates many of the problems that cartridge cases can introduce into the situation as the case now just pushes the bullet up into the throat and the throat steers the bullet instead of the case mouth.

Years ago, I and another cast bullet shooter had several different throater reamers made up by PPR and tried throats as shallow as 3/4 degree total.  The shallow one shot exceptionally well with lead bullets and very well with jacketed bullets too. Back then, the reamers cost around 70 bucks apiece and the info we derived from that test was well worth the money.

I now spend a lot of my time and money shooting varmints. I made two trips to SD last year shooting prairie dogs and hope to make two this year.  With diesel fuel at $4.00 a gallon, a trip to Minn. is not likely.  Thanks for the invite anyway.   

Tom Gray