Greg Walley
Member
Hey Jerry
I don’t chamber quite that many barrels each year, although I chamber barrels almost every day of the week…trying my best to keep up with the shooters that change barrels as often as I change socks!
I thought I’d chime in here on the situation with the supply of chambering reamers that come from the custom tooling shops supplying products to the benchrest community.
I hope that folks can exercise a little patience when dealing with these vendors, as well as the custom gun builders and other suppliers in this business. You are correct in stating that these vendors aren’t “Mal-Wart” distributing cheap Chi-com junk. They are craftsman diligently hand finishing quality products, which requires an extraordinary amount of time and labor.
Keep in mind that quite a bit of pride goes into the manufacture of these products for the precision shooter. A lot of the makers are also shooters themselves and sell their products to their friends. I can assure you that they would never purposely sell an inferior product just to make a quick buck. It’s too easy to get black-listed in this small niche target shooting game.
For several decades, our shop has used tooling supplied from the major tool makers located in Oregon – JGS, Pacific, and Hugh Henriksen. They all make superior tooling, and I recommend their products on a regular basis. When someone is in need of tooling in a hurry, I tell them to contact all three makers for an estimate on delivery time. Hugh is pretty much a one-man shop, so don’t expect anything from him pronto – however what you get will be of excellent quality.
Everyone makes mistakes. A little civility goes a long way when dealing with the vendors when they make mistakes (this includes our shop).
Also – these tool makers are at the mercy of the material quality; and they often have no control over the quality or any reliable way to determine its suitability for the parts that they make. I could write a small book over this issue…as anybody in the manufacturing business these days knows it’s a factor that is a burden on the whole U.S. manufacturing industry. So if one experiences a problem with finish or rapid wear of a reamer, don’t be too quick to blame the toolmaker.
Greg Walley
Kelbly's Inc.
I don’t chamber quite that many barrels each year, although I chamber barrels almost every day of the week…trying my best to keep up with the shooters that change barrels as often as I change socks!
I thought I’d chime in here on the situation with the supply of chambering reamers that come from the custom tooling shops supplying products to the benchrest community.
I hope that folks can exercise a little patience when dealing with these vendors, as well as the custom gun builders and other suppliers in this business. You are correct in stating that these vendors aren’t “Mal-Wart” distributing cheap Chi-com junk. They are craftsman diligently hand finishing quality products, which requires an extraordinary amount of time and labor.
Keep in mind that quite a bit of pride goes into the manufacture of these products for the precision shooter. A lot of the makers are also shooters themselves and sell their products to their friends. I can assure you that they would never purposely sell an inferior product just to make a quick buck. It’s too easy to get black-listed in this small niche target shooting game.
For several decades, our shop has used tooling supplied from the major tool makers located in Oregon – JGS, Pacific, and Hugh Henriksen. They all make superior tooling, and I recommend their products on a regular basis. When someone is in need of tooling in a hurry, I tell them to contact all three makers for an estimate on delivery time. Hugh is pretty much a one-man shop, so don’t expect anything from him pronto – however what you get will be of excellent quality.
Everyone makes mistakes. A little civility goes a long way when dealing with the vendors when they make mistakes (this includes our shop).
Also – these tool makers are at the mercy of the material quality; and they often have no control over the quality or any reliable way to determine its suitability for the parts that they make. I could write a small book over this issue…as anybody in the manufacturing business these days knows it’s a factor that is a burden on the whole U.S. manufacturing industry. So if one experiences a problem with finish or rapid wear of a reamer, don’t be too quick to blame the toolmaker.
Greg Walley
Kelbly's Inc.
