Keeping your throat sharp

S

skeetlee

Active member
I am kinda interested in finding the best tool to keep my lead or throat area sharp on my ppc barrels. I had a barrel here that had about 700 rounds on it and it just wasn't producing any longer. The barrel would shows signs of wanting to shoot, but it just wouldn't quite do it. The reamer that was used to chamber this barrel had a pretty short free bore,so i got the bright idea to put my jgs 1045 reamer in the chamber while the barrel was in my barrel vise and re cut the chambers free bore by hand. I did, and it worked quite well. this barrel now shoots, and i wouldn't be afraid to take it to any ppc shoot. I figure by me re-cutting the chamber with a reamer that had the longer free bore it re-cut and sharpened the throat area thus allowing the barrel to come back to life. Now i want to buy a tool that i can do this with on a semi regular basis. I may just order a JGS reamer with a .040 free bore and when the barrel needs it i can re-cut it with my JGS .060 free bore reamer. Either that or buy the proper tools to just cut the free bore as needed? I watched Dave Doris lengthen the free bore of a 6dasher one night in the motel room for a fella i know. It didn't look all that complicated and the tools looked quite simple. I didn't know if someone is making such a tool for this already that i could purchase. After what i have witnessed here, i am now thinking this area of the barrel may be just as important to maintain as the crown? The one question i still have, is how my throat got so dull in the first place?? Maybe its time for a different rod guide??? Lee
 
Call Pacific Tool and Guage

Uni-Thorater Kit w/ T-Handle
$99.00
Uni-Throater-Kit-with-T-Handle-99-Dollars.png
Uni-Throater-Kit-with-T-Handle-Assembled-99-Dollars.png
 
Get a throating reamer like above but keep in mind each time you recut the leade you must move the bullet out. Pretty soon you will run out of bullet body to hold on. Ain't no free lunch.
 
your right conrad but a few thou clean up every 500-700 rounds will be grand. Or heck, clean the throat up a couple times then just rechamber/setback. Lee

thanks Boyd. I am all over that!! Lee
 
There is a photo in Precision Shooting of Homer Culver touching up the throat on his rifle between matches.

Glenn:D
 
That's pretty slick! Will this provide the same degree of accuracy as in a lathe properly indicated in?
 
I just set em back after about 300 or so rounds. .025 at a time does the trick. Of course, this involves a little more than just a reamer..........jackie
 
I don't understand the concept of cutting a fresh throat...

If you keep cutting a fresher (longer) throat eventually you will have to much bullet jump and the bullet will barely be in the case neck.

The way Jackie does it keeps the throat the same length... and the same load..
 
After fitting a barrel for a friend, he asked that I break the barrel in, with shoot and clean . I did so cleaning after each shot.
Having a bore scope, I inspected the throat and leade with each shot. I was totally amazed how the junction of bore
and leade changed in a total of 15 shots. The apex of those 2 surfaces had already began to round.
 
What Jackie does and what Lee is talking about are 2 different things. Jackie sets the barrel back, the whole chamber. His seating depth and case resize stays the same. By just touching up the throat, you would be chasing the seating depth each time until it's just too long. Of course the resize would stay the same. If I wanted to keep a sharp, unworn throat, I would set the chamber back.
 
Setting the barrel back to freshen the chamber and throat, plus re-crowning would seem to restore many of the barrels of shooters who go through a batch of barrels each year.
Also may lengthen the life of a hummer.
Or am I stating the obvious.
 
I am keeping my eyes open for a lathe, but my budget is keeping the search a bit of a challenge. Most of you know i like to buy and sell and the horse trader in me only wants to spend about 2 grand for the lathe. I think i can accomplish this but it will take some time. I thought i had a south bend heavy 10 found for 1000 bucks but i was one day to late. I was just surprised how well my old barrel shot after sharping up the throat with my reamer last weekend. I thought maybe i was onto something. Lee
 
very interesting, I have a barrel that's shot great and at 1,000 rounds started powder fouling in the throat. good cleanings, and chaseing the load for another 300 rounds still shot good and at 1,500 rounds if i do a real good cleaning i can get 6-7 rounds in the low .2's before it foul's and shoots .500.. I had a bore scope inspection and looks like the first inch of the throat is fire cracked..Im going to set it back 2"(have a 5" shank)(its 24"). And rechamber for 6ppc. trim it down to a light varmit and see if it will shoot.
So if you have a short free bore you can clean it up with a throating reamer. But that would be no good for fire cracking?
I dont know mine shot great for 1,000 rounds with no problem. Do you think by the time the throat needs sharpend it would just be best to set it back?
 
This thread is turning into quite a discussion, but, Lee's one barrel freshning does not make a policy. One or two refreshenings may work if done early enough but after about 800 rounds, at the speeds being shot today there is still the limit of keeping a barrel anywhere near competative.. That limit is down around 600-800 rounds. Don't believe that? Get yourself access to a bore scope and take a look.

Reading old PS magazine match reports where shooters were down around 3,000-3,150 fps, a barrel could maybe go to 1,400-1,500 rounds. Today, at 31.3 grains and 3,450+ fps, the barrel will, literally, be toast!!
 
JerrySharrett said:
. . . at the speeds being shot today there is still the limit of keeping a barrel anywhere near competative.
Click to expand...
Right, but competitive where? Certainly for a World or National level shooter. But that is a complete package. If you can't read the flags, etc. well enough to be in the top 20 at the Nationals, worrying about the throat in your barrel is likely just one more excuse.
 
I think that Lee is onto something. He shoots well in local matches, that fit in his schedule, and has several rifles that do a good job for him. That he was able to restore the accuracy of a barrel that had prematurely "gone away" by recutting the throat so that it was a little longer is good information. Since barrels that have shorter throats can shoot well, as can those with longer, what problem would there be with intentionally starting with a short throat and recutting it slightly longer at intervals, until a reasonable limit was reached? He is not looking for excuses, but rather thinking of incorporating something that he stumbled across into his regular program. If he does, and it works on other barrels, those of us who have a limited barrel budget, may all benefit from his sharing this information.
 
gargling with mineral water with a bit of lemon...helps....but i still suck when to comes to singing....even in a bar.

mike in co
 
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