Bad burrs in chamber of new to me .300 WSM.

[nsaqam]

I took my new to me 16 .300 WSM to the range yesterday and discovered two very bad burrs in the chamber which prevent easy extraction. They also wrecked all 6 of the cases I fired by deeply scratching them when I did get them to extract.

I'm remaining positive however by using this opportunity to face off the breech and ream/throat a new chamber so that I'll be able to put the 168 Amax and the Berger 175 VLD on the lands at a length which functions from my rather short magazine.

I'll be chucking up the barrel, facing .030" off of the breech, and reaming the new chamber.

Should cost ~$36 for the reamer rental, $5 for the gauges, and should take under an hour on the lathe including set up and radiusing the chamber mouth.

I'm actually happy about this turn of events because the inability to reach the lands at a mag friendly length was bothering me.

[stangfish]

I don't remember the seller mentioning the bad chamber.

[nsaqam]

Nope, he didn't.

Kinda hard to miss this too!

http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/ab255/nsaqam/IMG_20120722_111521.jpg

Bought it off a different site though and not Savageshooters.

Maybe this is why I'm the fourth owner of this rifle.

When and if I sell it rest assured that the problem will be corrected.

[nsaqam]

Sorry for the lousy pic but you get the idea.

[stangfish]

Was that guy from Dallas?

[nsaqam]

Kentucky.

[devildogandboy]

it looks like he was probing around in the chamber with a screwdriver!!

[nsaqam]

it looks like he was probing around in the chamber with a screwdriver!!

Yes it does.

I'm making a positive out of it though. Soon I'll have a cheap barrel with a custom chamber and throated for the bullet I want to use.

[cheezie]

I'm curious - if I understand the geometry, you are basically going to use the reamer to move the WSM chamber ~.030 farther forward in the barrel. My question is, will that remove enough metal from the chamber walls to get rid of the gouges that formed the burrs? The taper of the WSM is only from 0.555 to 0.538, or .018 over a length of 1.464. This means you will be removing only about 0.0004, or four tenths mil, from the chamber wall. The photo of the burrs makes me think the gouges are much deeper than that. I'm not at all trying to be critical and have never reamed a new chamber (yet) but am interested in getting into this area and am truly curious. Thanks for indulging me.

Cheezie

[nsaqam]

Cheezie, excellent question.

The reaming will be primarily to remove the burrs raised into the chamber which are holding and scratching the brass. If there are still indentations left in the chamber wall they will be of little consequence. Many chambers have grooves and indentations in them and the rifle functions perfectly.

That said, I'll inspect the chamber as I ream it and will go as deep as needed to remove most or all of the indentations. I'll then face the breech the same amount.

Once again excellent observation and question.

[Blue Avenger]

them are nasty. wonder how? split or stuck case removal by someone maybe? Many things are not hard to fix, just the cost to some gets to high with out the right tools.

[nsaqam]

Thankfully I can do the reaming and facing myself.

The custom reamer will be the only real expense and I'm betting I'll have no trouble selling a reamer for a .300 WSM which throats for VLD type bullets at a 2.860" OAL.

Now to call PT&G tomorrow and find out a lead time.

If it's long I'll order it and remove the burrs with sandpaper for use in the meantime.

[Leonardo63]

no way someone didn't know this before

[stangfish]

Have you ever wrapped scotchbrite around a wire chamber brush to smooth things up?

[nsaqam]

Stang, I'm thinking Scotchbrite would not be aggressive enough.
A well respected gunsmith on another forum suggested 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a slotted dowel with the barrel spinning at 1200 rpm.

I'd then polish it up a bit with some 400 grit and possibly some 600 grit.

[stangfish]

Yeah I meant on the final before you do a wet sand pass. Let us know how it turns out.

[jonbearman]

How about you find someone with a borescope before you get to doing anything.I see the marks in the brass and it looks like it could be getting ripped up by the bolt abuttments that commonly have horrible sharp burrs and it is caused by extraction and ejection. I am not saying that there arent gouges in the chamber,but verify before you do anything.

[nsaqam]

I can see and feel the burrs in the chamber as they are towards the rear.

I'll try to get a pic of the chamber.

[nsaqam]

I ended up sending the barrel off to a gunsmith who is a member of a different site. He offered to do the job for return postage and he already had the reamer I wanted. I sent him $75 though because he deserves to get paid at least a pittance for his work and for his generosity.
He ended up facing .125" off of the breech and reaming the chamber the same amount. The burrs are all gone and the chamber looks fantastic.
Best of all I can now easily reach the lands with my desired bullets loaded to a magazine friendly OAL.
He'll also be reaming and threading my 8 twist 5R rifled Rock. This barrel is at Rock being recontoured to their #2 Sporter contour and when I get it back he'll be threading it nutless and reaming to 6-284 with a throat which will allow me to seat the 105-115gr bullets very very long to take advantage of the LA magazine it's going to use.