Gunsmithing Freebore questions

[krw]

I hope some of the gunsmiths who frequent this site will share their opinion on this. I know why commercial gun mfgs put so much freebore in their rifles. They have to say John Q Public will put a 100gr bullet in it or a 250gr bullet in it and it has to shoot them safely. On Custom built rifles, why is this so? If you are going to build a TopEnd 308Win and plan on shooting the 175gr SMK's exlusively, why not figure your oal at 2.800, spec a reamer to have .020-.025" of freebore. Would this not be better for accuracy purposes? I know this is a "Tactical" based website and not a "Benchrest" website. Why is so much freebore acceptable? I have a topend 308 built by one of the highly respected gunsmiths who frequent this site. I can load out to 2.845 oal cause I feed out of an AIC mag, this puts me at 0.010" off the lands. Gun will consistently shoot in the .2's. I just don't see the need for a rifle, especially a custom rifle to have excessive freebore. I look forward to hearing your comments and opinions. Thanks

 

[Jkob60]

Re: Freebore questions

I normally chamber and throat to SAMMI specs. When a client asks for a special throat, he gets it. I usually ask him for a few dummy rounds with his choice of bullet and chamber for that.

 

[DAVETOOLEY]

Re: Freebore questions

If it means anything I have 4 different 308W reamers. The customer choses which one I use.

Also each smith has his own set of shop rules.
Here are my top two.

1. Don't do anything to make the phone ring.
2. Build the most accurate rifle possible referring to rule #1