When chambering a round the barrel goes into lockup but the slide is back about 1mm from where it would be if there was no round in the chamber.
Am I safe to ASSume that all that is needed is to ream the chamber for more headspace?
Depends, put a live 45 round in your barrel after you have removed it from your pistol. Does it stick out of the barrel further than the barrel hood does?
If so then yes the barrel needs to be finish reamed slightly, it should sit slightly less than flush with the barrel hood.
Sure sounds like it's a shallow chamber. You can do a quick check. Take the barrel out of the gun and drop a factory round in the chamber. If it sits very far above flush with the hood, it probably could use a finish reamer.
Yup did the drop a round in the barrel thing. And it looks flush so I suppose that means i will have to have the chamber reamed slightly.
Any tips on reaming a chamber?
Hey Great minds think alike, Right Tuner. We must have been typing at the same time.
Anyway I finish ream by hand with a tap handle and some cutting lube. I make the round sit slightly less than flush with the top of the barrel hood when I am finished reaming.
Thanks guys, just finished reaming it out with a Manson finishing reamer. The bullet now sits just below the hood.
It seems like it cut a lot of metal for the tiny bit of extra headspace i needed.
Used some Mobil One since I didn't have any cutting fluid, everythings seems fine now. Im finally 100% done with the pistol thanks to you guys and cant wait to put her through the paces.
Blindhogg said:
Anyway I finish ream by hand with a tap handle and some cutting lube.
Yep. While we're on the subject... is it just me, or have you noticed a trend toward tighter chambers lately? Seems like any time I drop a reamer in a hole, I get chips... mainly from the forward area of the chamber.
Sometimes just a little... sometimes a lot.
Have to wonder if it's worn tooling or an attempt to wring a little more accuracy out of the factory guns by tightening up the chambers... which doesn't really work that well... and compromises feed/return to battery reliability.
Noticed anything similar... or have I just caught all the tight ones?
Glad to hear its now up and running properly.
Yep I know what you mean Tuner. I have also noticed quite a bit of the barrels coming across the bench are spitting out quite a bit of chips when I chase them with a finish reamer.
Here is one for you tuner have you ever not been able to get your finish reamer in the chamber. I bought a batch of 10 barrels from a brand name maker and several of them I could not get the finish reamer in far enough to start cutting the chamber.
Seen that once... but I don't buy too many new aftermarket barrels... I've noticed the out of spec chambers mainly on new, factory assembled pistols that come to my attention with return to battery problems.
It's gotten to the point that that's the first place to look. Not really a custom builder here... Mainly a troubleshooter/repairman/reliability tuner.
Glad to know it's not a matter of bad luck... I got enought of that!