I am building myself a pickup truck gun in .308 on a '98 Mauser action. I was given a pull through style finish reamer, but have never used one. Does someone who has actually used one have any suggestions for technique?

Dave

Dave,

Pull through reamers were designed as an armory tool to perform the final fit of the chamber of autoloading weapons, i.e M-14, M1A etc.

The majority of the chamber would be cut in a lathe in the usual manner to within about .010 - .020 of final depth. The barrel would be installed and drawn up into alignment. The pull through reamer would be introduced into the chamber and turned until the bolt would just close, thus setting the headspace of the weapon.

If I remember correctly, there were removeable buttons that fit on the bolt end of the reamer, that set the amount of headspace based on which button was in place. Someone else may remember this in greater detail.

You would not want to cut a complete chamber with one of these. They are not very accurate and you may indeed damage an otherwise decent bore by running the rod and pilots in and out of the bore. I would highly recommend the conventional way, with a lathe, through the breech end, as God had intended.

Good luck,

Malm

Remington uses pull through reamers at their plant. The barreled action is clamped into a fixture and the reamer run through and gripped at the muzzle end in a collet. The bolt is installed behind the reamer and the machine is run until the bolt handle drops. The barrel action is then placed on the rack and another one picked up. Takes about 5 minutes. In the custom shop the barrels are fitted conventionally. Regards, Bill.