Comments on: Barrel Stub Gauges — Handy for Many Reloading Tasks

By: Kent

Kent — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 01:00:35 +0000

Respectfully, the tool pictured is too much of a good thing. I ask the gunsmith to make a tool with the chamber reamer that starts at the shoulder-body junction, and stops at the forward end of the parallel portion of the neck. There you have a tight neck GO gage (Dasher’s comment), something to measure case headspace and max neck length. Rifling is only useful until erosion happens. You’re better off using a Hornady (formerly Stoney Point) bullet seating gage so you can maintain a consistent bullet jump over time.

Editor: Kent, if the stub gauge is made correctly, it will be a very, very close match to your original chamber. That way it gives you a “day 1″ baseline measurement, which provides a useful comparison with the throat length in the actual barrel, which, as you note, will erode over time.

By: Dasher

Dasher — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 13:15:29 +0000

Nice tool, but only works if you have a reamer with the correct free-bore on it. I throat ream pretty much all my barrels to the bullet to where I want it and have short- or no free-bore reamers. Still do-able, but a little more work.

I had one for my 6PPC and used it to see if all my rounds would load before going to a match (cq tight neck turn).

By: patrick

patrick — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 15:00:49 +0000

This is something I have done for years now, it is one of the greatest tools in my tool box.