Freebore

[TMR]

I am about to have a reamer made for my 7mm STW.....I will be shooting 168gr Bergers out of it mainly. My factory barrel has close to .250" of freebore. When I talked with Dave Kiff at PTG, he said that his reamers don't have any freebore, and would work out better with the VLD bullets. He recomended sending him a mag. length case w/bullet and he would make the reamer fit that. I was just reading a post on the 338 edge where Shawn said he gets a little more velocity with .050" freebore. Now, I am thinking that maybe I should have PTG put .020-.050" freebore in this reamer. Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?

 

[Ballistic64]

Just my opinion,but Id go with Daves recommendation.You can always seat the bullet .020-.050 off the rifling to see if your better off with a jump.Usually Daves throats are tight enough (unless spec'd otherwise) that you wont see a dramatic difference in seat depth changes,but you may find, especially with the VLDs, that they shoot the best touching the rifling.This is what Ive found with them anyway in my 300 saum.

 

[Buffalobob]

As long as you are sure that the 168's are what you are going to shoot. Bullets like the 160 AB and the 175s and 180's etc have more bearing surface.

Hunting with bullets that are jammed leads to some interesting exercises.

 

[keithcandler]

Re: I have a zero freebore on mine......

but I shoot the 140's and 150's with heavy charges of 7828.

I have plenty of room to touch the lands and still use my magazine, which what I wanted. Dave Kiff ground my reamer, also.

One thing that I will advise you of is that the Remington brand of brass is pure crap...very soft case heads. Get Wincheter brand of brass only or you will have very premature pressure signs. On the Remington brand of brass you will be throwing away cases due to loose primer pockets while the same load in Winchester brass will still have tight pockets AND you will only have to neck size the cases!

I have three of the custom 7 STW's and my brother has two, it is an awsome cartridge when it has a minimum spec custom
chamber. We shoot the 140's almost all the time because our shots are rarely over 550 yards. We have never had a deer run...never!

 

[TMR]

Re: I have a zero freebore on mine......

Thanks Keith,

That is what I was wondering.....I will probably go with the Match spec reamer with no freebore.

 

[3sixbits]

Re: I have a zero freebore on mine......

Why bother building freebore into the chamber when you will be getting it soon anyway? The throat will start going fast as it is, this is the problem with all badly overbore capacity cases. As the throat wears so you move out with the seating depth. This is why you want to start out with plenty of magazine length. Remember that throat erosion begins with the vary first shot, it's progressive. Freebore started out as a sales gimmick to show the world that rifles built in Southgate Ca. that had Roy's name on them were faster. Want real velocity from your shootin iron, remove all the rifling.