Re-reaming a chamber

[hemiford]

If you decide, for whatever reason, that the chamber needs "cleaning up", "adjusting", "fixing"
or whatever else to call it, what would be the smallest amount of material that you should remove (deeper that is) ?
A few thousandths ? An eighth of an inch ? An inch ?
You would obviously have to set the headspace again, even for a "touch-up/clean-up".
If the surface metal in the throat becomes hardened, can that hardened metal be cut fresh with the reamer ?

 

[MagnumManiac]

Only sure way to do this correctly is to remove 1 full turn off the threads and ream the chamber fresh and cut everything to get headspace correct.
If you want a fine adjustment in the chamber, you polish or you cut the chamber with the reamer by hand then polish. The only problem doing this is if you muck it up, then the above is the only fix.

Cheers.

 

[Rflshootr]

It depends on the reason for the needed adjustment and if the same reamer is being used that originally cut the chamber. If it is a different reamer, I always set it back the length of the neck just so there aren't any steps in the neck to cause problems later. Additionally, if the round count on the barrel is fairly low, you get a fresh throat to start with. I will give this piece of advice, make sure every bit of carbon is cleaned out before the reamer ever gets inserted into the chamber.