Reamers for the 338 Tomahawk

[Digger49r]

Darryl,
I'm taking your advice and buying a reamer and getting a smith to do the work for me here in Canada. I talked to Prairie Gunworks and they'll gladly do it,but don't have the reamer which is fine with me.I have heard the way to go is to get the chamber reamer and a separate throater. That way I can set the bullet I shoot the most to the length I want. Any thoughts or advice on this? Also,who is the best to make the reamer Manson,Clymer or Dave Kiff? Do any of these guys have the dimentions? OH!One final question, Dies! can you have these cut with the chambering reamer? Just so you know what I'm planning I'm going with a 30-32" barrel at a straight 1.250" with 6 flutes, titianium firing pin and 28lb spring, aftermarket trigger on a Mcmillan A-4 stock. Thanks for all the help so far!

 

[Brent]

Digger49r,

Reamer grinders;
Dave Kiff is who 90% of peaple I talked to refered me to. To me, that said enough. $135 for each reamer he makes you.
If you take the time to call him and discuss what you are planning, he'll make it pretty simple for you and give you instant answers to most all your specific questions. I highly recommend this.

Jim Carstensen at JLC Precision is the only one that I know of that has a way to use your finish chamber reamer to make a Full Length sizing die. I should be getting mine back from him anytime now. Expect a 1 month wait, and no longer than that, his words too. My Wilson seater die was $90 (he gets $150 for a threaded version that has a guide sleeve as the Redding Comp die does), my FL bushing die (for Redding/Wilson bushings) was $185. He required 6 fired cases to make sure he has the FL die made to size them down far enough. He can explain how he accomplishes this with a finish reamer if you call him. All in all, I payed $280 for them, and shipping the brass and reamer to him.

Niel Jones will cut dies off your chamber reamer drawing, he doesn't use a reamer, he does it on a lathe. Wayne told me he paid this for his dies from Niel (The total cost of the F/L sizer with 2 neck bushings and 2 forming bushings along with the microadjuster seater was $374 shipped.)

My smith up here told me what costs the bucks is having the FL die heat treated after you've bought an undersize die reamer to ream the die. He said it had cost him 90-100 bucks for an outfit in Seattle Washington to do each die. He plans ahead and has Redding do the body die or FL die for him now days, 6 month wait tho... He pays Niel Jones to do his Wilson seater dies for him.

I'd get the reamer with the neck and throat both built into it, this assures a concentric job, JMO.

Good luck with the project, I know it was worth it all on this 30/338 LI when you finally get it in your hands. Sounds like yours will be real close to my 338 LI, I think it will be dressed with an A-5, and non-fluted tho. Can't wait for it to get started.

 

[DANTEC]

I use mostly PPG for all my custom , Manson reamer are nice too and they are very kind , FORGET Clymer .

I make my own die with the chamber reamer for seating and a sizer reamer ( I dont use a real roughter reamer ) to make the full sizer

if you want to save money Hornady seater can be easely modified to any custom cartridge , with a custom sleeve with less play than the original Hornady and with a design to get contact on the shoulder ( same angle ) you get no too bad seater for few $

good shooting

DAN TEC