While the Brownell's (Hanson made) tap is a quality made tap that in most cases will be perfectly adequate to get the job done. The "Premium" tap that Brownell's offers is made by an 80 yr. old American company Reiff & Nestor. What sets R&N taps apart from others is that the tooth to tooth spacing is controlled more tightly than other tap manufacturers in the industry. That makes a huge difference when tapping hardened steel encountered in firearms. Yes, the R&N tap is priced at $7.00-$8.00 but I have never broken an R&N tap. As for a Hanson tap I cannot make the same claim, I find the added cost of the R&N tap well worth not having to deal with removing a broken tap. The R&N is the "go to" tap when tapping the tough jobs like Savage 99, Krag and other known tough jobs. The less expensive Hanson makes sense when tapping other jobs, I always use a new tap when tapping a customer gun I build the cost into my price for a drill & tap job. Experience has proved this to be a cost effective way to avoid having to deal with a broken tap. Keep the used taps for thread clean-up jobs, running threads a couple of threads deeper and other less critical jobs.
Last edited by gunswizard; 10/01/14.
