Don't necessarily want to discuss openly as I do not want to embarrass anyone, but would like a PM from someone who has done more than a couple of re- barreling jobs. Need to discuss what I view as a strange request from my gunsmith. Thanks in advance!

Gentlemen,

Thank you for your responses and gracious replies. You helped answer my question and I now have a better direction.

So what was the "strange request" ?

As stated, I thought it was strange...basically taking a job to a gunsmith and then said gunsmith asks the customer to hunt down tooling with deeply technical details which the customer could not be expected to know.

Sounds like he doesn't really want to do the job

That what I said too. Or he dosent fully understand what the customer is wanting so he asked the customer to order the reamer instead of trying to figure it out.

I understand where the gunsmith was coming from. IMO there are many rifle owners or gunsmiths that don't know enough about what they have chambered. Using SAMMI specs is a good practice if neither is as well versed as some of us loonys.

I prefer to order a reamer to suit my magazine length, and a specific brand of brass. Also prefer to consult with my reamer maker on which throat angle and length leade will work the best.

Some chamberings like the 6.5-284 have multiple versions and it would be appropriate to ask the gunowner as to which way they want it done. Some of those 6.5-284 reamers are match dimensioned and even using the wrong brand brass could get an unaware handloader into trouble with insufficient neck clearance. I know because I helped someone build a load for one and discovered the neck clearance required turning AFTER firing a few rounds and having high pressure.

Heck even Gunwerks had issues with some customers complaining about high pressures. Turns out the brass supplied from Hornady changed wall thicknesses and caught gun owners and Gunwerks by surprise. FYI Gunwerks now uses a different reamer with more neck clearance.

The problem was that the smith would not tell me whether he wanted a live or solid pilot reamer, which material he preferred, etc. He peered at reamer after reamer through his bifocals trying to read a faded label made of masking tape. After 20 minutes of telling me what he had on hand (none of which were in the calibers I wanted), I finally prodded him by asking what the next step should be. At this point, I was handed a stack of hang tags and told to fill them out for each project. It seemed rather odd, especially considering I had a nicely printed spec sheet for each project, which he couldn't be bothered with. I began to believe he wanted to change my mind on the chambering just because he had a reamer on hand for it.

get another smith to do your work

All kinds of warning lights flashing there. I've BTDT, and regretted not following my instincts.

Paul

yes, the warning flags are waving in front of my face...

Thanks for those details 358elk.

I would have been frustrated myself. I would have looked elsewhere. Your problem is not what I imagined.

Did you solve the issue?

Thanks for sharing.

I am going to solve this by spreading the joy around to a few other smiths. I have some referrals, thanks to 'rainierrifleco', and I will be contacting those gents. I think I will have the original gunsmith do the majic on my Arisaka, since it has oddball barrel threads. Thanks for all the feedback and help!

Much better to spend the time carefully choosing who you will use then trying to deal with a crusty smith after he has your stuff in his hands. It seems some smiths want to build their guns for you, and others will listen and build your gun for you, and then some just won't listen, or call back.

+1 on 458 Lott's post, very sage advise indeed. When you pay good money you should get what you want, not what a smith crusty or otherwise tries to force you to accept.

As an ex-gunsmith I learned about those things from the other side....