When I get tired of fooling around...

[gitano]

I just break down and make the blasted thing I need.

That is the primary reason I purchased the mill and lathe.

Spent Thursday and Friday helping a friend's son mill some small parts for his airplane. What was "soft" aluminum, is now "hard" steel. But that's not what this thread is about.

I've been wrestling with getting a good load for the Ruger Haweye chambered in .308 Win that my daughter is going to use for her moose hunt. It's been a real wrestling match to get PRECISE numbers off the chamber. I've been frustrated with my StoneyPoint Chamber-All. The ogives of the bullets are so gradual that it is extremely difficult to get a repeatable reading for chamber length. Finally, after at least 20 attempts - no joke - I decided to quit fooling around and just make a blasted gauge. Too simple really.

I took a six-inch piece of "free machining" steel (soft) round stock and turned it down to 0.470". Then I turned about two inches of that down to exactly 0.3082".

Here's how it's used:
The 'gauge' gets put in the chamber until the 'small end' engages the lands at the throat and a rod inserted from the muzzle marks the distance from the gauge to the muzzle. The gauge is removed, the bolt replaced and closed, and the rod now measures the distance from the muzzle to the bolt face. The difference in length of the two measurements is the length of the chamber from the bolt face to the lands at the throat where the diameter is 0.3082".

If you have access to a lathe, you can make your own such 'gauge'. Should "you" want/need one of these and not have access to a lathe, you can 1) contact a local machine shop and ask (pay) them to make one for you. Probably cost a "minimum" shop unit of time - usually an hour, but sometimes half an hour - or 2) you can ask me to make you one. Obviously - I think - if 'everyone' starts asking me for them, I will not be able to accommodate, but if just a few folks want one, I should be able to do that.

Paul