.577 Snider Chambering Reamer

[bonza]

I am searching for a .577 Snider chambering reamer to rent, beg, steal, or borrow. I've searched thru the sites of the reamer rental places I could find online, but no luck. Forum member Cactus Farmer made one, but he hasn't been active on the forum for a year or so.....anyone know how to contact him?
Any other leads on a reamer would be much appreciated.

[fireball168]

I've long considered having PTG make one up to match the Jamison brass with the throat setup for a modern mold. Pricey though, $225.

What are you looking to build? I've had some inquiries for Encore barrels, plus I'd just like to play with one built with modern materials & a properly dimensioned barrel.

[bonza]

I have one of the Nepalese-made 3-band Sniders that I bought a year or so ago. I finally got it out to the range on Monday & tried it with a handful of different loads & it did very well indeed for its first outing. The only problem I had was with extraction, & I found that was due to a poorly cut chamber.....apparently not uncommon on these. I have an excellent gunsmith, who I've used in the past, who would be able to reline the chamber area & rechamber it, but he doesn't have a .577 Snider reamer & would have to order one from PTG ($225 as you say). With the cost of the reamer & his labor that would just about double my investment in this rifle. While it is in nice shape & has an excellent bore I'm not sure I want to have $700+ in it, so was just exploring my options to see if anyone had a reamer we could rent for a reasonable fee.

[The Double D]

What about the chamber makes extraction poor? Is it rough, polish it.

[bonza]

Nope, not rough so much, it 'balloons' out about 1/2" up from the rim, There's a definate bulge in the fired case.

[elk hunter]

I am searching for a .577 Snider chambering reamer to rent, beg, steal, or borrow. I've searched thru the sites of the reamer rental places I could find online, but no luck. Forum member Cactus Farmer made one, but he hasn't been active on the forum for a year or so.....anyone know how to contact him?
Any other leads on a reamer would be much appreciated.


You can send him an e-mail through this forum. Go to the members list and find his name, click on it and there is a provision to send him a message either as a PM or e-mail. I'd try the e-mail option since he hasn't been active.

[The Double D]

Nope, not rough so much, it 'balloons' out about 1/2" up from the rim, There's a definate bulge in the fired case.

So just sleeve the chamber and use a boring bar to cut the chamber in the sleeved section.

[bonza]

Sleeving & recutting just the chamber is what we're looking at doing. Afraid I'm not sure what a boring bar is, but surely a reamer has to be involved(?).

[The Double D]

For short section boring bar will work just fine. You don't need a reamer. Bore out as close as possible, polish it hte rest of the way.

In fact in this case a reamer may cause more problems. Modern reamers are made to SAAMI or CIP specs. The specifications were settled on over 120 or more years after the rifles were made. There is a lack of consistency in the old chambers, the are all some what unique.

There is only a slight chance that the modern made reamer would cut a clean chamber in the old gun.

I have recut a number Martini Chambers and have yet to get a clean cut.