25-20 SS reamer

[Danth]

Hello All: would anyone have a 25-20SS reamer for sale, trade, rent, etc? I made an extractor for a Stevens 44 and need the reamer to make the extractor cut for the rim. Is there a better way than a reamer to make the rim cut? Thanks, Dan

[MBTcustom]

Have you ever seen these folks?
http://www.reamerrentals.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=172

[Bent Ramrod]

If you can't find or rent a reamer, get a cartridge case and smear high-spot blue on the forward part of the rim. With the extractor down in its slot, chamber the shell and push it in as far as it will go. Scribe a line on the extractor outside the rim of the shell.

Tap the shell out with a cleaning rod inserted in the bore and carefully file the marked portion of the extractor top down against your scribe mark until the shell will chamber and the breechblock will close without undue force. Keep track of your progress by inserting the blued shell and trying to close the breech. When the job is done, the high-spot blue should still mark the extractor surface, but enough metal should be removed to clear the thickest rim you will have. Be sure to file off the burrs on the new surface.

I've done a number of extractors for .22's and oddball rimmed cartridges this way. It's a little tedious, and requires care, but you will be shooting the finished product a lot longer than the time you spent working on it. A jeweler's riffler or an engraving tool (or a milling cutter in a vertical mill) can be used to form the radius on the cut, but for a centerfire shell and the usual extractor width, a straight cut seems to do no harm.