Polishing rifle chamber

[bobsmith]

I recently installed a new Criterion .30-06 barrel on an M1 Garand. I finish reamed the chamber with a front turned headspacing reamer which I rented from an on-line source. I noticed that I had to use a fair amount of pressure to get the reamer to cut. during the reaming process, I removed the reamer and cleaned the chamber with solvent and a cleaning rod several times. The finished chamber is somewhat scratchy even though I used a good quality reamer cutting oil. My question is: what's a good way to polish the chamber. It's not like the scratches are really deep. I was thinking of running a cleaning rod down the barrel and wrapping something like 280 or 320 grit emery cloth around a 35 caliber brush and turning it with a drill for about a minute or so, nothing excessive. Sound good? I suspect part of the problem stems from the reamer being dull.

 

[rcmodel]

All of the problem stems from the rental reamer being dull.
Too bad about that!

I suspect you will have a hard time keeping emery cloth wrapped around a bore brush.

A slotted dowel rod with 320 to 400 black Wet or Dry paper & oil might work better.

A Flex-Hone would be better, but you would have to take the barrel back off to use it on a Garand.
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/869274/flex-hone-rifle-chamber-hone-30-06-springfield-14-400-grit

rc

 

[JG727]

I polished my rem 700 chamber in roughly the same way you mentioned . Test firing showed some rings in the fired brass. When I had the barrel chucked up in the lathe to cut the crown I went around the backside and used some 800 grit wet dry paper wrapped around a dowel.

 

[DANS40XC]

Lap the chamber with a piece of fired brass.

 

[bobsmith]

Maybe I'll just remove the barrel and do it with a slotted dowel and emery cloth. Kinda hate the idea of removing the barrel but I put it on anyway so reinstalling it won't be a problem. It's just that I hate to strip these guns down any more than necessary because each time you do it, things like the gas cylinder and barrel band fit on the barrel gets a little looser.
Thanks for the replies and the ideas.

 

[Old Dog Man]

Smoothing chamber

I have smoothed chambers by tapping a piece of new brass 1/4"x20 thread and a piece of round stock threaded 1/4"x20 in a drill motor and cleaned it up with fine lapping compound on the brass case, works good. Al

 

[Netgunsmithdotcom]

The poster directly above me has a good method, at least from a dimensional stability standpoint.

You can even hand "lap" it, with a dummy round or a casing and some lapping compound, but try to plug the barrel very close to the edge of the chamber, so you don't lose seal or rifling by even a few thousandths.

 

[bobsmith]

Well guys, this is what I thought I'd try. I had an old Outers .30 caliber cleaning rod and cut the handle off. I got a 35 caliber rifle brush and wrapped it with some 00 steel wool. I ran the rod down the barrel, screwed the steel wool wrapped brush on the rod and turned the rod with my cordless drill for about 30-45 seconds. That did the trick. The steel wool burnished the chamber nicely. No change in headspace and all that's there now are nice fine uniform scratches. I need to find some time to go out and test fire the rifle, now.

 

[JG727]

Sweet! Ill add that to my bag of tricks! Let us know the results of the test firing.

 

[bobsmith]

Should be good. It looks good but yes, I'll post...