308 Winchester Reamer choice?

[Chris S]

G'day All,

Looking to buy my own 308W reamer for future
F-Class Std. barrels and have found a heap of different
styles e.g. Palma 95, Bisley 150, 2011 Fullbore and so on.
Any opinions on the most suitable reamer for my application,
Lapua brass and HBC or Sierra projectiles.

tnx,
Chris

[slzagrodnik]

Just had a barnard rifle built in 308 win with Kreiger 1-10tw 31" barrel. Gunsmith used the fullbore 2011 reamer. Rifle loves sierra 175 hpbt at 2760 fps and will accommodate lapua or berger 185's. Throat is .058 freebore. As throat begins to wear I have some Hornady 208 amax bullets to try. I am shooting F/tr class.

[DaveMc]

I can't really say I have a huge knowledge on 308 but do have one and shoot reasonably regularly. One thing I will say is the sierra bullets have a very short bearing surface length and in my reamer I cannot get to the lands. I would go for a reamer specifically designed for these if shooting TR or F standard (e.g. US "palma" reamer with short throat). The HBC's (and Noslers) seem to still go quite well in this configuration as well so at least you then have options if you want to stick within F standard . If however you are considering FTR then a longer throat may be more suitable for the wider range of bullet choices available (but you may lose the sierra as an option).

Cheers,
Dave

[Woody_rod]

Good advice. Longer projectiles = longer throat (mainly referring to bearing surface length).

The HBC, Berger 155 BT Fullbore and Lapua Scenar are all pretty much identical in G7 BC. The main diff is in bearing length, with the HBC longest, scenar next and berger shortest (the berger is about 0.040" shorter bearing surface). This affects the throat length a fair bit if you are serious about it.

In my own HBC chamber for TR / FTR rifle, the throats are very long (around .200"). This is purely to get the HBC as far out of the case as possible to get more powder in it (with 0.005" jump). There are better shooters than myself doing the same thing. The twist rates I use currently wont support heavy projectiles, so no other real benefit.

My next barrel will be 11 twist to be able to run 185 bergers.