Bill Jolliff
06-12-2015, 02:39 PM
Foto Friday so thought I would offer a suggestion to make an Economy Grade Chamber Gauge.
As you can see from the first picture, I neatly and squarely cut the plastic hull body from the base of an empty 2 ½ inch RST 16 gauge fired shell. Then cleaned the rough edges a little bit. The hull body is 2 1/8 inches long.
Just insert the squared end in the chamber til it stops at the forcing cone, measure how far the end of the hull is to the end of the barrel, add that to the length of your cut off hull and you have a pretty darn accurate measurement of the chamber length.
Do likewise for the other gauges as seen in the second picture.
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i117/jollybill2006/Chamber%20Gauge/IMG_0066-1_zpsuh1gutxh.jpg
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i117/jollybill2006/Chamber%20Gauge/IMG_0072-1_zpsnwtbhwmo.jpg
In contrast, here’s another chamber gauge that I made about 40 years ago. You might recognize it as one that Tony Galazan sells in his Connecticut Shotgun Manufacturing Company catalog. Mine is serial number 1. Tony seen me using it many years ago and asked permission to make some. Sure why not. I think the Economy Grade pictured above is a little more precise.
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i117/jollybill2006/Chamber%20Gauge/IMG_0102-1_zpssb7aupiy.jpg
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i117/jollybill2006/Chamber%20Gauge/IMG_0104_zpsvilptylx.jpg
As you can see from the first picture, I neatly and squarely cut the plastic hull body from the base of an empty 2 ½ inch RST 16 gauge fired shell. Then cleaned the rough edges a little bit. The hull body is 2 1/8 inches long.
Just insert the squared end in the chamber til it stops at the forcing cone, measure how far the end of the hull is to the end of the barrel, add that to the length of your cut off hull and you have a pretty darn accurate measurement of the chamber length.
Do likewise for the other gauges as seen in the second picture.
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i117/jollybill2006/Chamber%20Gauge/IMG_0066-1_zpsuh1gutxh.jpg
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i117/jollybill2006/Chamber%20Gauge/IMG_0072-1_zpsnwtbhwmo.jpg
In contrast, here’s another chamber gauge that I made about 40 years ago. You might recognize it as one that Tony Galazan sells in his Connecticut Shotgun Manufacturing Company catalog. Mine is serial number 1. Tony seen me using it many years ago and asked permission to make some. Sure why not. I think the Economy Grade pictured above is a little more precise.
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i117/jollybill2006/Chamber%20Gauge/IMG_0102-1_zpssb7aupiy.jpg
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i117/jollybill2006/Chamber%20Gauge/IMG_0104_zpsvilptylx.jpg