One question Guns...why did you go to the 50 Alaskan instead of the 45 Alaskan in this situation?
I think the 50 Alaskan is great, a very good choice for spiffing up a 500 S&W barrel,(although I'm a glutton for punishment and would have gone to a MUCH bigger case.
) but so is the 45 Alaskan and would have been my pick for the 45 cal barrel...saving the cost of the rebore.
Not to cast dispersions, diss, or flame anyone, (Or get an argument started) but many gunsmiths have to do certain "shortcuts" that normally don't cause any problems when rechambering, such as using a 3 or 6 jaw chuch they center to zero TIR then chuck up the barrel and go to reaming.
This normally doesn't cause a problem as the inner and outer OD of most barrels are close enough the run out doesn't affect either the chamber or the accuracy...BUT...in the case of the NEF barrels and how I do a chamber you HAVE to indicate on th ID of the chamber or barrel bore otherwise you get surprises like just happened to Guns-o-fun and Wayne.
EVERY NEF barrel I have was out of whack by enough to cause trouble...the same thing has happened to me to T/C Encore, Contender and just about all the barrel blanks I've used, EXCEPT the higher dollar ones, even then I gotten some that were whacko as far as the bore centerlin and the barrel countour OD was concerned. It is a fact of life that is addressed by the benchrester/longrangers gunsmiths, but not necessarily by all gunsmiths...and, as I said, it doesn't impact in a negative way always. It is a function of the way the OD of barrels are centerless ground by some barrel makers.
I think today many of the barrel makers are cutting the contours on CNC machines on the centers of the bores and those problems have gone away...at least the last two McGowen barrels I've used were contoured that way and I was pleasantly pleased when I chucked them up and found the OD and the bore ID were almost perfectly inline...from a $150 dollar base price barrel
I use a 4 jaw and indicate on the bore ID...with a long armed indicator that sticks back into the bore about 2", and I use a spider and indicate the muzzle bore at the same time, that way I can find any out-of-round bores OR chambers and can compensate somewhat. It also tells me just how bad the chamber is and then I can rechamber to a larger case and get the chamber centered to the bore centerline again without having to rebore to a largert caliber...not always, but most of the time. There is also the problem of the drill following the original bore centerline and STILL being off center, but maybe not enough to hurt...as long as the chamber and the bore are centered to each other then the problem is solved...for the average hunting barrel.
Anyway, sosmething to think about.
Luck
