new barrel

[just learning]

I am replacing my winchester 94 barrel with a 26" douglas barrel, i have heard that my gunsmith should clean up the throat area because of ream grooves, something like that, wouldnt the barrell makeralready have it done ??it is a custom barrell

[Mikey]

Douglas is a good name in barrel making.  I would expect them to send you a clean barrel - one with a clean chamber and a hand lapped bore.  I had one of my 94AEs re-barrelled by the Montana Rifleman and that is how the rifle came back to me.  Fired cases just drop right out and the bore is soooo shiny ya'll kin hardly see the rifling.  And man, does she ever shoot.  I would expect your barrel to be just fine.  JMHO.  Mikey.

[gunnut69]

I don't understand the question. Douglas barrels are good solid barrels and I've never had any problems with them. All chambers have to be throated(excepting special circumstances) to allow the bullet to not be 'IN' the rifling when a loaded round is chambered. Perhaps this is the throating you heard about. It's sometimes done as a part of the chamber reaming operation but some custom smiths use a seperate throat reamer. This is especially true for some of the guns used in cowboy shooting or with lead bullets. It allows a smith to customize the rifle a bit for a certain bullet or bullet type.