Member
Joined: 01 Dec 2005
Posts: 1550
Location: Minnesota and Florida
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I strongly recommend the Skeets bore gages if you can get them.
I have the Skeets bore gages, as well as a Stan Baker set. Skeets have one for 10 through 16 gauge and another for 20 and smaller. I can't remember right now if I can go down to .410 with the Skeets. I can with the Stan Bakers. I got the Skeets gauges 15 or so years ago from Brownells. They were not expensive -- nowhere near that $160 price. I see Brownells does not sell them anymore. What Brownells is selling now looks very much like my old Stan Baker set, but with a digital "dial" indicator. The Skeets sets have a tubular body made of a phenolic, I think. The Stan Bakers are all metal. Doesn't matter, you calibrate them before use anyway, and length is not a part of the bore calibration, so temperature expansion/contraction differences of the tube do not affect the measurement -- they're small enough to be inconsequential in any event. The phenolic tubes of my Skeets gages loosened over time and de-bond from the metal ends. No matter, a dab of 5-minute epoxy fixed them right up - permanently, so far. Actually, one thing I like about the Skeets gages is those phenolic tubes, because I have marked them with a Sharpie pen in 1 inch increments from the gaging balls, which makes it very easy to profile a bore, or see where you are along the length. My Skeets gages agree with the Stan Bakers, so they are certainly good enough. The Stan Bakers are longer, so I can reach in maybe 16 inches or so -- a couple more inches than the Skeets, but unless you're doing super long trap barrels, and are really concerned about the middle few inches (Why? If they look good and you've got the rest of the bore measured, the middle is very likely OK.) the length of the Skeets are no disadvantage. I'd have never bought the Stan Bakers but I got an extra good deal on a used set from an estate settlement and just couldn't turn it down. |
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