john:

It is a questionable practice to lap a finished barrel. It is just about impossible to keep from damaging the throat and muzzle. Fire lapping is a possibility, but only after the barrel has proved that it will not play nice. It is a last resort sort of thing to my thinking.

If you are feeling a restriction at the chamber of the barrel that was not there before you chambered chances are that it is the burrs left by the chamber reamer.  As far as the 'tad bit tight' spots I would not worry too much about it. You can feel an unbelievably small change in dimension with a slug. Such a slight restriction, while certainly not considered to be a Good Thing, is not necessarily going to cause the barrel to not shoot.

Finish the rifle and shoot it. A box full of ammo will eliminate the chamber burrs and let you know if the rifle is going to shoot.

Best of luck,

Glenn

FWIW........
I have been known to smooth the throat of a newly-chambered bbl with fine steel wool wrapped around a brass bristle brush. Not saying it's necessarily A Good Thing, but it will probably knock the burrs down & it seems to help my feelings anyway. Have done it only on a few bbls for myself so far, and have conducted no definitive tests.

Before any of you have a cow, please remember that it takes a lotta rubbin' to rub through even the blue finish on the outside, so I figure it's not hurting things a whole lot.

BTW it's also a heckuva good way to remove leading, use the 00 for this, the 0000 won't grab the lead properly.
Like I said, FWIW...........Joe

The Learned Mr. Steele:

I'll thank you to leave my cow out of this, if you don't mind...

Whilst I have never engaged in such a practice, I suspect it would answer well. I have long believed that he real purpose (if any) to barrel break in procedures is burn and lap off throat and muzzle burrs with the erosive effects of imitation gun powder and copper clad boolits.  With .22 rf you still have the erosive gas effects but lack the realatively hard boolit.  This is why I suggested a box of boolits down the bore.

Certainly there is no damage done by a few passes with the steel wool. It might just be the ticket to removing the burrs. I would be an interesting proceedure to monitor with a bore scope. 


As to Mr. Calfee, whether his theories are correct or not the man can make a rimfire shoot.  He is generous enough to share his ideas and his works are well worth reading.

Glenn

john:

Don't pretty your worried little head  too much about all that alchemy and witchcraft you read about at this point.  Those BR folks are trying to build one hole rifles and in fact are coming remarkably close to it. They all have their own ideas and go about it in somewhat differing ways but they all get to the same place, which is an extraordinarily accurate .22 rf.  Truly impressive accuracy. 

Howsomever, they are not using Stevens 44 actions to do it with. <g> While the action is capable of good accuracy it simply will not compete with the custom striker fired actions the BR guys are using.  What you are building should be capable of minute of angle accuracy with good ammo. What you have learned and will learn with this rifle is a big step to your own knowledge and beliefs as to how to build the accurate rifle. 

Best of luck,

Glenn