Long forcing cone for my Winchester 1897, 12 Gauge

["Big Boston"]

10+ years ago I jury rigged a Blue Point adjustable king pin reamer to lengthen the forcing cone on his 870 in an attempt to reduce recoil, it did seem to work. I then sent the reamer off to a machine shop, to see if the blades could be sharpened, (with a bit more precision than the touch-up I;d given them). I then forgot about the reamer. After measuring the chamber on my main '97 and realizing that it did not have a 2 3/4" chamber. A quick call to the machine shop revealed that the blades had not been sharpened yet, so I took  it home, disassembled, cleaned and sharpened the blades. It is a straight reamer that I had shimmed up one end of each blade to give me about a 4° included taper, which would give me a 2° forcing cone. It won't lengthen the chamber, (actually if you persist it will lengthen the chamber, it just isn't pretty), but with the gentle 2° angle, at least a 1 1/2" long cone, it only constricts a 2 3/4 shell a few thou. It took an hour or so to ream the forcing cone, my sharpening job didn't last, but it turned out nice. A quick polish and I called it a day.

 

I test drove the beast from 25 yards, pretty unspectacular, too big a pattern. I walked up to 10 yards, much better. My '97 started out as a FULL choke gun, now it has no choke and is only a whisker longer than 20". Hard to miss the steel with that big pattern, but I've managed a few misses. 

 

I have a few more '97's to work on, I think I'll buy a real forcing cone reamer. Does anyone have any recommendations, I see straight flute and spiral and some that will also lengthen the chamber. I only want to buy once.

 

Here's a picture of my Bubba reamer:

 

      

[Boggus Deal #64218]

I prefer Manson spiral fluted ones.

[Garrison Joe, SASS #60708]

Yep, the long forcing cone reamers can both put a much longer taper on the forcing cone, and will lengthen a chamber when you need to, all while giving a pretty smooth finish.  If you need to do (about) three barrels, buying a commercial reamer designed for the job is cheaper than the cost of having a smith use his own reamer.