deaconjoe, just pay no attention to the naysayers (and pay no attention to that man behind the green cutrain, too).
Joe Woods' tool works great; it's easy to use, and it does a good job. they cost (if memory serves) about forty bucks including the ever popular shipping & handling. what you get is a bronze tapered reamer without the teeth, with a bit at the end which will be the same size as the interior (i.e. land- to- land) diameter of the bore. you need some two sided carpet tape and some wet/dry sandpaper. the carpet tape comes from any bigbox hardware store, and the sandpaper can be had at any autoparts place. using a pattern (supplied), you tape the sandpaper to the tool and after you take the barrel out of the rifle, you slip the tool into the muzzle and turn it, thus abrading away a cone using the cutting action of the sandpaper. the cone is kept concentric to the axis of the bore by the bit at the end (where there is no sandpaper). after an hour or so, you'll have a coned muzzle and this will allow you to dispense with the 'short starter,' and you'll be able to start a patched ball by hand, cut the patch at the muzzle, and run the whole deal down the tube using the ramrod.
i confess a bit of initial trepidation, but i spkoe with Joe on the phone and he assured me that if i followed the directions that came with the tool, all would be well. he is a very engaging fellow, and he was right- once i held the thing in my grubby fingers, the lightbulb went on.
i haven't seen any significant accuracy change in the rifle i've coned. most of the stories i've heard seem to indicate that if it has any effect on accuracy, the coning actually improves things a bit. those stories of a good barrel gone bad all seem to have a heard- it- from- a- friend- who- knew- this other- guy ring to them.
i'd recommend coning your rifle, and the only reason that i haven't coned all of mine is a shocking combination of laziness and cheapskatedness, so-- go for it.
msw