And Lapua probably doesn't warrant 220 Russian brass once converted to 6PPC. I don't care.Bartlien and Kreiger void their warranty if their barrels are fire lapped. Others may also.
You really did all that?? The expense of all that if you include travel expense and components to test your treatments could have paid for at least one premium quality barrel. No offense, but sometimes you just have to cut your losses and replace a lousy barrel. Great barrels are cheap.I went through my reloading book today about the 30-06 vanguard barrel that I fire lapped.
Barrel copper fouled within 3 rounds. Took 2+ days to clean. Horrible vertical stringing from pressure deviation. Groups would exceed 5 inches after the first three rounds and close to a foot by 8 or 10. Over 500 rounds had been fired through the barrel before lapping. POI changed daily.
List of things I did before fire-lapping.
1. New Stock
2. Pillar/Glass/Freefloat
3. New Trigger
4. Cryo treat barreled action (this actually helped a bit)
5. Multiple scopes/rings. Lapped and bedded rings and bases.
6. Extensive load development
7. TIME has got to be worth something. Started in 2007 finished in 2012. That's five years to make this rifle shoot.
None of these things made the gun suitable for taking game as it was absolutely unpredictable every time it was fired. Used the Loaded ammo system (20 rounds 1 and 2 abrasive) and the gun began to "group" for the first time. Purchased the additional bullets with finer abrasive (3, 4, 5).
Here are my notes from November of 2012:
"After shooting the final finish ammo thru -06 and cleaning I shot live ammo to check results and it's a shooter now. It's never shot repeatably till now. Wx Conditions: 5ºF Windy 11-17 gusts. Blowing snow. Fired 18 rounds into 1 1/16". (Never shot a 3 shot group below 2 inches before!) Velocity was consistent during string.
Best 3 shot group .308 (Ha)
Sierra 165 Gameking
Winchester Case Fed 210M 58 grains H4350 2830FPS COL 3.266
Before lapping the best group with this load was 2 3/16"
"
The rifles has about 500 rounds on it since being lapped and just did 5-shots @ 7/8" with the same load as above.
Yeah the lesson learned here can apply to pretty much all economy guns I think. Just spend the money on the quality gun you think you can't afford.You really did all that?? The expense of all that if you include travel expense and components to test your treatments could have paid for at least one premium quality barrel. No offense, but sometimes you just have to cut your losses and replace a lousy barrel. Great barrels are cheap.
But the Vanguard had an accuracy guarantee!!!You really did all that?? The expense of all that if you include travel expense and components to test your treatments could have paid for at least one premium quality barrel. No offense, but sometimes you just have to cut your losses and replace a lousy barrel. Great barrels are cheap.
I ordered some for a Marlin 336 that was fouling real bad. After reading excellent reviews, I was extremely excited to try them. First order showed up from MidwayUSA in a package that looked like it had been threw WW2, needless to say the bullets were scattered all over the place and I could not tell what grit was what. Called Midway and notified them, they immediately shipped out a new one, sadly it showed up in worse condition. I sent it back for a refund and gave up on it.Has anyone used these? If so how was the results? Was it worth the time and money? Noticeableresults, gains in accuracy or velocity?
Thank you Colby
Everyone is talking about barrels which copper badly because they are too rough, but what about barrels which copper badly because they are too smooth? I have one new barrel nicknamed the Copper Mine as it makes so much copper. Using a bore scope it is the smoothest looking barrel I have. A few others have recently found similar things. With nothing to lose, some have relapped the barrels themselves while I will likely try some TMS bullets and see how it goes. Otherwise it will just remain as a fire form barrel with moly bullets.
CRINGING- What Jack Sutton, John Krieger, Dan Lilja, Tim North, and Frank Green do when they read threads like this.