Fire cracking, what to do?

[TheOtherZilla]

Why worry about it/ .. Cracking happens.. I just shoot, clean and replace barrels

 

[1K6BRA]

Plant an extra row of beans or tomatoes in your garden this year and use it as a stake when groups open up.

 

[watercam]

Every 500 rounds clean with JB Bore cleaner and then JB Polish. FWIW I had a .257 Roberts with a VERY cracked throat that came back with a patched brush and 240 grit lapping compound on the cracked throat ONLY. Only did that once and it was still shooting great when I sold it.

 

[fatelvis]

Use Tubb's TMS every 200 rounds.

 

[Liven The Dream]

Small Hole Big Burn = Short Barrel Life

What Powder are you using ?

 

[wwbrown]

Setting the barrel back and rechambering is not usually a great way to spend your money, it is an attempt to solve a throat erosion problem and will not address the fire cracking which I assume is well beyond the throat.

The question to ask is does the gun shoot accurate enough for your purposes and if it does keep shooting it, if not get a new barrel installed or a new gun if you want to stay in factory class.

 

[Falfan2017]

How many rounds can be run through a barrel in quick succession before being concerned about aggravating the wear on the barrel? Talking about a hv barrel or straight barrel and not magnum but loads like 6cm or dasher or something similar

 

[bobm]

Here is my wooden coffin of deceased competition barrels. If you shoot competition get used to replacing barrels. Your 6mm Creedmoor is just a .243 Win. which is known for short barrel life.

 

[butchlambert]

Barrel makers love borescopes. They are a great sales item for them.

 

[Bbear]

As others have said, just shoot it. If your rifle shot in, say, the .2's and now it's in the .4's, you might consider one of the options listed earlier - setting it back (if you can) or getting a new barrel.
I have a pair of 25-06 hunting rifles, one has more than 3000 rounds and still puts 5 inside of .75". Good enough for hunting. I've looked at it with a borescope and it's an ugly beast, for certain. But until I can't keep 5 shots under an inch, I'm just going to keep shooting it.

 

[John from MN]

Some heat checking at 450 rnds isn't uncommon in the 6 Creed, in my opinion. Both of my barrels starting showing it around that number, but I probably run the bolt and trigger a bit quicker than I need to.

 

[K22]

Turn away from the dark side and sell the borescope. It's going to destroy your self confidence and cost you way more in barrels bought before they quit shooting.

Oh man do I like this post!!!

 

[Joel Dubose]

If any component has been changed, accuracy may change.

Have you opened a new box of bullets, different lot numder?

Adjust the powder charge and/or neck tension.

I buy the factory rounds in big lots. I've shot groups with it and an average group at 1000 yards has been around 4.8" that's not terrible considering the range that I'm shooting at is a known very difficult range. Once I went to hand loads, I've shot several at 3" or less. The best is a 2" group on a good day. I did a latter test with a different bullet, starting on the low charge weight and moving up.
A current group is 8" plus

 

[Joel Dubose]

Some heat checking at 450 rnds isn't uncommon in the 6 Creed, in my opinion. Both of my barrels starting showing it around that number, but I probably run the bolt and trigger a bit quicker than I need to.

Thats what I do for the 5 shots. I have a sight in period, then the 5 shots on paper. I usually wait until about 15 seconds left and fire a couple of sighters to get dialed in, and go straight to paper. Then I bang out the 5 shots as fast as possible, pending conditions

 

[david kieffer]

Hello, I have a 6mm creedmoore, I have been shooting competitively with this rifle for the past year. I'm not shooting very hot loads however I checked my Barrel with a borescope and found that I have fire cracking. Wondering what to do at this point. The barrel has been one of the lucky barrels that although its a factory barrel it's been shooting very small groups in the past until just recently. Can this Barrel be fixed or saved? The other question is what do you do to prevent it in the future? I started off shooting it with Factory Hornady 108 grn match for about 300 rounds and hand loads for the last 150. Both rounds aren't loaded hot. Factory rounds 2950 fps and my hand loads about the same with 40.9 grn H4340. I purchased a new barrel for it but use this in the factory class and would like to continue shooting this in that class. The other Barrel is a Krieger which would be considered aftermarket so it wouldn't be allowed. Any advice on the topic of Fire cracking would be of help.

shoot it, I have a 6.5 barrel that has what looks like a dead alligator in it . it is also a copper mine but will still print a 3" 100 score 10 shot group @1000 keep it clean polish the thoat every 40 -60 rounds and enjoy

 

[AckleymanII]

There is a learning curve with a bore scope. Also, don't live in fear, see what you see, and how you are shooting is a separate issue. Judge your barrel on how it shoots, clean and evaluate with the bore scope. ROUGH throats degrade accuracy, learn to use various abrasives to smooth up your throat, and yes you can ruin a barrel, but not with JB.

Carbon build up, ruins accuracy, and is a mother loving bitch to get out when it gets hard.

 

[Joel Dubose]

There is a learning curve with a bore scope. Also, don't live in fear, see what you see, and how you are shooting is a separate issue. Judge your barrel on how it shoots, clean and evaluate with the bore scope. ROUGH throats degrade accuracy, learn to use various abrasives to smooth up your throat, and yes you can ruin a barrel, but not with JB.

Carbon build up, ruins accuracy, and is a mother loving bitch to get out when it gets hard.

When you're saying not with JB are you saying not to use it? Or that It won't hurt? Thanks for any advice as i've ordered a krieger barel and worried about repeating the same. 450 shots and replace. As I stated before, the accuracy fell off by double what it was. I have also been considering some type of Barrel treatment as well Coating bullets.

 

[AckleymanII]

It would be very, very difficult to ruin a barrel with JB, and brownells sells more agressive compounds if you need them.

Joel, you started off with factory loads, then went to hand loads. The fire cracking you are looking at is probably not what is degrading your accuracy. As the barrel is shot, you loose velocity from throat wear. Check your current velocity, vs what it was in a new barrel, bring up your powder charge to what it was when your barrel was new.

Also, you Chased the Lands as the leade has grown?...verify your OAL to the lands is what it should be.

PRS shooting is rough on barrels as you shoot them hot. Opinions vary on what the barrel life is on the 6 Creed, and a lot of that would depend on the freebore you started with, .147 or .199?

Good luck!

 

[TikkaSporter]

450 total

Based on my own observations, fire cracking can start this early even on milder calibers like my 6.5x47 Lapua's. That by itself doesn't mean that the barrel life is over yet, it's probably just the beginning of the end. I'd be more concerned about the recent change from shooting 'very small groups'. Did that start before or after looking at the barrel with a borescope ?

If I were you, I'd re-measure length-to-lands and adjust seating depth accordingly to match the jump/jam you had when the barrel was producing very small groups. If this measurement has changed significantly, you may need to also adjust your powder charge. I'd check accuracy after chasing the lands and if it was still off, I'd chronograph the load with the new seating depth and adjust powder charge, trying to (safely) match the velocity it had when it was shooting very small groups. Throat erosion and loss of velocity are usually better indicators of a barrel being shot-out than what you see with a borescope. On my last match barrel, the throat eroded over 0.130" before I retired it. As long as I chased the lands, it remained capable of sub-1/2 moa accuracy, but towards the end it was shedding velocity so fast that I had to knock 5 fps off of my DOPE after every PRS stage (~10 rounds).

Sometimes, the above is not enough and either a new accuracy standard has to be accepted, a new load worked up, or the barrel replaced. What type of competition are you shooting in? 1-moa is plenty accurate for the production class in PRS. My match rifle has opened to about 0.7 moa shooting in open class, think I'll run this barrel for at least 2-3 more matches.

 

[shooterjon]

Hello, I have a 6mm creedmoore, I have been shooting competitively with this rifle for the past year. I'm not shooting very hot loads however I checked my Barrel with a borescope and found that I have fire cracking. Wondering what to do at this point. The barrel has been one of the lucky barrels that although its a factory barrel it's been shooting very small groups in the past until just recently. Can this Barrel be fixed or saved? The other question is what do you do to prevent it in the future? I started off shooting it with Factory Hornady 108 grn match for about 300 rounds and hand loads for the last 150. Both rounds aren't loaded hot. Factory rounds 2950 fps and my hand loads about the same with 40.9 grn H4340. I purchased a new barrel for it but use this in the factory class and would like to continue shooting this in that class. The other Barrel is a Krieger which would be considered aftermarket so it wouldn't be allowed. Any advice on the topic of Fire cracking would be of help.

Sounds like it's time to replace the barrel.Just a fact of life.have you tried calling the manufacturer of yourrifle to ask them if they can replace the barrel with a new factory barrel.this may save your factory clasification for the matches.
Just a thought ,it worked for me,sent my rifle back to
Rrugar and they replaced it with a factory barrel.
Just Thinkin !