Barrel break in

[steve 57]

If you keep cleaning the barrel sooner or later the coppers all out right?well this is whatthe bullet rides on and keeps you from wearing the rifleing out,think of it as running a motor with no oil.get my meaning?you can clean your gun but use some lock ez or graphite or some oil on a patch after ya clean it.the next time you shoot it,it will leave a little copper behind for the bullet to ride on instead of
bare metal.

 

[steve 57]

I dont understand the difference between a graphite coated bore and a moly or HBN coated bullet...

clean your barrel real good then shoot molybullets outof it to keep the barrel from getting leaded orcoppered up.helps keep it cleaner longer i heard.i dontknow about that.i havesome of those bullets aroundhere and didnt like um.do a search on it.

 

[Rock Knocker]

Its been 91 round through the barrel now after doing some load testing today.

I can tell that it is easier to clean now than when i was "breaking it in"

 

[Rock Knocker]

Well i have to fire form and do some load developement somehow.

I guess i could use Point Blank ballistics calculator and keep the gun under the bed, talk about barrel life.

 

[Rock Knocker]

So i should be doing load development and practicing with a junk barrel then just for serious shooting put the other barrel on then hit where i want to?

 

[Rock Knocker]

My point is this is a new rifle, a new caliber and cartridge for me. I have no previous barrel or load data. Hell trying to find any type of usefull load data for a 260AI has been fruitless for me in the last two months of trying. Ive learned everything i know from the 9 fully "Ackleyized" shot i took yesterday in a ladder test.

I dont care about barrel life. In the last five days i have been out shooting four of them, some with this new rifle and some with my AR. I shoot because i like to practice. Ive done a small amount of load testing and this is the first with anything but a 223, but from what i have read about it you are the first to claim to be able to do it in somewhere around six shots, its impressive really.

The thread was started because i was wondering if there was any sort of surefire proven methods of breaking in a barrel while i fire formed my brass. Not weather or not i should try to break in my barrel or if i should fireform my brass. I plan on shooting this barrel into oblivion then buying another one, because i like to shoot and its my prefered method of getting better at it.

 

[Rock Knocker]

I appreciate any help i just dont understand what you are trying to tell me to do. It contridicts just about anything else ive tried to learn. I totaly understand fireforming in a junker barrel but i dont have the resourses for it.

I am 25 and the regular guys i shoot with and personally discuss shooting and reloading with are much more than double my age, some more than triple. The only thing i have learned from them is they dont agree with anything, they are all stuborn old guys that have served as snipers or shot for decades. One says neck size the other says full length, another one says varget and Remington primers the other says R19 and CCI. I have been in the middle of several of them at once, jesus they are stuborn. But they can all out shoot me. The only thing i have learned from listening to years of experience is that the best way to do it is try it all then do it the way that it works for you.

 

[Rock Knocker]

Ok. Its a savage target action and its a 30" large shank criterion barrel that was already chambered. i have been fireforming with bullets.

Criterion has made service rifle barrels for years but just teamed up with Krieger to start selling their own botton rifled barrels for target and other bolt actions. They only sell those non-service barrels to one guy. I got a great deal on it to keep a full barrel log and stay updated with the dealer that lives just down the road from me, so im going to shoot it a lot. If this barrel pans out to be as good as we are hopeing for i will pick up another one in a couple months for a great deal and just keep it untill i need it. For for the sake of getting the Criterion name out and the sake of seeing what they can do, I got one cheap and am going to log everything about it.

 

[Rock Knocker]

I will be shooting f class this summer at the gun club i just joined and have been doing out to 500 yard competitions with some local guys that arent afraid of the winters up here, they shoot hunting rifles to some of the heaviest bench guns out there. I will make it out to Harris a couple times this summer and strench it out to 1000 yards also.

I just got this rifle shooting last weekend and i need to find a good load with it shooting 140gr nosler competition and R19. The first Fclass shoot will be this next monday, it will just be a warm up 20 round shoot at 300yards but i still want to find a load that performs well enough.

yesturday i shot a 9 round ladder test in .5gr incrament from 45.0 to 49.0, at 300 yards a got one large 4" group but found some that were grouping better than others. I have never done this kind of load test but figured i would give it a try.... This is what i did.

http://www.snipershide.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1713419#Post1713419

 

[jlmurphy]

I shoot a 6.5x55 in tactical and long range club matches, your .260 A.I. will be very close. I use Lapua Scenar 139 gr. bullets and H4831 powder. I tried Sierra 142's, Hornady A Max's, and Berger VLD's and two powders. You can see that the number of variables is daunting, and as the owner of a borescope, you can burn out a barrel before you find the magic load, hence a lot of experienced shooters will go to great lengths to keep the round count down. The trick is to find a good load ( not necessarily the perfect load ) in as few steps as possible. The cartridge is only half the equation, gun handling, wind doping, and scope adjustments are just as important in long range shooting. I would find a decent load and then practice and compete in as many shoots as possible. I have lost more competitions through mental errors and won by not making any than by having a 1/4 " load compared to a 1/2" load. And yes I am more than twice your age.

 

[Nomo4me]

I usually shoot once, clean once for three rounds then say to hell with it. I've tried several times to do the full routine but always end up saying to hell with it.

 

[Rock Knocker]

It is amazing at how much you can fidget with everything to try to get a perfect load. I am using Nosler 140g competition bullets, i got 500 of them for $45 so i will shoot them, and i bought a pound of R19 cuz i heard it could be very accurate with 260 so i am using that, and i am using CCI BR2 primers cuz i liked the BR4 over the 400, i used 200 for fire forming and had flat primers with weak loads, same thing happened with 400s in my 223 so i shoot BR2 and BR4. Thats what i have and thats what i am going to use. I dont have 12 different powders to try and 30 different bullets, i am going to get this one powder and one bullet to shoot as good as i can and say its fine for now, maybe down the road i will try something else. But in the long run my fire forming 82 pieces of brass and doing a ladder test with 9 rounds cant in any stretch of the imagination be over analysing my loads. I found 47.0gr R19 shot well and i am going to load a couple more with a little less and a little more and get out to test them this weekend, or even tonight if i have the time.

I dont claim to be some kind of guru at this, i just want to shoot as much as possible. I shot over 600 hand loads this winter in my 223 and thats if fridged temperatures where i had to drive an hour to shoot, i now am a member to a club that is much closer and im going to be shooting F class all summer.

I know practice makes perfect. I never claimed that .3 MOA without practice would beat 1MOA with practice. But i have to do somesort of load developement befoere i shoot hundreds upon hundreds of rounds practicing.

 

[Rock Knocker]

I said the people i shoot with do try to help and the people i buy my supplies from try to help, they all say something different. I think i wrote that before. One says full length die the other says neck size. one says weigh powder the other says throw. It goes on and on. They are all as sure of themselves as you are, but they all shoot just as well as the other but do something different.

In one spot on the links did i read something about R19 and the guy said it was very accurate, and nowhere did i read anything about 140 Nosler competitions. So what load would you suggest? Please tell me what load would work the best for me.

 

[Rock Knocker]

Ok, he tested two bullets 139g and 142g both moly coated, and in his load developement he used Ramshot Hunter, that is the first time i have seen that powder brought up for 260 or 260AI. So now that i know his load developement is way off track from what i am useing what should i do?

 

[jlmurphy]

Moly coating will help with fouling on long sessions and I use it on Varmint competitions to prevent fouling from ruining my groups late in the match. Most of the time I shoot naked bullets, the problem with moly is that it takes a while to season the bore, sometimes more than 10 shots. I don't know that you couldn't switch to moly after you found the right load. My normal process is to pick 2 or 3 bullets that others have had success with, 1 powder, pick a middle charge weight and load each bullet to jam into the rifling. Shoot 10 of each of the 3 bullets, pick the best grouping bullet, go up and down on the powder charge, and then maybe play with the seating depth. That will tell you a lot, it may like one particular bullet, or if you are lucky, more than one. Buy more of that bullet, more powder and start shooting. Worrying about every load combination will drive you insane.

 

[Rock Knocker]

I agree with going insane, thats why i keep it simple with one powder one bullet, i will try more if i have a reason to but if its a quality bullet and a proven powder i know i should be able to make it work out. With my AR-15 i havent tried anything but varget and 69gr sierraMK and i got it shooting .5moa and under and its a cheapo rifle i put together from parts i got online.

I got these 500 noslers by complete fluke so i am going to shoot them up but i am interested in a couple other bullets also. R19 from what ive heard is less popular than 4350 and 4831 but from the few that have used R19 it is more accurate than the first two so i figured i may as well start out with it, and i have no plans on switching becuase i know i can get it to work. but i am interested in Sierras 139gr and Catskinner on this site sells some 160gr rebated boattails i am interested in.

I havent tryied moly or HBN because i havent seen a need to and i already have my hands full but i would like to give it a try sometime.

 

[Rock Knocker]

1-8

 

[Rock Knocker]

I NEED a faster twist? Ive heard and seen other wise. Also i will shoot and find out for myself. Too much of your information is he said she said.

I dont know how this post turned into how i can save my barrel when i already said that i got it for a great deal so i could put it through the ringer and document it.

 

[Rock Knocker]

What in the devil is your point? Hornady suggests 7.5 twist for there 140 Amaxs, i knew that sence the last time i was at the reloading store looking at a box of 140g amaxs. The same reason i didnt list them as a bullet i am interested in trying.

The only thing you can pick up from that thread is that there are a lot of opinions out there, and there are a lot of 1-8 twists out there shooting 140gr. You can see what you want to see. At the same time i can see what i want to see.


I will be out tomarow shooting some test loads, the long range will be closed for maintenace so i will probably be shooting at the 100 yard. What size group do you want me to shoot? I will post some pictures of my best groups if my GF camera charger is around.

 

[BoydAllen]

Questions:
Rest/bags?
Wind Flags?
Stock?
Rifle Hold?
Scope?
Bedding?
Trigger pull?
Advice: To save barrel, trips and time, load at the range.
Observation: Rifles like what they like, and really don't care what you want or have.
More info.= better advice