Bore changes and ammo preference.

[BowChamp]

I have just over 23,000 rds through my 22LR benchrest rifle. I've had it for about 2 years and it has shot very good from day one and is still going strong.

From day one I've never been able to extract a live round from the chamber. This changed at about 17,000 rds., I can now extract a live round with no problems at all.

It shoots equally well, clean or dirty.

I've had a very little bit of Eley that shot good. Lapua on the other hand has shot circles around Eley ammo. I buy my ammo in very low quantities from as few as 4 boxes to maybe three of four bricks at a time. This is how I've been competing for the last two years with good results.

 

[Frankr]

I don’t know if I can help but my muller 8 groove had a spot about 2-3” ahead of the chamber that would collect a little fouling. If I scrubbed it really well the first target was great then it would fall off a little even cleaning between cards. Scrub it clean shoot incredibly. About 3,000 rounds and it went away and shoots great and really almost clean with a few wet patches.
I due believe that it did change a little around 1,000 rounds as far as the tune changed a little and although it has shot very well IDK if I’ve ever really had it tuned great. Still a good barrel. I’m playing with a 4mi right now and so far it seems to shoot very well and doesn’t have an any cleaning issue. Just differences in barrels I would say.

Good ammo is hard to come by. I even asked a few guys I shoot with and they said they are in the same boat as me. They don’t think they have any really good ammo. We have decent stuff but not good lol.

 

[TZaun]

I think I might be the guy Alex is talking about? Before Katie went off to college I would take her rifles to the tunnels at the RRRMC in Fargo and shot them a lot. I have a 3” bag rider that slides in the accessory rail and a 3/4” rudder that fits in the buttplate assembly so I can shoot off my BR and F-Class rests. I feel the 1/2” or so push back somewhat simulates shooting it in the shoulder. Over the course of a few barrels and quite a few lots of ammo I started seeing a tendency for the groups to open up a little, change from round 20-shot groups to slightly oblong, or start spitting a shot by the end of that case. When I say open up a little I mean a millimeter or two. Spitting a shot I mean one shot out of 20 might go out of a round group by 1/2 a bullet. 5 or 10 shot groups rarely look round and pretty. 20 and even 40 shots at the same aim point tell a better story in my opinion and that’s where the groups get nice and round if the best lot is being shot. Until she went to college she shot with either an UptaTuner or a BeeSting tuner and those helped keep the groups round by making a very slight tweak. If the rifle was capable of shooting 12 or 13 millimeter test groups I could replicate that in the tunnels. By the end of the case I would maybe be able to get 14 mm groups and sometimes much bigger on average. I probably didn’t give full context to Alex and that is she sometimes practices with another lot so that could mean say 10,000 rounds by the end of that tested case lot. Either way, sending the rifle to get tested usually produced another lot that shoots small again. Unfortunately I started cleaning my reloading room early in the Winter and threw tons of old targets I could show. I did find some pics on my phone I’ll post here that are very good examples of what I have seen quite a bit of. Probably one of the more extreme cases though. We just had one of her rifles at @whiddengunworks Monday. If this post was a week earlier I would’ve arranged for a couple boxes of her previous lot to be sent to John for comparison to see how it stacked up now.



This is the National Coach testing the lot she was getting to the end of a full case plus whatever practice ammo she had shot through in that time. This lot tested and shot very well at the beginning. Group sizes are in the upper, right hand corner.









Here is a lot the Olympic Training Center had on inventory that tested very well in her rifle. With this lot she missed tying the World Record by 1 point at the next World Cup match and the lot she shot up till Monday’s testing. The new lot John just found for her measured 13.3 mm for 4 10-shot groups.








John’s personal testing showing no change over 7,000 rounds has peaked my interest. I don’t want to turn this into a barrel manufacturer peeing contest so I will talk to John someday about his barrel choice. Does it come down to steel like @1813benny talked about with another shooter? If it does, I think it’s like a lot of other situations in other disciplines where if you’re aware of the limits you can manage it and stay on top of it. My $.02 and sorry for how long this turned out. Got on a roll .

 

[Alex Wheeler]

Yes Todd it was you, but your right I didnt know about the rest of the round count and it makes more sense now. But its still turned into an interesting topic. Im looking forward to taking these 4 barrels up to Whiddens it will be interesting to see the differences. I kind of wish I had a shilen as well. In my limited experience they dont slug as well as a muller or Bartlien but they shoot.

 

[dgeesaman]

I’m laughing at the idea of someone these days buying only half a case of lot matched ammo because it ‘might’ not shoot as well after a few thousand rounds.
Sure it might not shoot quite as well as ammo test day but it can still shoot. Maybe in a different barrel or rifle. At the very least good practice ammo.
David

 

[Ranger188]

Even if you bought a case or couple bricks of Lapua Center X or Midas +
and didn't like it, you could sell it here or Rimfire Central
in a heartbeat for almost what you paid for it.
No down side.