Did I ruin my 6br barrell?

[delmartin]

Reading your first post I just don't believe a good custom barrel like Krieger needs to be cleaned like that.
There is more harm than good that can be done to a barrel by being that aggressive.
There is a time to scope a barrel but every time you shoot is not necessary. Look at your target and see what they are telling you. As long as the accuracy is there I believe in cleaning as little as possible. Just my opinion.

 

[lloydx2]

Most Hand lapped barrels are left a little tight at the muzzle. Its not unusual to see copper the last inch or so. Wiping a land out isn't as uncommon as one might think. Remember were only talking about .002-005. Throw in a little firecracking and carbon residue and things go away fast. I had a very well known gunsmith tell me he has seen a bunch of barrels go before there time from over zealous cleaning. It happens Alot

 

[AllanR21]

I'm going to first take the rifle apart and tighten everything up again. Bore scope one more to see if I'm missing something. If I don't find anything else, I'll try one more load work up.. It's hotter than hell here in AZ. Maybe the heats effecting this load. If none of this works, I'll try and have a little cut off the crown until the new barrels come in.

Thanks guys. I learned to not clean as much mad let the rifle tell me when Tao clean.

Regards

Allan.

 

[Steve Blair]

It's hotter than hell here in AZ. Maybe the heats effecting this load.

[br]
I can tell it's hot in Phoenix. The Arizona plate count is increasing in San Diego. It's getting warm here, too. I think it was 77° today. [br]
Seriously, we have a Mid Range Regional at Camp Pendleton 25&26 August. Why don't you come over for the weekend, cool off and get your butt handed to you by some California shooters? [br]
Full disclosure: Last August, both German Salazar and Charles Gooding beat me. :-[ [br]
http://www.smgunclub.org/

 

[AllanR21]

Hi Steve, That sounds like a lot fun. I think I'll be there. I'll ask Chuck if he's going. I don't think German will go since he moved to TX.

Thanks.

Allan.

 

[243winxb]

Mine turned out to be a different lot number of bullet. Bad bullets. Now i keep records of lot numbers of everything. Powder, bullet, primer, give it a lot number if one is not already supplied.

 

[model 12 toby]

agree def with the too much cleaning.

 

[AllanR21]

I usually do log the lot numbers. I'll look to see what they were compared to the serial numbers before.

Thanks.

 

[mikecr]

You could try Tubbs TMS to dress up the lands & dull any bore polishing.
But given a step change, it's hard to understand this as a bore finish problem.

You might re-test for best seating performance.

 

[lloydx2]

Nothing wrong with cleaning. After its starts to firecrack You will only get so far. Remember the copper your seeing is in the voids (cracks) and theres no point in removing that. The carbon in the throat becomes more problematic. Let the solvent do the work Give it time and let it soak. If I shoot a 2 day weekend 120 rounds + sighters Ill let it soak for 2 days before I brush out. Refreshing the solvent periodically. Butches bore shine wont hurt the steel. Good luck Allen

 

[AllanR21]

OK. I checked all things that might loosen up and all is tight. I did see a very slight roughness at about one inch from the crown and a very small spot of copper at the middle of the barrell. I soaked it with boreteck eliminator and bronze brushed it onlsy going forward and removing it from the rod and going again. The roughness at the crown is gone and the little copper patch is gone.

I'll see what it does at the range Saturday and report back.

I know my powder charge is good. Maybe, maybe, the bullets could have been an issue but I highly doubt it. They are from the same lot I've been using for about 500 rounds now. The powder is in one pounders but again, I can't see it being the powder. A little puzzling to say the least

Thanks again guys for chiming in.

Allan.

 

[Steve Blair]

It has been pretty warm in Phoenix, Allan. Have you reduced powder charge?

 

[chino1969]

Alan,
What was the temp. when you were shooting well and what was the temp. when your groups began to go south? An increase in temp. could explain your issue.

 

[AllanR21]

It's true, I've been using the same powder charge as usual 30.4 grain of N-540. However, I used it last summer too and it was shooting great at the time. In my matches I shot 597 one match and another was a 596. I forget the X counts but they were around 25 each match.

I chrono'd this load about 4 weeks ago and the volicity was around 2840 with an SD of about 8 if I remember correctly.

When I go out this saturday, I think I'll bring the chrono to see what the load is doing now. I'll also load up some 107 MK and Varget to see what that looks like. I don't know, maybe it's a bad batch of powder? I can only get the N-540 in one pounders. I'd like to get an 8 if they made it that way.

 

[Steve Blair]

I can only get the N-540 in one pounders. I'd like to get an 8 if they made it that way.

[br]
Powder Valley will ship you eight of the same lot number if you request it. I do that all the time with bullets and powder. I use N550 and N560 and have the same issue. It would be nice if they would make an 8 or 10 pound container.

 

[AllanR21]

I wish they would too. It also takes up less room in my cabinets

 

[AllanR21]

Much better today. Strange but better. I loaded up some Varget, 107 MK's and some 105 Scenars and they shot much much better Then I switched back to my usual load and it shot well The only thing I did differently was I bronze brushed the barrell with some boreteck Eliminator. There must have been something at the crown that I couldn't see through the bore scope. Anyhow, thanks to all who gave their opinions. I didn't give up on the barrell because of it. ;D ;D

Allan.

 

[2dogs]

Im relieved to hear you worked it out.

I read all the posts, lots of good wisdom. I was going to suggest you start all over with new brass bullets and powder and work up like it was a new gun and see what you found.

I would like to be kept updated on this as I thought this was a very interesting thread.

 

[AllanR21]

Will do 2dogs. We'll see how she shoots at the next match. That'll be the tell tail

Allan

 

[fm1947]

I had a accuracy problem with my 6mm br shilen barrel some time ago, It was a combination of carbon build up and maybe a few boxes of bullets that just didnt do it, brushing and iosso helped but buying some BIB 108s bullets really changed it all the difference was on the paper compared to the SMKs and the Amaxs.