• This Forum is for adults 18 years of age or over. By continuing to use this Forum you are confirming that you are 18 or older. No content shall be viewed by any person under 18 in California.

Does anyone have first hand experience using Tubbs FF bullets?

I will chime in with my experience for what it is worth. I have used Tubb’s FF on 3 factory Remington barrels. I first broke them in as best as i could in order to get the best possible improvement with the FF bullets. I only used 5 of each grit and thoroughly cleaned between each 5. The result in each barrel was a bore you could feel the smoothness difference. They all cleaned up much easier. The 223 barrel shot awesome. I pulled the barrel at 3000 rounds still shooting 1/2 to 3/4 MOA gropus.

The 308 and 30-06 barrels did better but were still just MOA or slightly better. What was different was that the grouos were now round and the cold bore shoot was much closer to the 5th shoot from a cold clean.

I have sort of a testimony about what it can do with a well used barrel. I bought a service rifle pulled barrel from one of the juniours guns at about 3k rounds. I took it home and it took seversl days to get all the copper out of it. I then decided to do a FF on it because it was clearly long inthe tooth. Again i just used 5 of each grit. The results were that it came in as a 3/4 MOA barrel and cleaned up easy. I shoot that barrel for another 2k rounds as my NRA match rifle. It became the first barrel that I literally shot it to death.

Based on what i found out about FF I became a TMS user. I use them at the beginning of the range trip were i have 200 or so rounds down the barrel. I do them first rather than last so that the bare steel sees the polishing first. I cannot tell that life has been effected adversely.

David
 
I remember reading a post about an article written many years ago. An accomplished shooter or smith came up with remedy to fire lap a barrel by using JB. Using your selection of a load, JB the bore with several passes thru. Then fire three round without cleaning, then clean and repeat the treatment again using a tight fitting bore mop and the JB, pushing the mop thru the bore between the three shots without cleaning. Then test the barrel for easier cleaning, less fouling, and increased accuracy. For breaking in a lapped barrel use JB polishing paste, much finer grit. I'm just going from memory here, maybe the article can be found. This is different from the TubbsFF method because you are only cleaning up the rifling with out changing the throat.
 
Last edited:
Good day,

There is always the NECO kit if you wish to lap either by bullets or hand and make your own. Not recommended for everyone, but it worked either way on factory and a couple of worn out match barrels. Added another 500 rounds to the match barrels, which is about a years worth of shooting for me.

For now, I just do it by hand with the finer grits and a few passes, similar to using TMS bullets. As stated, the barrel should be squeaky clean before starting and I wait until accuracy falls off after regular cleaning.

HTH,
DocB
 
I ve done 10 barrels or more and all good. I only do the Tubbs on factory barrels and typically I ll only use one or two of the #2 grit bullets, then clean down to bare metal (impt in my opinion), then fire 5 of the next grit (#3) , clean to bare metal and repeat through grits 4 and 5. You ll notice the barrel fouling less and less and by grit 4 and 5 it s nice and smooth. I shoot the coated bullets slowly so Barrel never heats up AND use a starting load of a quick powder for your cartridge as per Tubbs recommendation. You just need enough pressure to expand Bullet into throats and rifling so it can polish out the machining marks and imperfections.

When I get a new production rifle I do the Tubbs system before I ever mount my scope!!
 
I have and would only use tubbs lapping bullets on most factory barrels besides maybe a Browning’s (they seem to be lapped already from the factory). After using the barrels definetly cleaned much easier and no rough spots while cleaning. Speeds increased some from the same loads and a lot less fouling. Also lengthened freebore some but not significantly. Overall I think it made a fair to good barrel better.
 

Upgrades & Donations

This Forum's expenses are primarily paid by member contributions. You can upgrade your Forum membership in seconds. Gold and Silver members get unlimited FREE classifieds for one year. Gold members can upload custom avatars.


Click Upgrade Membership Button ABOVE to get Gold or Silver Status.

You can also donate any amount, large or small, with the button below. Include your Forum Name in the PayPal Notes field.


To DONATE by CHECK, or make a recurring donation, CLICK HERE to learn how.

Forum statistics

Threads
165,802
Messages
2,203,328
Members
79,110
Latest member
miles813
Back
Top