Factory barrel with tight freebore

[AlNyhus]

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[AlNyhus]

Rather than the Hornady tool, try just seating the bullet long, close the bolt and observe the sharpie marks in the free bore section. Remove the ejector for a truer picture. -Al

 

[Dimner]

I went through a full barrel break in with my Tikkas. The results were like this for my 30-06. (And something pretty similar for my 270)

Shot one - crazy copper fouling
Shot two - crazy copper fouling
Shot three - 50% less
Shot Four - not really much
Group of 4 shots - about double the copper as shot 4, which is to say a little more than not really much
Group of 4 shots - about the same as shot Four
Group of 10 shots - not much at all.

Then I just started shooting normal. Copper fouling is what you would expect at 50 rounds for a nicely made factory barrel. Which is to say, not a problem. Maybe 3-4 patches to get the blue gone

I decopper and decarbon after every range trip, which is usually something between 40-100 rounds. Never had any accuracy issues due to either copper or carbon as far as I can tell.

I didn't even think to bore scope until after I shot 150 rounds and two range sessions. Everything looked good. So maybe just check again after a couple hundred rounds.

 

[Phys86]

Rather than the Hornady tool, try just seating the bullet long, close the bolt and observe the sharpie marks in the free bore section. Remove the ejector for a truer picture. -Al

Did a quick check last night without pulling the ejector and extractor. I seated a bullet 0.050 longer than what I get for base to ogive and chambered it. It went in easily and didn't feel like it got hung up at all. The base to ogive measurement was the same after removing the cartridge... It Didn't change one bit.

I didn't sharpie the bullet since I didn't remove the ejector and extractor. I could see a couple off small scuffs on the bullet on one side, but I bet that may have been from the ejector pushing on the case or the bullet hitting something on the way in/out.

That was good advice. I'll check it again without the ejector and coloring the bullet sometime soon.

 

[243winxb]

SAAMI throat diameter is .2645" Tight.