Hello, I have a 6mm creedmoore, I have been shooting competitively with this rifle for the past year. I'm not shooting very hot loads however I checked my Barrel with a borescope and found that I have fire cracking. Wondering what to do at this point. The barrel has been one of the lucky barrels that although its a factory barrel it's been shooting very small groups in the past until just recently. Can this Barrel be fixed or saved? The other question is what do you do to prevent it in the future? I started off shooting it with Factory Hornady 108 grn match for about 300 rounds and hand loads for the last 150. Both rounds aren't loaded hot. Factory rounds 2950 fps and my hand loads about the same with 40.9 grn H4340. I purchased a new barrel for it but use this in the factory class and would like to continue shooting this in that class. The other Barrel is a Krieger which would be considered aftermarket so it wouldn't be allowed. Any advice on the topic of Fire cracking would be of help.
Fire cracking, what to do?
- Thread starter Joel Dubose
- Start date
Kurz
Silver $$ Contributor
'Fire cracking' is a fact of life where burning plasma contacting metal is concerned. The only way to save a barrel is to NOT shoot it. You can slow it down by doing all those things suggested in every answer about this; use cooler burning powders, don't shoot long and fast runs, keep the barrel clean as shooting runs allow.
Have the groups opened up as a whole, consistently? If yes, then it's time for a new barrel. Lucky barrels have a finite life just like unlucky barrels unfortunately.
DaveTooley
Gold $$ Contributor
Setting back a factory barrel is not a good investment.
I agree, but some people want to do that. It costs less and accuracy can be almost as good. The original barrel might still be used in factory class if set back.
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450 total
It also depends on the contour of the barrel ,if he has a thin barrel there is not much meat left in the chamber area for a set back.
Updated my post. It may be good for a few hundred rounds.
450 total rounds is what's concerning me. I realize that it's a 6 mm but I must be doing something wrong for this barrels to be fire crack the way it is and so few rounds. Typically I shoot a couple of rounds to sight in, then 5 rounds on paper. The 5 rounds is fairly quick back to back but it's still not creating a lot of temperature in the barrel.
jds holler
Gold $$ Contributor
Put down the bore scope!! Shoot your rifle and enjoy it just as you would love your faithful dog. Neither of them are going to last forever. jd
coldboreshot
Silver $$ Contributor
I've said this before and I'll say it again, "Borescopes and Chronographs should come with psychological disclaimers". Firecracking is like death and taxes. You can cheat one but not all three. The challenge is to determine which one. If the barrel shoots well, hammer away and enjoy its life expectancy.
If any component has been changed, accuracy may change.
Have you opened a new box of bullets, different lot numder?
Adjust the powder charge and/or neck tension.
alf
Silver $$ Contributor
Have you adjusted seating depth from new?
DaveTooley
Gold $$ Contributor
I will not run my $200+ reamer in a barrel that has heat checking in it. I'll be more than happy to use your reamer though.
Just shoot it until the wheels fall off.
You can manage heat checking with the proper use of bore pastes.
Just shoot it until the wheels fall off.
You can manage heat checking with the proper use of bore pastes.
FWIW Joel, I had a real hummer of a barrel in my 1st 30BR years ago, and I got a borescope to help me learn to clean properly. I would check the bore, and particularly the lead, in the barrel occaisionally even after learning how it wanted to be cleaned. The dreaded firecracking began to appear along the way, but I just kept shooting that barrel and winning, even set a couple of world records with it after it had several thousand rounds on it. Then the firecracking got bad enough that tiny chunks of the lead started flaking out, but it kept on shooting well so I kept using it. Finally it got to the point of coppering too much to make it through an agg without cleaning at around 9,000 rounds, and cleaning required a good bit of effort compared to earlier times, so I parked it in the ole barrel cemetery, but it would still shoot winning aggs even at that point.
So, all that said just to agree with what several others are saying, just shoot it until results tell you that it is time to retire it. Don't let the borescope screw with your head, let the targets tell you what is going on. Your barrel doesn't have enough rounds on it that it should be anywhere near worn out yet.
So, all that said just to agree with what several others are saying, just shoot it until results tell you that it is time to retire it. Don't let the borescope screw with your head, let the targets tell you what is going on. Your barrel doesn't have enough rounds on it that it should be anywhere near worn out yet.
I use a borescope every time I clean a barrel, but even new barrels look like crap in a borescope. Fire cracking starts with the first round in a barrel and becomes pretty obvious after 50-100 rounds. I've never seen a used barrel without cracking. I don't even think about it as long as it shoots.
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