OK..SO...I may have lied!!

[4xforfun]

Ever since I baught my first true custom action, I swore I would never buy a factory rifle ever again. I may have lied!!

Over the years I have been doing custom loading for friends of mine. Sometimes they wanted me to break in the BBL and tweak em like they were my own for accuracy. Every factory tube I have ever broken in was a HUGE job, taking many shots. Usualy 10 single fire and clean followed by at least five 4 shot groups.....a fouler and a three shot group, cleaning between each group, followed by 10 shots and clean for a few cycles. Lots of patches, brushes, IASSO, Butches, Sweets, bolt grease...ect...... After I was satisfied that it was as good as it was going to get, it was still a small PITA to clean them.

The last 5 custom tubes I have done only took 3 shots total each, and after it only took four or five wet patches to clean them...no brushing...no Sweets.....maybe an IASSO treatment every 200 rounds after that for carbon.

Well, a friend of mine brought me a 204 ruger Rem 700 BDL (blued) with a brown laminated stock and a REM varment countour bbl. He won the gun and put a 4.5 - 14 Leupold scope on it. He wanted me to float the BBL, break it in, zero it using factory Hornady ammo.

Long story short.......3 round down the tube and it is done. Some elbow grease to start, but after the third shot I only ran 5 wet patches of Butches and let sit. I folowed with some Sweets and let sit.....patches came out WHITE. I was skeptical. Since I nomaly shoot heavy, long range bullets, I figured that it was simply a case of the little bullets didn't have enough of a bearing surface to copper it up, so i fired a quick 5 shots and cleaned. 5 wet patches and it was CLEAN!!!

I have no idea if it is a shooter...it was fired in my basement for the break in, but I am VERY tempted to make him an offer he can't refuse. I realy don't have a "small" gun. The smallest thing I have is a 6- 6.5-47L shooting 108's ...kind of my LR plinker. I think this 204 would be a hoot to shoot SR to mid range at....well....stuff!!

For those of you who actually believe in this whole break in thing and have done some factory bbls....have you ever seen one like this? I don't know, maybe factory tubes are getting better!!

 

[FryeGuy]

I have a Rem compact tactical that is this way. it just doesn't copper foul. I didn't do any sort of break in at all on it. It was used when I bought it. It would have passed for brand new had it not been for the rings on it. The store owner knew the guy that traded it in. He purchased the gun from them when new. I was told he didn't have it any time at all before bringing it back in for something else he just had to have more. At trade in he told them he didn't even shoot a whole box of ammo thru it, there was still 12rds of box he bought with gun left. so if all that stuff is true, and who really knows, there probably wasn't any "break-in". needless to say I just sighted it in, played with loads a bit. figured I would get around to cleaning it eventually. At first I thought the cleaner I had was junk, so I ran some of the pro-shot stuff thru it that turns blue right away. nothing. I shot it some more just to see, just like you. brought it home just to clean it to see if I was nuts. nothing. it also shoots lights out too. glad the first owner didn't shoot it much! every time I think about selling it, I take it out and shoot it. then put it back where it belongs.

 

[Nodak7mm]

I have no idea if it is a shooter...it was fired in my basement for the break in, but I am VERY tempted to make him an offer he can't refuse. I realy don't have a "small" gun.

I have never been lucky to have a factory tube not be horrible as compared to custom, hand lapped barrels... But I am more interested in your basement rifle range...... ;D

Rod

 

[ShootDots]

Several years ago, when they came out with the Rem. 700 LTR (Light tactical Rifle)>>It took ZERO rounds to break in! I took it to the range believing the "break-in period" would be an all day affair! Well much to my surprise, that rifle NEVER coppered up, never took but a few patches to get the carbon fouling out>>EVEN with RL-15 which is one of your dirtier powders! Not only that but I still remember the load>>>Winter 40.3grs of RL-15 / 185 Berger VLD set to 3K off the lands and Br-2's>>>> Summer load was the same except it liked 39.7gr RL-15.. That rifle shot consistently under 1/2" @ 200 yards! It also got WELL over 3K of barrel life!>>>>It now sits in a "Low-Boy" stock and is now a 6-6.5 x 47Lapua.. Awesome factory rifle>>>>The BEST factory rifle I had ever owned>>and I have owned PLENTY!..

 

[4xforfun]

Just did a little research on the gun...Rem 700 VLS...204 Ruger...Somewhere between 800 and 900 bucks new.

 

[jonbearman]

I have a 7-08 barrel made by salvage as everyone refers to them lately.I bought it for 45.00 unfired and had an extra high gloss receiver so I decided to clean the barrel thouroughly before installing it.I brushed with hoppe's and then dried it out and went at it with iosso and the amount of filings of metal and grunge that came out of it was unreal,I almost said the heck with it,but put it on anyways and bolted it into a choate ultra varminter stock.It took 3 rounds to rough it in on target.After recleaning it I fired a fouler and then shot a 4 shot group(only had a few or so left) and with a 12 power couldn't really make out what I just did.My spotter used an expletive and said you suck.I walked down to the target and was pleasantly surprised to see all 4 shot's went through almost 1 ragged hole.I bought a new Boyd's thumbhole and pillar bedded it and put it all together and fired it last week.It still shoots,well under about 5/8ths of an inch with no load work up.I also have 3 Remington VS models and they all shoot unbelievable. So some factory rifles really deserve a second look.Last year we picked up an sps remmy in .223 with the varmint barrel,same story,with fiocchi 40 grain vmax type loads shoot well under a 1/2 inch at a hundred yards.Who would believe this except those of us who just keep trying with factory supposedly junk.LOL

 

[Hammerhead]

It was probably around 8 years ago my wife bought me a Remington 204 ruger with a laminate thumbhole stock and varmint barrel. Receiver and barrel are stainless. I too had the same luck with no fouling. I had put lots of rounds through it on a day at the range before cleaning and had very little to clean. It shoots very, very well. I shoot 39gr Sierra bullets out of it and have used H4895, Blc2, and Tac. All shot really good. My friends don't believe me that it is a factory gun when I show them the groups I can shoot with it. It is a very fun gun to shoot.

Tim

 

[4xforfun]

Well, took it out today to get on paper at 100. Not very good....1 1/2 MOA three shot groups.

Now, to be fair, I am shooting his factory Hornady 40 Gr Vmax's off of a bi-pod off of the hood of my truck with the 5lb+ trigger. But still .... 1 1/2 moa??? I also fully floated the BBL...the contact points between stock and bbl were all over the place before I started.....now....no possability of contact....EVER!!

Maybe just pick up a 20 cal tube and chamber for a 20 BR and shoot off of one of my existing platforms would be a cheaper and more accurate way to go. That way I can save face and not buy another factory POS. ;D

 

[CatShooter]

Well, took it out today to get on paper at 100. Not very good....1 1/2 MOA three shot groups.

Now, to be fair, I am shooting his factory Hornady 40 Gr Vmax's off of a bi-pod off of the hood of my truck with the 5lb+ trigger. But still .... 1 1/2 moa??? I also fully floated the BBL...the contact points between stock and bbl were all over the place before I started.....now....no possability of contact....EVER!!

Maybe just pick up a 20 cal tube and chamber for a 20 BR and shoot off of one of my existing platforms would be a cheaper and more accurate way to go. That way I can save face and not buy another factory POS. ;D

Anyone that spent much time with factory 20 cals will tell you...

THAT'S THE WRONG BULLET!!

Th 40gr V-Max is one of the best 20 cal bullets made, but it needs a faster twist than the 12" that is factory standard for the 204 Ruger.

I went through three XR-100s in 204 before I had a looong talk with Hornady, and they said that the 40gr V-Max is marginal at best, in a 12" twist, and really needs a 11" or faster twist.

So I rebarreled my last XR-100 with a 1:10" Kreiger.

Try the 39gr Sierra or any of the lighter bullets, or Berger hollow points that are shorter than the 40gr V-Max.

 

[gotcha]

Listen to CatShooter. My experience w/ .204 agrees w/ his. If you wanna make a tomato stake out of bbl. call me 1st