Should I Have Given Up

[CaptainMal]

...on my 6mmDasher?

Had it built on a dual-port Savage action. 18 lbs of pretty with a 12-42X BR Nightforce. Barrel was a 30" McGowan, .272 neck and 107 Sierra bullets.

489 documented rounds (including fire forming) later and I ordered another barrel. Best groups I could get @ 100 yds were in the .5's and at 565 yards... 3". That's the BEST. Some groups were up to 9" under good conditions at 565 yds.

Sure there were occasional .2's with 3 shots. Return to duplicate and it's .7's with the same load and seating depth. Man I tried it all for 8 months.

Should I have tried more or given up earlier?

 

[Frankr]

I dont know, i have done the same thing with a ppc benchrifle there was no reason it should not shoot,i tryed everything,thinking i might find a bullet it liked to trying out of the ordinary powders, set up different cases,lots of cases that weighed different and so on for 800 round and could never get it to shoot anything consistantly, my ability as a shooter was even in question. but i have deer rifles that would shoot better and a 6BR that shoots in a hole.so i gave up and sent it down the road.
But as i have gained knowlage and experience i would say the answer to you question is YES you should have gave up much sooner.
I feel with proper barrel break in, and 100 rounds down the tube if it wont shoot and you can not SEE a obvious reason, like bedding, scope or scope mounting.you are wasting your time.

 

[Dgd6mm]

CaptainMal, it may need a bullet change. That barrel may not shoot that bullet as well as others. Just trying to help.

 

[CaptainMal]

FJIM if I had to reply to someone else I would say the same things. Surely I questioned my ability both to shoot and to do precision loading.

That barrel broke in and cleaned perfectly at only 20 rds. At 100 rounds I had the "smith" check crown and action bedding again. All perfect.

DID try other bullets, but only briefly. A friend had some Dasher loaded for his gun and we tried some different bullets and loads in mine. Only with a borrowed "tuner" would it do anything.

Thanks for the ideas and support. It's hard to "pull the plug".

 

[RJinTexas]

A properly chambered custom barrel does not need to be broke in period. They're already hand lapped and if the smith did his job and there shouldn't be a lot of tooling marks to deal with. Even if your particular barrel doesn't like a std tried and proven load it should still be able to shot much better then .500 consistantly. Either something else is wrong or the barrels not up to par.

RJ

 

[placek59]

What twist was the barrel? Was it a prefit from mcgowen? I had heard of some bad chambers from McG about a year and a half ago or so... (no personal experience, I don't want to drag their name or reputation down. That is just what I read on a couple forums. They also made it right with the customer..) If that is the case you may be able to send it back to have them check it out. However, if you want to unload it, let me send me a pm.

 

[CaptainMal]

Barrel is a 1-8 twist 30". It was chambered with a Kiff .272" reamer by Eric Bostrom. He has done a few others. He told me he has not heard of anyone else having any issues. Barrel was made late last year, maybe October.

Not sure what the new barrel will be. I asked Eric to get me a Broughton, like he put on my 40X 22-250AI. Wonderful barrel. Also asked about Bartlein and others. Eric said they were ALL months to years backordered.

I did not object to another McGowen, Haven't heard from him in three weeks and really don't know what I'm getting.

I will only sell the old barrel if the buyer knows everything about it, no matter how cheap I let it go. There is a brake on which I will remove and use again.

 

[Steve Blair]

I have a McGowen .308 large shank barrel through which just over 1400 rounds have been fired. It shoots well but is a PITA to clean, copper fouling pretty badly. It was replaced with a slightly used .308 Shilen Select, purchased on this forum, and the problem vanished. The Shilen shoots better and cleans easily. I just don't enjoy cleaning enough to want more than is necessary. My borescope showed that the McGowen barrel was not lapped.

 

[CaptainMal]

Sleepy...

Mine cleaned up prefectly in very few rounds. I have talked with others who had the same experience AND their guns shot well.

Like women, they must be all different.

 

[Nomo4me]

Kind of mirrors my Savage experience - mystery flyers. I decided the platform wasn't worth truing and moved on to the higher end 700 clones with no regrets.

 

[Nomo4me]

One's man's dog is another mans treasure. Get off your high horse.

quote-''there are alot of used benchrest rifles on the market for a good reason.'' yeah because people like YOU sell your crap rifle down the line. that's why anybody with a little experience will only buy NEW. it's your headache, don't make it some one else's dogdude

 

[CaptainMal]

Krieger barrel coming. Called and found that out today.

Fingers crossed.

 

[lynn]

I wasn't going to reply but here goes.
If your a regular shooter who has been at this game for awhile and basicaly know what to expect and how to find your load the first thing to trty is a different bullet.
Once you have two bullets shooting poorly disassemble and re-assemble the gun so you didn't miss something silly.
Next would be a scope swap especially with erratic shots.
Next would be the bedding.
If all fail and that would have been before 250 rounds went downrange scrap the barrel.
If your buying a used gun total up all the parts excluding the barrel and deal over the price from there.
All used gun barrels even the ones with only aroun 100 rounds down them are usually only good for fireforming.
Lynn

 

[dogdude]

Sorry MR Hanson, it just read like you were happy to get ride of something that would not shoot. my apologies to you sir dogdude

 

[CaptainMal]

Love the comments Lynn. Did much of everything you suggested except make action bedding changes. Last thing I tried was more tension on the action screws. A 12-42 Nightforce BR replaced a 6-24 Bausch & Lomb.

Early on did not change bullets. Later tried some Berger and A-Max that another fellow had loaded for his gun. Same pattern.

Your last comment is interesting. "Good for fireforming"...Now I need another action.

 

[lynn]

It sounds like you checked everything and while its hard to do just use that barrel for firefoming your new cases.
Get a new barrel put on it and see if it shoots right away.If it doesn't you probaly have two new good barrels and a problem elsewhere that has been overlooked.
I use Sierra bullets in alot of my chamberings just to see how they will shoot.If I get a finnicky barrel I try them out as a sort of baseline approach to seeing what the gun is capable of.
Lynn