Toasted Barrel at 750 Rounds

[1shot]

Frank,
There is nothing that needs said again for the umteenth time so look at the bright side. Because you have a borescope and took good pictures you now know that your bbl. isn't toast. Follow the good advice from here and keep us posted. I will leave you with a saying from a premier riflesmith.
"Borescopes are a barrel mfg. best friend".
I hope this helps,

Lloyd

 

[Ggmac]

My Savage 12 Benchrest in 6mm BR has died a premature death. When I bought this gun new back just before Xmas it was shooting all the standard 6 BR loads in the .1 to .25 range. I was thrilled. Told myself I lucked out and got a good production barrel. At about 550 rounds is started with the shoot two good groups and then throwing one shot out in the next group. Now at 750 it shoots all over the target. I have attached a couple photos. The first I took at 200 rounds when I received my Teslong. It looked rough compared to my Shilen 6.5X47 but it was shooting. The second photo I took last night after 750 down the tube. Looks like the inside of a galvanizedView attachment 1173963 View attachment 1173963 View attachment 1173966 pipe. Called James at NSS this afternoon and ordered a 28" Criterion bull. Already have a tracking number. Should be here in Utah early next week.

Never mind !

 

[jackson1]

Frank, thank you for your honestly regarding your barrel. To me it was a seed for a great discussion. Here's my 2 cents. Buy a new barrel, along with an action wrench and vise. At that point you will have a new barrel that is hopefully a hummer, but also an old barrel to apply many of the suggestions of the people here. That way you also have a rainy day project if you choose. Have pumped more life into barrels that I thought were shot out by the above cleaning methods. At the end of the day rifle barrels are perishable tooling, just like an end mill.

 

[Joe Salt]

Frank I don't abuse my Fire form barrel like that! Clean it like any match barrel you have it will keep shooting.

Joe Salt

 

[JSH]

Tuff crowd.
A factory barrel with chatter marks like that, and folks want to get on your case, I will be standing right next to you I guess. I don’t feel I abuse them but know what their average group size is.
I have a what some would say is a poor barrel. Clean it good and clean, it will average about 1”. Clean it but fouled in some minds, it will drop and stay at 1/2” most of the time, when it gets fouled around another 250 shot day it will shotgun.
Get your new quality barrel and cleaning will be a breeze and not so much a chore. A barrel as you describe shooting good groups for a short session and then a weeks worth of scrubbing takes all the fun out.

 

[ebb]

You can't listen to the nylon bore brush group around here and keep a factory barrel running. You cannot see bright metal in the grooves, you are seeing black with the borescope. This is carbon and there is copper under it. CLEAN IT and shoot it some more, a lot more.

 

[Joe Maisto]

Yep a proper cleaning and itll go right back to where it was. Its just getting broken in besides the lack of cleaning. You can get it back pretty fast if you own some bronze brushes, proper rods/guides, and some iosso and butchs. Wont take an hour even if you let it soak good

That is the exact same regimen I ( and others I know) would use .

 

[wkdickinson]

I agree that a new barrel is in order, but more because your current barrel requires so much cleaning and likely always will, even if you do get it back to shooting well. However, if it were me, I would have to get the current barrel totally clean - no matter what it took (I agree, I think JB is your only solution, and lots of Boretech Eliminator). Just to see if it truly was the fouling that was causing the accuracy problems. I could never just through it away without knowing for sure. But that's just the way my mind works.

 

[Old Navy]

that might be good enough on the cbi...

cbi?

 

[Nature Boy]

According to the OP the barrel in question shot in the 1’s and 2’s......with all the chatter marks and imperfections.

And now it’s junk...because of all the chatter marks and imperfections?

 

[jonbearman]

Try cleaning it once in a while with Iosso or JB Bore paste. I wouldn't be surprised if you have a carbon ring causing fits. That barrel isn't worn out, it looks like all savage barrels to me. Even with dings and dents in the rifling it should still shoot ok. Did you change anything recently like powder, primer, bullet etc ? Get it scrubbed up and take new photo's.

 

[jonbearman]

I am not anywhere in the league of you guys who do soooo much shooting, and you have so much more experience with the various different barrels after cleaning then I do. But, I have an old Hawkeye scope and own & fired enough custom barrels (and also factory barrels) to know that I don't like what the OP is showing and telling us. That barrel chatter is ugly as hell, and I have only seen half of that much noise inside of a cheap Marlin 22Mag and a DPMS Panther barrel. The both barrels fired accurate enough, and in fact the Marlin 22mag heavy stainless varmint barrel was shooting 5 shot .175 groups at 50 yards. (yea, I was reloading that 22Mag barrel with Sierra 45 Hornets with that glass bedded stock to get that accuracy) If I were the OP, I'd have been disgusted enough at this point already that I'd be happy to just divorce myself of that thing and start fresh with a new quality lathed barrel. Mr Blum, I can understand why you're ready to throw the towel in on this one. Do what makes you happy.

VaniB , they all look like that new and yet some shoot outstanding for what they are but the posters barrel is so carboned up it is no wonder why accuracy fell off. I use montana extreme with a bronze brush with no patch initially to get the bucket of crud out of the barrel and when it starts to look better I use Iosso ti really get her clean. Then back to montana to address any little amounts of hard copper smeared on the grooves. then brakleen to remove all cleaning solvent, patch it out and a tiny bit of oil to protect the barrel.

 

[chop house]

cbi?

your criterion that is on the way... criterion barrels inc

 

[eric32]

You guys are all tell this guys to put in hrs of work for a barrel that maybe or may not be accurate after all the work. And then he is supposed go thru a cleaning cycle that takes 1 hr or more every 50 rounds to keep it clean. SO over the life of the barrel is like 50 hrs of work for what? Is not you doing the work of scrubbing for hrs of on end. So yea you tell the guy to put more elbow grease on the barrel it will shoot.

WHY? its a shit barrel to start with its a shit barrel to end with. We pay for premium barrel due to the FACT that they clean up fast they are free of the chatter marks and railroad tracks the size of Kansas. And they will go long strings of rounds without a fouling so bad that it degrades accuracy.

On top of all of that I wager that any one of you would never take that barrel to a match that actually mattered

 

[Old Navy]

I am not anywhere in the league of you guys who do soooo much shooting, and you have so much more experience with the various different barrels after cleaning then I do. But, I have an old Hawkeye scope and own & fired enough custom barrels (and also factory barrels) to know that I don't like what the OP is showing and telling us. That barrel chatter is ugly as hell, and I have only seen half of that much noise inside of a cheap Marlin 22Mag and a DPMS Panther barrel. The both barrels fired accurate enough, and in fact the Marlin 22mag heavy stainless varmint barrel was shooting 5 shot .175 groups at 50 yards. (yea, I was reloading that 22Mag barrel with Sierra 45 Hornets with that glass bedded stock to get that accuracy) If I were the OP, I'd have been disgusted enough at this point already that I'd be happy to just divorce myself of that thing and start fresh with a new quality lathed barrel. Mr Blum, I can understand why you're ready to throw the towel in on this one. Do what makes you happy.

Thanks VaniB.

 

[Old Navy]

your criterion that is on the way... criterion barrels inc

Thanks!

 

[Old Navy]

Try cleaning it once in a while with Iosso or JB Bore paste. I wouldn't be surprised if you have a carbon ring causing fits. That barrel isn't worn out, it looks like all savage barrels to me. Even with dings and dents in the rifling it should still shoot ok. Did you change anything recently like powder, primer, bullet etc ? Get it scrubbed up and take new photo's.

Didn't change anything major. Neck tension, seating depth etc. What set me on the path to a new barrel was a similiar problem I had my another Model 12 barrel in 6.5X284. For the most part it shot good 600 and 1K groups. Every once in awhile it would through one out. Mostly high or low. After reading all the post on my 6BR I thought I might have jumped the gun too soon on it. Just scoped it out. Looked ten times better than the BR. I have a couple guys here interested in both barrels. If they clean them to the point where they shoot I will be happy for them.

 

[std7mag]

Offer to sell, still on the table.
Going once...
Going twice...

 

[msinc]

According to the OP the barrel in question shot in the 1’s and 2’s......with all the chatter marks and imperfections.

And now it’s junk...because of all the chatter marks and imperfections?

That aint all.....what absolutely amazes me about this entire thread is the fact that it has gone on for three pages of replies, many of which are from some of the greatest rifle/accuracy minds on the planet and not a single one has caught the fact that we have yet to see a photo of the most likely suspect problem spot in the whole barrel!!!!! The throat!!!!!!Especially after 750 rounds.
Amazing that it took the dumbest "freeloading" hillbilly on this forum to point this one out!!!!!!
Lets have a look at that throat and then someone {well, I don't know now...} maybe me?? can tell you if you need to clean it, set it back and try a rechamber or go with a new pipe.

Edit: second only to the throat would be the muzzle crown...lets have a borescope shot of that one too.....the last rifling to touch the bullet is pretty important.

 

[Clancy]

I can’t even stand the sight of a savage, but I can’t believe this barrel is getting removed if it truly shot .1 to .25 such a short time ago.

I guess cleaning is too much for some. I can’t see anything in these images that would make me believe that barrel is on its way out.