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When to not waste time with a barrel

Ive got a barrel that Im back and forth on replacing. I got a heck of a deal on a savage lrp 6.5 creedmoor that I was intending to rebarrel to a 22-250. I figured it cant hurt to shoot it as is right? After finding a load pretty fast I cleaned it as best as I can. Well with a squeaky clean bore this thing will print a 2" group and then after the 5th shot it will shoot in the 1's and 2's for the next 40 rounds or so ( maybe more?) Ive never seen a barrel go from terrible to excellent like that. Ive had plenty that will need a fouler or two but with a proven load its never been so extreme. What causes that?
 
Savages are pretty well known for needing to have a little copper in the barrel to fill in the rail road tracks before they shoot well.

Suggest you clean to remove fouling, but not copper for a while, until accuracy falls off, then remove SOME of the copper.

Looks like you got a hummer.....what's not to like?
 
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If it were mine - I would polish the bore with a very fine diamond paste. I have bought back a few "gunshop" barrels this way, including a fairly shocking Remington 26in. that took hours to clean.

Use the paste sparingly on a cleaning jag, lubricate with kerosene and clean out aftwerward with WD40 or degreaser. Re-oil lightly as per normal cleaning. I have always had good luck with Savage barrels and have a Model 10 in 223 that embarrasses some custom owners. out to 600.

Best of luck
 
If you do not have compete confidence in it, then you're wasting your time.

My first deer rifle was just as you describe. A late 60's Mossberg bolt action in .308Win. I screwed around with it for years before I realized that it was causing me to question every shot.

Down the road it went. I don't miss it one bit.
 
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This is VERY normal with factory barrels... I had a Savage 308win barrel that needed at least 20+ shots before it shot to my satisfaction. After the 20+ shots, it didn't need a cleaning for 300+ rounds.
Agree with, Zero, foul it and shoot the "Chit" outta it ! Keep track of the # of rounds fired, then clean at 250-300 rounds ! That's what, I do, too !
I clean all NEW, Fact Barrel's, with JB's, slathered on a Patch over, a tight fitting, Bronze Brush about, 20-25 strokes then clean, oil lightly, dry, foul w/ 2-3 shots, shoot, til' real dirty, works,.. great ! My Bores shine like Chrome after using CR-10 and removing the Copper. I noticed/ read that, George Gardner, cleaned his .243's every 300 rounds or so, too !
 
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I have an old Rem 700 in 243 Win that I have shot a lot, over 3500 rounds. This rifle stills groups about 1 1/2 inches + or -. The barrel exhibits heavy bluing when cleaning with Bore Tech Cu+2. I suspect that over the years of using Shooter's Choice I wasn't getting the copper out so I probably have some heavy build up.

I was about to have the rifle rebarreled when I decided to try an aggressive Cu+2 cleaning regime. First I ran about 20 patches of JB through the bore then removed it with Hoppe's 9. I then ran 25 patches of Cu+2 through the bore with dwell times of 30 to 60 minutes for each application. Finally the patches started showing very light blue.

Went to the range and shot a couple of groups that average about 3/4". That won't win any competitions but for hunting it's good enough for me. Actually the 1 1/2" groups was just fine for deer hunting but like a lot of us, I too like those smaller groups.;)
 
I had an Anschutz .22 LR that was a screamer once 3-4 shots when down a freshly cleaned barrel. But those first few shots printed shotgun patterns. They’re called fouling shots and even benchrest rifles need ‘em.

Any factory barrel that shoots in the twos is definitely a keeper.
 
Ive got a barrel that Im back and forth on replacing. I got a heck of a deal on a savage lrp 6.5 creedmoor that I was intending to rebarrel to a 22-250. I figured it cant hurt to shoot it as is right? After finding a load pretty fast I cleaned it as best as I can. Well with a squeaky clean bore this thing will print a 2" group and then after the 5th shot it will shoot in the 1's and 2's for the next 40 rounds or so ( maybe more?) Ive never seen a barrel go from terrible to excellent like that. Ive had plenty that will need a fouler or two but with a proven load its never been so extreme. What causes that?
Common. Let these other guys lead you where they've been. Lots of knowledge here.
 
If it were mine - I would polish the bore with a very fine diamond paste. I have bought back a few "gunshop" barrels this way, including a fairly shocking Remington 26in. that took hours to clean.

Use the paste sparingly on a cleaning jag, lubricate with kerosene and clean out aftwerward with WD40 or degreaser. Re-oil lightly as per normal cleaning. I have always had good luck with Savage barrels and have a Model 10 in 223 that embarrasses some custom owners. out to 600.

Best of luck
NZ, the VFG felts make this even easier.
 
Only 5 rounds to bring it back into the .1's and .2's? Easy solution - load 45 rounds. When 40 of those are gone, clean it again and use the last 5 rounds to dirty it up. I have a 25-06 that I ran a cleaning test on last spring. To get it down to bare metal trying all sorts of different cleaners. When the 'scope showed no copper or fouling, I took it to the range. That rifle took 28 rounds to get back to where it had been shooting before.
It will hold sub-1" groups for the next 100 or so rounds.
I'll guarantee I won't clean it down to the bare metal again.
 
I shot one yesterday that took 18 rounds to bring it back to it's 5 shot group accuracy at 100 yards and further. Fairly new barrel first time I cleaned it completely down.
 

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