Barrel break in

[Trent]

I'm still shooting 7mm... and 6.5. I'm not loyal at all.

[lone ringer]

I'm still shooting 7mm... and 6.5. I'm not loyal at all.

There you are no problem with McAlice's rifles then. You could also do like the late famous British shooter Malcolm Cooper used to do, he had a rifle set up to use older not so accurate barrels for practice and would switch to his good newer barrels for shooting competition.

[Snake]

MCAlice...when you're in town have valenti show you his 7 BR barrel...it went over 25k and still shot within 3" at the swine. we sectioned the breech end and the free bore was over 2"...Best I ever got was 6000-6200 from a Lilja ...mostly cause i was superstitious about changing anything. It was really sad toward the end So far the 3 groove Pac-Nors have been very good...very little if any run-out and nicely lapped.I still dampen a clean barrel with a mix of marine oil and naphtha...I just don't like shooting a dry bore..then the residue from most powder is at least a little lubrication....of course the chamber stays dry. I'm thinking that a Bartlein or other cut rifling barrel will be next. What is your preference Mr Bob?

[Bob Mc Alice]

Snake, I can not afford those boutique barrels every one craves so much. I use the Douglas premium XX stainless barrels that cost about $200.00 less. Delivery has been less than two weeks from placing the order on the ones I bought. I get them in their FTC condition and final fit them myself. They are button rifled and all of mine very good shooters. http://www.douglasbarrels.net/

[boats]

Am putting in a order for my 8th Douglas barrel. Not the one you read about on the Net probably won more matches than anything else. Building them longer more of them and deliver in a few weeks. Botuque barrels are fine if you don't mind waiting. Afraid I have no patience for delay

Something to button rifling too. It's consistent and smooth.

Boats

[Snake]

McAlice---Pac-Nor is hardly boutique ...a match grade stainless is $290 and a super match grade is $310. They're button rifled and properly stress relieved...the longest i waited was 8 weeks and that was in the middle of the season. O'Malley and i even bought our own button to assure a nice bore. Their lapping like Broughton Barrels is excellent...like Broughton. Douglas and E.R. Shaw are old names and good makers....his 3 groove stuff is superb

[Bob Mc Alice]

Snake, that $290.- $310. price is for a contoured SS blank. Add $125. if you want it in the "do it your self " (pre-fit) FTC condition, 18 weeks delivery. More $$$ for Shilen. For $350. you get the same quality SS barrel in the FTC condition from Douglas in under three weeks.

http://www.shilen.com/
http://www.pac-nor.com/

Has anyone here bought from this company? http://spencerriflebarrels.com/

[Snake]

Oh Bob....maybe douglas has changed...they used to be rough as a cob, poorly lapped and had awful run outs. Shilen WAS great until the old man departed...they're hit or miss. By a damn reamer and Kloeppel at our club will chamber etc reasonably ...about the 125 for your FTC....and it'll will be with your reamer...no wear

[Bob Mc Alice]

Snake, I assure you after 40 years as a machinist I am fully capable of chambering my own barrels. Tell Jerry I said hi anyway. Why keep an expensive rough and finish reamer around for such infrequent use ? I just call 1-800-send me an FTC match barrel in 7-08, please. They grind their own reamers in house and based on how well my five shoot, they know what they are doing at Douglas. You get a top quality barrel delivered fast. I spend another hour doing the final fitting, then off to the range to enjoy my fine shooting new toy... for cheap money....no break in needed. I have no experience with other custom barrels, just Douglas.

A few more erosion pictures from a Ruger 7x57 carbon barrel that washed out at 4800 rounds.









...and these are from a stock Remington carbon .243 Win. barrel that was a 1/2 MOA shooter right out of the box. It went to a 2 MOA shooter in as few as 1015 shots. I have a M70 .243 barrel (not cut open) that went 2200 shots before giving up the ghost. It shows less erosion than the Remington barrel.

[Snake]

Sorry ...didn't mean to suggest that you were incapable of chambering yourself...Jerry likes it....and he indexes off bore rods ( a real tedious technique)....besides you only need a finish reamer ($168-180) ...the resize is unnecessary if you go slow and flood out the chips. But a reamer that's got a few cuts trumps one that has an unknown amount of wear. nevertheless...I like your approach...it works.
With regard to high mileage barrels...if the last two or so inches stay tight and true they shoot even with washed out throats...I think a Cerrosafe cast at the muzzle ends might be revealing......a careful lapping is probably the key..(looser at the breech tapering to a tighter muzzle)

[Absolutlee]

Thank you all for your opinions. I didn't realize I would be starting a fued. I think I will "break in" my barrel as i work up a load. But I really do appreciate your input. Thanks again.

[Dee]

Yep Absolutlee you hit the topic of much varied opinion. Not that there aren't plenty of them to choose from

In the end when people ask these sorts of questions this is the outcome and usually the original poster is left wondering more about the question they had than before they even asked.

As I have said earlier it may or may not have much affect on accuracy but then what are you shooting for, to shrink a BR group another .1" or to shoot a piece of steel. For steel if would matter the least of course and for BR who the hell really knows.

When you see these BR guys buying 6 barrels at a time and then selecting the best one to use for competition it makes you wonder if they used the same superanaloverthetop break in process for each barrel identically and if so why is one better than the others by any real measurable margin? Can't be due to the break in process since they were all done the same way. Which leads us to believe one barrel was inherently better all along for some unknown reason that can't be explained. Being that as it may odds are IMO that this barrel is just a better barrel and not by virtue of the break in process. Then you get into the whole which ammo and load shoots best in which individual barrel.

It is all witch craft from the gun industry so you buy more shit. If you can hit what you are aiming at in Silhouette, your just fine.


Dee

[Snake]

While I've never been a fan of the slow break-in procedure...I break every barrel in just as i fireform my brass to that new barrel. Good barrels cost good money and I'll spend a little time getting them 'broke-in' ...hell I even break in my boots. As for the Bench rest boys...they manage to shoot 5 shot groups in .1's.....this last saturday at a 600 yard BR match...in 20mph gusts...I saw a .9 group at 600 from a 6mm XBR......so i give those guys some credit...not a whole lot..but credit nevertheless

[RBriscoe]

While I've never been a fan of the slow break-in procedure...I break every barrel in just as i fireform my brass to that new barrel. Good barrels cost good money and I'll spend a little time getting them 'broke-in' ...hell I even break in my boots. As for the Bench rest boys...they manage to shoot 5 shot groups in .1's.....this last saturday at a 600 yard BR match...in 20mph gusts...I saw a .9 group at 600 from a 6mm XBR......so i give those guys some credit...not a whole lot..but credit nevertheless

Bob,

The few BR people I still know consider anything over about 5-10 rounds of break in to be a waste of good barrel life, but then they probably will relegate a barrel to practice or fire forming or something if it isn't a clean shooter.

For our game, the biggest problem to be overcome with brass is the under SAAMI minimum headspace on most brass these days. The simple solution is to forget SAAMI and their so-called "standards". If it's a target rifle, you don't need to be concerned about buying a box of ammo at the general store in some place most people have never heard of and not having it chamber. If you have the headspace on your barrel set to whatever brass you are using rather than with a headspace gauge, you really don't need to do much in the way of fire forming except, perhaps for your ram loads, to get an extra little bit of powder in.

Chat with your 'smith about it. It can save hard to get components as well as barrel life by not fire forming brass.

Rick

[Snake]

Rick....my reamers are made for various brass and headspace is done with fired cases from the previous barrel cut with that reamer. Always fireform....it eliminates the need for 'shoulder bumps' later