30 BR barrel

adamsgt

Jerry Adams
I had a local gunsmith chamber a barrel in 30BR for my HV gun. He isn't a Benchrest gunsmith but seems to have a pretty good reputation. He left the barrel too long but as I wasn't going to shoot it in registered matches I didn't complain. I was there when he did the barrel and I was surprised to see that he never used any indicators to set up the barrel on the lathe. He just grabbed it in an rubber Jacobs chuck in the headstock and used a steady rest on the other end. He swapped the ends of the barrel back and forth in some kind of process that I lost track of. I can pretty much shoot clean with it but seem to run out at 17 Xs or so. Didn't think about this too much until yesterday when I was measuring some of my 6 PPC brass in a case gauge and decide to do the same thing with the 30BR brass. Well the 30BR brass wouldn't drop all the way into the case gauge, fired or sized. I had some older 30BR brass from another gun that did drop right in to the gauge so I measured both cases at the .200 area at the base and found that the case that didn't fit was .003 larger than the other one. I'm guessing that this shows how you can "wallow" out the chamber by not being finicky about the set up. Should of given it to Larry Baggett to do.
 
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I had a local gunsmith chamber a barrel in 30BR for my HV gun. He isn't a Benchrest gunsmith but seems to have a pretty good reputation. He left the barrel too long but as I wasn't going to shoot it in registered matches I didn't complain. I was there when he did the barrel and I was surprised to see that he never used any indicators to set up the barrel on the lathe. He just grabbed it in an rubber Jacobs chuck in the headstock and used a steady rest on the other end. He swapped the ends of the barrel back and forth in some kind of process that I lost track of. I can pretty much shoot clean with it but seem to run out at 17 Xs or so. Didn't think about this too much until yesterday when I was measuring some of my 6 PPC brass in a case gauge and decide to do the same thing with the 30BR brass. Well the 30BR brass wouldn't drop all the way into the case gauge, fired or sized. I had some older 30BR brass from another gun that did drop right in to the gauge so I measured both cases at the .200 area at the base and found that the case that didn't fit was .003 larger than the other one. I'm guessing that this shows how you can "wallow" out the chamber by not being finicky about the set up. Should of given it to Larry Baggett to do.

If he left the barrel long, just cut the chamber off and treat it like a new blank.

Lesson learned.
 
ED Shilen

The late Ed Shilen, Of Shilen Rifles, one of the legends of Benchrest, once told me that a gunsmith can’t make a barrel shoot. but, “A Gunsmith sure as hell can make a barrel not shoot” his exact words. I’m pretty sure that Ed Shilen would not object to me sharing that tidbit of wisdom with the shooting community.


Glenn
 
If he left the barrel long, just cut the chamber off and treat it like a new blank.

Lesson learned.

That's what I plan to do. I guess my consternation is that I had never thought to do that kind of a check after having a barrel done. Lesson learned.
 
how does it group?

Almost good enough. It's the teaser that makes you think if you just keep trying different things that it's going to finally turn into a winner. I tried five different custom bullets, powders, seating depths, neck tension etc. etc. It shoots tens but circles around the dot and that don't hack it in the score game. I'm going to get it re-chambered and put a tuner on it.
 
The bad part is that the chamber is either out of round or oversized and that would be the determining factor for me. All one has to do is part off the tenon and re-chamber from there with the barrel PROPERLY indicated.
 
Almost good enough. It's the teaser that makes you think if you just keep trying different things that it's going to finally turn into a winner. I tried five different custom bullets, powders, seating depths, neck tension etc. etc. It shoots tens but circles around the dot and that don't hack it in the score game. I'm going to get it re-chambered and put a tuner on it.
You can NEVER BE HAPPY with "almost"....!

It don't shoot round dots over and over, it's not worth one more bullet.

Redo.

Whatever you do DO NOT let anyone tell you a tuner will "fix it"

opinionby





al
 
You can NEVER BE HAPPY with "almost"....!

It don't shoot round dots over and over, it's not worth one more bullet.

Redo.

Whatever you do DO NOT let anyone tell you a tuner will "fix it"

opinionby





al

Al, I agree that a tuner won't "fix" a barrel, but do you not think that a tuner can help to compensate for changes in environmental conditions?
 
Al, I agree that a tuner won't "fix" a barrel, but do you not think that a tuner can help to compensate for changes in environmental conditions?

I'm not a disbeliever...... TUNERS WORK!!....... I just mess up with them more than I ever get them to help, so far. I've lost two matches specifically because I pulled dumbass stunts with tuners and am now converting 9 barrels to a whole new design. ONE design, ONE thing to go wrong and this time the tuning apparati run right on the barrel threads so's I can just spin the stuff off and run nekkid if I cain't get rid of the stupiditis.
 
I'm not a disbeliever...... TUNERS WORK!!....... I just mess up with them more than I ever get them to help, so far. I've lost two matches specifically because I pulled dumbass stunts with tuners and am now converting 9 barrels to a whole new design. ONE design, ONE thing to go wrong and this time the tuning apparati run right on the barrel threads so's I can just spin the stuff off and run nekkid if I cain't get rid of the stupiditis.

Al, you should call me. I can't fix stupid but you are far from that.
 
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