F
frwillia
Guest
Through the generosity of a local gunsmith I had a chance to use a Hawkeye borescope and inspect the barrels of my two problem rifles.
First the Savage model 10 in .243Win. Since new it's had a "hard place" when pushing a patch through the bore. It never grouped less than about 1.25 inches which I considered not good enough. It was a learning rifle for me. I tried all sorts of loads trying to get it to shoot. Some loads shot better than others, but nothing shot as well as my friends identical twin rifle. So it seemed like a good time to do some looking.
Long story short, the barrel looks awful. In that reigon of the barrel it has big chatter marks, they look like shiny file teeth with no flat between them at all. Near the middle of that spot the chatter marks in the groove are the same size.
The throat looks pretty bad for a rifle that has had 500 rounds thorugh it. There are grooves and chatters in the throat as well.
There is no "save" to this barrel.
Don't get all over me for what I'm about to write, I don't think this is a good idea with anything but a throwaway barrel. Just for fun I may get some of those Tubb final finishing fire-lapping bullets and give this bore the "treatment". I've not nothing to loose but the cost of the bullets, poweder and primers. If it shoots better, that will be good. If it doesn't, lesson learned. This barrel is going to get replaced, but it will get replaced sooner if the fire-lapping doesn't help much. This rifle is a sporter. I figure it ought to shoot 3/8" 3 shot groups all day.
The .22-250 barrel is the 9" twist .22-250 from my LRPV. It has everybig of 2500 rounds through it, maybe more. It's been fired with a few hot light bullet loads - maybe 50 rounds, the rest has been with a fairely stiff load pushing 75g BTHP bullets to 3,300 fps.
It has a ding in the crown which I'll fix.
The throat looks like it is into erosion. It has fish scale pattern showing thermal stress, and well rounded lands.
The rest of the barrel looks sort of OK.
Edited to add: I think, since it is a Savage, I'll try setting it back 3 turns, clean up the chamber and recrown it. Will it work? I don't know. Seems worth a try - the rifle is pretty much worthless for what I'd planned for it the way it is. The worst that can happen is that I put a new barrel on it, which I plan to do anyway. I'll get some experience out of this.
I found that borescope to be a fantastic tool. It's the Hawkeye Delux model that has variable focusing. Really well made, just the right stuff in the box, easy to use, crystal clear image. Took me maybe 2 minutes to get the hang of using it.
I also learned that my barrels are squeaky clean. I couldn't see a spec of carbon or copper anyplace.
Fitch
First the Savage model 10 in .243Win. Since new it's had a "hard place" when pushing a patch through the bore. It never grouped less than about 1.25 inches which I considered not good enough. It was a learning rifle for me. I tried all sorts of loads trying to get it to shoot. Some loads shot better than others, but nothing shot as well as my friends identical twin rifle. So it seemed like a good time to do some looking.
Long story short, the barrel looks awful. In that reigon of the barrel it has big chatter marks, they look like shiny file teeth with no flat between them at all. Near the middle of that spot the chatter marks in the groove are the same size.
The throat looks pretty bad for a rifle that has had 500 rounds thorugh it. There are grooves and chatters in the throat as well.
There is no "save" to this barrel.
Don't get all over me for what I'm about to write, I don't think this is a good idea with anything but a throwaway barrel. Just for fun I may get some of those Tubb final finishing fire-lapping bullets and give this bore the "treatment". I've not nothing to loose but the cost of the bullets, poweder and primers. If it shoots better, that will be good. If it doesn't, lesson learned. This barrel is going to get replaced, but it will get replaced sooner if the fire-lapping doesn't help much. This rifle is a sporter. I figure it ought to shoot 3/8" 3 shot groups all day.
The .22-250 barrel is the 9" twist .22-250 from my LRPV. It has everybig of 2500 rounds through it, maybe more. It's been fired with a few hot light bullet loads - maybe 50 rounds, the rest has been with a fairely stiff load pushing 75g BTHP bullets to 3,300 fps.
It has a ding in the crown which I'll fix.
The throat looks like it is into erosion. It has fish scale pattern showing thermal stress, and well rounded lands.
The rest of the barrel looks sort of OK.
Edited to add: I think, since it is a Savage, I'll try setting it back 3 turns, clean up the chamber and recrown it. Will it work? I don't know. Seems worth a try - the rifle is pretty much worthless for what I'd planned for it the way it is. The worst that can happen is that I put a new barrel on it, which I plan to do anyway. I'll get some experience out of this.
I found that borescope to be a fantastic tool. It's the Hawkeye Delux model that has variable focusing. Really well made, just the right stuff in the box, easy to use, crystal clear image. Took me maybe 2 minutes to get the hang of using it.
I also learned that my barrels are squeaky clean. I couldn't see a spec of carbon or copper anyplace.
Fitch
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I'd hope one would get at least 1,000 rounds of barrel life from such a rifle.