Beartooth Bullets

[Bluedog]

My buddy has a rifle that has only had 125 or so rounds down the barrel. It is a .204 ruger, Remington heavy barreled varminter. The problem he is having is heavy copper fouling towards the end of the barrel. It builds up very rapidly...telling me that there are some imperfections in the rifling surface...not the whole problem, but definately part of it. Anyhow, I suggested he try firelapping his barrel to smooth things out on the rifling lands....problem is that they dont make beartooth bullets in 20 cal yet. Any suggestions on how to lap, or hand lap a barrel or is this gunsmith territory? Thanks

[Fiftydriver]

Problem with firelapping is that it generally is most effective smoothing up the first 5 to 6" of the bore, not the entire barrel.

TO be honest I would do the following:

Get the heaviest 204 bullet you could get that was reasonably priced and load up a good medium to upper level load.

Clean the barrel to bare steel and shoot two rounds, clean the barrel totally again and repeat with another two rounds. I would do this until the muzzle did not foul with copper on two rounds and then I would switch to three rounds and cleaning, three rounds and clean.

Basically breaking the barrel in. I would do this until the rifle tells me it is smoothed up by the amount of fouling you are seeing at the muzzle.

If it does not smooth up after 50 rounds or so in this manor, I would seriously consider either contacting the factory for a replacement or better yet, save up for a custom pipe and have the rifle properly fitted with a new match grade barrel.

Some factory barrels chambered for rounds of this intensity simply do not polish up well.

One hint, after cleaning, get some high quality sulphur bases cutting oil and run a soaked patch back and forth in the bore for a few passes. Then take a dry patch and run it down the barrel pushing the excess oil out.

THis will leave a slight film of cutting oil on the steel and when you fire it it seems to help increase the smoothing action of the break in process.

Good Shooting!!

Kirby Allen(50)

[Bluedog]

He called Remington yesterday and told them about the problem and they sent him a postage paid label to return it to the factory and they are going to take care of the problem. Hopefully they are quick about it, as groundhog season is right around the corner!