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Custom Barrel Care at 17X By Jim See
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<blockquote data-quote="TexasHunter" data-source="post: 415194" data-attributes="member: 26082"><p>Jim,</p><p></p><p>You are a courageous guy to wade into this particularly hot topic. Enjoyed meeting you at the VHA Jam last month. My own experience aligns very closely with yours. What my borescope has shown me is that the throat/leade (also known as the freebore) area on top of the lands cut by the reamer is far rougher than the freshly lapped top of the lands. Whats begins happening immediately after the first round is the smoothing out of this rough area of the throat. This is I think is the major source of initial fouling. And as you have accurately pointed out, the fouling trends down fairly rapidly during the break-in (3-5 rounds). How many rounds it takes is very dependent on the particular barrel even from the same maker. However, I have definitely noticed that button rifled barrels break in more quickly than cut rifled barrels, I think because they are more lapped by necessity than the average cut rifled barrel, which leads me to believe that the break-in is also smoothing out the rest of the barrel steel itself. (Note - I am not making a statement of preference for buttoned barrels, just referencing what happens during break in. What happens in a particular type of barrel as it heats, cools and recovers during extended shooting is another subject). At some point, the finish on top of the lands in the throat/leade begins to match the finish on the lands further forward and the barrel settles down to shooting consistently and fouling much less. </p><p></p><p>On the related issue of maintenance cleaning (post break-in), I learned something back in the 90s from my first long range tactical shooting instructor. It has to do with the concept of the cold bore shot. As has been stated a number of times in the other responses, competitors always shoot one to several foulers to "settle down" the tube prior to competing. The tactical military / LE shooter doesn't always have the same luxury. So they go to great lengths to monitor and document their particular rifle's unique clean/cold bore behavior. It is usually very consistent assuming they follow a disciplined repeatable cleaning protocol. What my instructor taught me was to develop a highly specific cleaning procedure at specific shot number intervals. For instance, 5 wet patches, 5 round trip strokes of a wet bronze brush, 5 wet patches then 5 dry patches after every 20 to 50 rounds. Each gun/barrel will respond differently to different numbers of the above. What his point was and what I've discovered is that once a specific procedure is determined for a given gun, the clean/cold bore shot will stay either in the group or very much closer to the group and is very repeatable. The reason for all this lies in the fact that you are never actually cleaning completely down to bare "copperless" steel. And since the primary point of this website is hunting and not competing, I think this concept might be quite useful for us long range hunters that can only really depend on the first cold bore shot going where we want it to go.</p><p></p><p>Best Regards</p><p>Dale Troutt</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="TexasHunter, post: 415194, member: 26082"] Jim, You are a courageous guy to wade into this particularly hot topic. Enjoyed meeting you at the VHA Jam last month. My own experience aligns very closely with yours. What my borescope has shown me is that the throat/leade (also known as the freebore) area on top of the lands cut by the reamer is far rougher than the freshly lapped top of the lands. Whats begins happening immediately after the first round is the smoothing out of this rough area of the throat. This is I think is the major source of initial fouling. And as you have accurately pointed out, the fouling trends down fairly rapidly during the break-in (3-5 rounds). How many rounds it takes is very dependent on the particular barrel even from the same maker. However, I have definitely noticed that button rifled barrels break in more quickly than cut rifled barrels, I think because they are more lapped by necessity than the average cut rifled barrel, which leads me to believe that the break-in is also smoothing out the rest of the barrel steel itself. (Note - I am not making a statement of preference for buttoned barrels, just referencing what happens during break in. What happens in a particular type of barrel as it heats, cools and recovers during extended shooting is another subject). At some point, the finish on top of the lands in the throat/leade begins to match the finish on the lands further forward and the barrel settles down to shooting consistently and fouling much less. On the related issue of maintenance cleaning (post break-in), I learned something back in the 90s from my first long range tactical shooting instructor. It has to do with the concept of the cold bore shot. As has been stated a number of times in the other responses, competitors always shoot one to several foulers to "settle down" the tube prior to competing. The tactical military / LE shooter doesn't always have the same luxury. So they go to great lengths to monitor and document their particular rifle's unique clean/cold bore behavior. It is usually very consistent assuming they follow a disciplined repeatable cleaning protocol. What my instructor taught me was to develop a highly specific cleaning procedure at specific shot number intervals. For instance, 5 wet patches, 5 round trip strokes of a wet bronze brush, 5 wet patches then 5 dry patches after every 20 to 50 rounds. Each gun/barrel will respond differently to different numbers of the above. What his point was and what I've discovered is that once a specific procedure is determined for a given gun, the clean/cold bore shot will stay either in the group or very much closer to the group and is very repeatable. The reason for all this lies in the fact that you are never actually cleaning completely down to bare "copperless" steel. And since the primary point of this website is hunting and not competing, I think this concept might be quite useful for us long range hunters that can only really depend on the first cold bore shot going where we want it to go. Best Regards Dale Troutt [/QUOTE]
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