Barrel Lapping Compounds

J E Custom

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 29, 2004
Messages
10,718
Location
Texas
What lapping compound do all you guys use (Brand,Material,
Grit, Etc)

Also if there is a preference for stainless or crome moly

I have saved a few factory barrels by lapping and figured
that there may be better compounds than I use.

Have tried final finish but it only worked on the throat
area.

Any suggestions would be appreciated /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif
J E CUSTOM
 
I used a Neco kit a few years ago.It produced a very smooth barrel but it had no throat left!!! There instructions were not specific as to bullet preperation.In the back of the instruction book I found the answer under FAQ'S.YOU must wipe off all excess grit.The Tubbs kit seems to be the best either the final finish or the throat maitnence.
 
I have tried Iosso but still prefer JB on both factory chrome moly and my custom SS barrels.
 
I doubt you will get anyone to fess up about using actual lapping compounds in a factory barrel. If you did enough lapping to get them smooth you would have to take an inch out of the throat area, muzzle area and have a horrible piece left in the middle that is probably over sized. I would classify the neco/tubb/JB sort of treatment as more of a polishing than lapping and still damaging at least. The lapping that is done to a a custom barrel is just not possible on a factory, pre-chambered barrel. It may be possible to get a 3" barrel to shape up a little but to actually get a decent barrel to shoot better I doubt your odds are very good. I will probably catch some flack for this but I have never seen anyone actually pull off lapping a factory barrel. just my .0000002 cents
 
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I doubt you will get anyone to fess up about using actual lapping compounds in a factory barrel. If you did enough lapping to get them smooth you would have to take an inch out of the throat area, muzzle area and have a horrible piece left in the middle that is probably over sized. I would classify the neco/tubb/JB sort of treatment as more of a polishing than lapping and still damaging at least. The lapping that is done to a a custom barrel is just not possible on a factory, pre-chambered barrel. It may be possible to get a 3" barrel to shape up a little but to actually get a decent barrel to shoot better I doubt your odds are very good. I will probably catch some flack for this but I have never seen anyone actually pull off lapping a factory barrel. just my .0000002 cents

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Lazylabs
I think that laping should be used only as a last resort
and knowing that it could shorten the barrels life by 2 or 300 rds should be considered.

And also if done wrong could ruin the barrel completely but
for a hunting rifle a barrel life of 1200 to 2000 rds is more than a lifetime for some hunters.

(Example) I just laped a winchester 25 WSSM that would not
shoot less than 3 MOA bedded,floated,crowned and with any load tested so rather than rebarrel lapping seamed like the
only thing left to try.

After lapping the 25 shot 1.361MOA with the best load tested
before lapping still not great but a lot better than 3MOA.

This was a very crummy factory barrel that had two bad places in the bore.

And with new test loads it has improved even more.

This barrel was good enough for use as a tent stake
as supplied by winchester so ther was nothing to loose
by lapping it but some time.

J E CUSTOM
 
I had gotten the Neco fire lapping kit a long time ago and used it on an old winchester 94 that had a pitted barrel and had a good bit of the grit left that I used to had lap several of my factory barrels and it worked out pretty well I started with 600 then 800 and finished with the 1200 grit then went through the one shot and clean deal for another breakin and cleaned with JB bore paste and had great results.

A little note though for anybody wanting to lap their barrels , NEVER start at the muzzel ,in fact I don't think I ever got lapping compound in the the last 2-3" of the barrel just to make sure that the bore was tighter than the breach.

JE , you might want to drop Nathen Dagley (308nate) a line , I know he has had great sucess hand lapping some factory barrels.
 
Check out Dan Lilja's website for the bore scope video of a NEW Remington factory barrel. No amount of lapping would help this ***.

Too bad; Remington supplied fine barrels on their 700s in the '60s, '70s and 80s /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif
 
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