can a barrel get faster?

[cbryant]

rifle= trued rem action
26" krieger barrel
1-8.5
brass hornady
52.5 gr rl22
140 gr berger vld

now when i first broke the barrel in and started shooting for my drop charts it shot very well at about 3020 fps through the chronograph
after about 75-100 shots it seemed like my dope charts were high and i was taking clicks off, now my dope is very dead on out to 1200 yards and the speeds i have in my shooter program is 3150 is this possible?gun)

 

[Deleted member 71114]

From my experience it takes about 100 rounds down a new barrel to burnish in or settle to where the speeds tend to climb and then stabilize at a given speed.

osoh

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

Yep, I've seen it with a couple of rifles, notably my 7rum. As she wore she gained nearly 100 fps with 140 sierra pills pushed by rl25. They can also fall off a bit in vel. too. Osoh's reasoning would be for faster, but if you already have a pretty good bore and you wear the throat enough the pressure can fall off enough to actually slow the load a bit.

 

[aramarine6]

Were you shooting in or near the same temperature? Ammunition temperature can make a difference in velocity as well. Granted a 10 degree change wont amount to 100 fps difference, however a 40 or 50 degree difference in ammo temp can cause a significant velocity change. In my 338 RUM I'll have a maximum spread of 200+/- fps between 100 degrees and 0 degrees. With that being said, If you did shoot in similar temperature conditions then it is most likely your barrel has reached its copper equilibrium and has built up alittle more pressure and consistency.

 

[CB11WYO]

Yup, friend's 30-378 recently had the same issue. Out of the blue his reticle had him hitting high every time he pulled the trigger. His gain was around 100-150 fps if I remember right.


PS- cbryant, if your first name is Clint... we have the same name, first and last

 

[Alonzo]

It is not unusual to have a barrel speed up in the first 80 to 150 rounds by an average of 40 to 50 fps but I have had barrels increase speed by as much as 140 fps it's not typical but it does happen.

 

[cbryant]

Thanks for all the replies iam glad iam not crazy dorry clint we dont share thr same name