Fire lapping results

1tonpower

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Nov 24, 2011
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Below are the targets from fire lapping my .308win. Took me a week to finsh. I cleaned the bore spotless between each 10 shot string.. After the first 4 steps I was loosing hope and ready to right off this rifle.. I just finished the last ten shot sting. Besides the first clean bore shot and the 2nd to last shot. ( I know I flinched) there are prity much in on big hole. Rifle specs are. .308 1:12 twist 18" sporter. It's the weatherby markv carbine. The load used was 40.5g imr4064 pushing 190g tubbs final finsh bullets. All groups are at 100 yards.
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The three on the right was at 25 yards. I was making adjustments to get in paper.

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I am fairly happy with the results.. My
Next move is to replace the factory plastic stock..
 
Does your scope have an AO or side focus ? Any scope adjustments between groups ? I would return any rifle that grouped like that. Howa is a popular brand for value minded people, the coyote hunting crowd seems to use them on TV quite a bit. It is very much like the Remington 700.

Did you check the tightness of the action screws ? Do you know whether the barrel is properly free floated ? How is the trigger ? What scope and bases are you using ?

I got a Savage 12 243 Win with a steel one piece scope base from Warne and I tried a 3-15 scope from Minox which had neither AO nor SF. I was unable to get groups less than 4" because of the parallax issue that the scope had at 100 yards, which is what the parallax is usually set to at the factory. Returned the Minox scope and got a Vortex Viper 4-16x50 FFP and it shot a 1" group the first time out.
 
If you were aiming at that big orange circle at 100 I'd say you still got some work to do. What adjustments did you make? I got rid of a Ruger M77 MK II .308 that shot like that. Couldn't ever get it to behave. It's even more frustrating when you are shooting a pretty forgiving round like the .308 at 100 and can't get easy, consistent results. Good luck with it.
 
a little history on the gun. i bought i new in 2003. it is a weatherby MarkV 6lug bolt.with 54*bolt lift. it shot great. i never measured the groups, but 3 shots were inside an inch or better. i deployed in 03 for a year and for one reason or another my safe was never opened. this was the only barrel effected. looking down the bore you could see ruff spots and after a lot of cleaning it wouldnt shoot like it did new.

i just recently got into reloading for my 243 and came across tubs final finish. i thought id try it before i bought a barrel for an over haul

in the first target i was making adjustments to get on paper..shooting at 25 yards. after the first sting all other shots where taken at 100. i did make one more adjustment. +2MOA. i made that adjustment after the 5 shot group. no adjustments were made for the last string of 10.

the first shot was a cold clean bore, im guessing that one was the highest. and the low left hit was all me. i flinched. that was number 9..

the scope used was an old(1970s)im guessing 3x9 red field illuminator rang finder, with ballistic turret for elevation. weaver rings and bases..the action screws are tight. i didnt separate the action from the stock during the process.

i will clean the bore again and shoot some factory loads for groups. i have a box of 165g SST superformace to try out. if that shoots well i will start loading 175g SMKs and go from there
 
i had lost hope for this rifle and was planing on an over haul. since im seeing improvements i will continue. why i see it is if i cant get it back i am only out a little time and a little money in bullets. i will post results as i shoot. good or bad
 
your using the tubbs ff bullets for some sort of accuracy benchmark? Not trying to come across like an @$$ but those bullets would be best shot at a dirt berm, if you want to do a comparison you need to do a before and after with the same loads you used initially. What ever you saw from the Tubbs ff kit means exactly nothing since your not going to continue shooting abrasive bullets.
 
You don't reload for 308? I'd throw some cheap 150 grain flat base bullets in front of 45 grains of Varget and shoot it. Most 308's will behave real nicely at 100 yards with that for initial testing. Don't think I'd waste a box of Superperformance on a finicky rifle while trying to sort things out. I'd look at that scope real close too...
 
your using the tubbs ff bullets for some sort of accuracy benchmark? Not trying to come accros like an @$$ but those bullets would be best shot at a dirt berm, if you want to do a comparison you need to do a before and after with the same loads you used initially. What ever you saw from the Tubbs ff kit means exactly nothing since your not going to continue shooting abrasive bullets.

i know in the directions it said not to pay attention to group sizes. i am just going by the drastic improvements i found during the process. i know how well it shot new with factory loads, (federal 150NBTs or winchester supreme 150s). and how it was shooting when i gave up on it. . now that i am finished with the tubs bullets i will shoot the factory 165s i have now. and go from there
 
You don't reload for 308? I'd throw some cheap 150 grain flat base bullets in front of 45 grains of Varget and shoot it. Most 308's will behave real nicely at 100 yards with that for initial testing. Don't think I'd waste a box of Superperformance on a finicky rifle while trying to sort things out. I'd look at that scope real close too...

i have two other 308s in the safe. the superformance is just something i have in my ammo case. i have whats left from the pound of imr4064 i used for the tubbs load. i will get some bullets to load up for this...

the scope worked fine on my AR, before that it was on my 7400 .308 and before that a 7400 -06..

i had a 2-7 Nikon monarch on top on this weatherby when i first got it. it shot good then. and it was the scope i was using when i notice the lack of performance.
 
What kind of load did you originally shoot in this gun ? 190gr bullets are pretty heavy for a 308 and I am sure they were chosen to provide lots of lapping surface and thats about it. Having said that, beware that it is the throat that is getting most of the "lapping" and when you do shoot some of the lighter stuff it could have a negative impact. Hard to judge the effect at all with the charged bullets since they were never intended for accuracy.

What did you try prior to this ? It can be impressive what you can get out a bore using nothing more than copper remover and bore shine (non embedding compound). Lots of sweat equity involved (you need a good quality cleaning rod and guide). Unless you fired corrosive ammo and then didn't clean it, you really should only have surface oxidation. The fire lapping can get way from you pretty quick and then by the sounds of it you may have to go to the factory for a rebarrel since the bolt configuration sounds pretty unique.
 
Keep in mind that with each set your shooting bullets coated with a different grit, and your going to see different pressures, harmonics ect. So what you see with them you can't repeat with the next set, or any other load. See what happens from here on out since that's what your going to be using repeatedly and living with. I've seen both accuracy and ease of cleaning improve with this kit, I believe you'll be happy on your next trip to the range.
 
Quit using color on your targets. Use black and white - no kidding. Any other color than black and white allows the edges of the color to bleed into the next - welcome to human eyes that can see color. Under magnification, it is worse, especially with mid to lower quality scopes.
 
I did forget to motion that I have used a coper salvant when I was cleaning the bore before I tryed the tubbs kit.. The patches were coming out dark blue. I continued until the patches were coming out white. I would only leave the bore wet with the coper solvant for a minuet or two before pushing dri patches down. I followed that with hoppes9. All cleaning was done breach to muzzle with a one peace fiber glass rod.

I did shoot groups with the rifle after cleaning and results were still unsatisfactory.
 
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