Similar but not the same - Barrel Torque Question

[epags]

Had a local gunsmith clean up the chamber on a 303 British. He did a good job given it is not a popular caliber. However, afterwards I could not get it to shoot accurately and the more I tried, changed scopes and tried different loads, the worst it got.
Today I was giving it a thorough cleaning and while gripping the barrel the dang thing started to rotate. Am I guessing he didn't torque it enough? And if so, what torque should I tell him to use?
80 ftlbs?
Thanks in advance.

 

[WeiserBucks]

Had a local gunsmith clean up the chamber on a 303 British. He did a good job given it is not a popular caliber. However, afterwards I could not get it to shoot accurately and the more I tried, changed scopes and tried different loads, the worst it got.
Today I was giving it a thorough cleaning and while gripping the barrel the dang thing started to rotate. Am I guessing he didn't torque it enough? And if so, what torque should I tell him to use?
80 ftlbs?
Thanks in advance.

If you have to tell the gunsmith how much torque to use, you need a new gunsmith.

 

[epags]

If you have to tell the gunsmith how much torque to use, you need a new gunsmith.

Unfortunately, we only have one "reputable" gunsmith in the area.

 

[tobnpr]

If you have to tell the gunsmith how much torque to use, you need a new gunsmith.

Exactly what I thought before I even saw your reply...

Had a local gunsmith clean up the chamber on a 303 British.

Guessing you're referring to an Enfield, but doesn't matter.
When you say "clean up"- what did he do that required pulling the barrel from the receiver?

The .303 British is still a capable round- I'd bet it's shot more even today than you might think.

 

[epags]

Exactly what I thought before I even saw your reply...


Guessing you're referring to an Enfield, but doesn't matter.
When you say "clean up"- what did he do that required pulling the barrel from the receiver?

The .303 British is still a capable round- I'd bet it's shot more even today than you might think.

I had bought it used about 65 years ago. Someone had started a project to sporterize it and never finished. Put it in the safe until I finished my military career, my follow-up civilian career and one spouse. Finally, after retiring, I found this 'hanger queen'. I refinished the wood, re-crowned the barrel, cleaned up the barrel and receiver and had them re-blued. When I finally shot it, it was fairly accurate but all the fired brass had a dimple/dent in the shoulder. Long story short it had some material (brass) fused to the chamber by the original owner.
Unable to dislodge it myself, I finally paid our LGS's contractor gunsmith to run a reamer in the chamber and remove the obstruction. Which he did but apparently did not torque the barrel to the action sufficiently.
80 to 100 rounds later while chasing ever decreasing accuracy I discovered the barrel was loose.

 

[tobnpr]

^^^
Gotcha.
Cleaning up the chamber using a reamer without deepening it is a fine line to not cross, I'd check the datum length of your fired brass with a comparator.

I'd have the smith re-torque the barrel (yes, 60-80 ft lbs is typical).

 

[Ucsdryder]

Lol I had a similar issue. I had a barrel spun onto a rifle by Oregon mountain rifles. Took it to a different smith to clean up a bad chamber and he called me to apologize because you could barely see the lettering on the side of the barrel after he correctly torqued it. The previous smith hand tightened it. When I got it back the muzzle brake was rotated about 20-30 degrees.

Mine didn't affect accuracy but I assume once it finally broke free it would have created some issues.