Tool Marks in Savage BA110 .338 Lapua Magnum Barrel??

[LongRange338]

Trust me your rifle will shoot better if you use JB bore paste in conjunction with Kroil Oil for your next thoroughly extended cleaning. You will have to spend some time until your patches come out clean. The end result will amaze you. Just you watch !

This. I've done it on a few older factory rifles and brought them back to life.

 

[cajun]

My neighbor is an ex Marine sniper from Vietnam and been shooting longer than some of us have been alive. Every new factory rifle he buys he polishes with flitz metal polish till the bore is shiny. Mostly varmint barreled Remingtons. They all shoot very well. He also glass beds them and replaces the trigger. He's basically lapping the barrels.

 

[338 dude]

I purchased a new Savage BA110 in .338 Lapua Magnum a couple years ago and went through normal barrel break-in and started doing load workup using Lapua brass, Federal #215 primers, Retumbo and Hornady 285gn ELD Match bullets. The barrel now has 120 rounds through it according to my records. I was never able to get much better than 1.5-2 MOA at 300 yards so put it on the shelf and moved on until I had more time to work with it. Recently I have seen several posts and recommendations on the Teslong borescope so ordered one. Today I put the scope down the barrel and it caused me some concern. Beginning approximately a 1/2" from the beginning of the riflings are what looks to me like tool marks. These repeat approximately ever 1/4"-3/8" for about 2 inches before they are less pronounced. Initially I thought this must be due to improper cleaning but after looking at them further it seems like some of them only cut through the rifling and some do not touch the rifling but are only seen on the lands (hope this terminology is correct).

Has anyone seen anything like this before? Any idea what caused this? Could this be the cause of loss of accuracy? Thanks in advance for your insights.

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While savage barrels are typically kind of rough that damage seems to be concentrated in one spot more than any other savage barrel I've seen and could be the cause of your problems I have a 338 110 FCP which had what I call chatter marks but not like what you see in your barrel long ago I put a BART line on it and I'm very happy with it

 

[338 dude]

This must be the reason I never got 3 of my savages to shoot..
Might look to replace it with a good prefit (if anyone makes one for a Lapua)

My sentiments exactly it's a savage get a pre-fit install it yourself you'll be way ahead for the money spent and the accuracy achieved over the factory barrel

 

[338 dude]

In cases like the above in Savage rifle barrels, who makes a good pre-chambered barrel that won't break the bank. Action is a 110 tactical short action and I would like a little more thump than a 6.5 creedmoor (that it is now), but want to stick to the 6.5 caliber and a 1-8 twist. Would like Velocity to be somewhere around 3000 to 3100 FPS. Sorry not trying to hijack thread

There are too many good barrel manufactures selling pre-Fits to list do a search as far as something with a little more umph I prefer the 6.5 x 2 84 Norma but there are many other options as well

 

[338 dude]

Here are those"grooves" I spoke of earlier.

To me this is normal for a savage and very similar to what I saw on mine but the OP pictures showed one very bad ring much deeper than yours and mine I believe that is his problem

 

[338 dude]

As per email I just received:

I spoke to my head gunsmith in regards to this matter. He states that this is how our barrels should be. However, if you start to get grouping issues or anything you can always have the firearm sent in for repair.

What do you guys think?

Compare photos of that barrel to a barrel from any top manufacturer and you will see how they should be now I understand the situation with a mass produced barrel it will not be as good as a custom barrel but not how a barrel should be all barrels should be as good as a custom but that cost money and you get what you pay for

 

[338 dude]

The final finish will 'polish' down the machining marks, making the path for the bullet smoother, reducing fouling and often improving accuracy (though they don't make that claim as part of the product promotion, which is logical. It DID improve the accuracy of my .308 Win though...)

As for "add to bore wear", every round a person fires through the gun adds to the bore wear. Here is the correlation I see when I consider this subject - people will fire 200 rounds to 'break in their barrel' (i.e., reach the point it 'speeds up' & cleaning gets much easier.) To then 'worry' about firing 10 to 20 bullets to accomplish the same task in a much shorter period seems illogical to me. If you think about it, Final Finish process produces less throat and leade damage to accomplish the same barrel break-in process since fewer rounds are fired to get the barrel smoothed out/broken in. That is less powder and heat trying to torch the throat/leade, which seems like a good thing.

I know there are people that worry about sending a 'gritty' bullet down the barrel. I'm fine with that. To each his own. But if you have a factory barrel with the kind of machine marks this barrel has, are you really "losing" anything by trying to clean them up/smooth them out when people are suggesting barrel replacement anyway? Having broken in factory mass produced barrels both ways, I'll go with the Tubb FinalFinish process every time now. It is faster, easier, and accuracy and speed seems to pick up well before the 'normal' 200 round point. That saves me powder, primer, and bullet 'waste' to accomplish the same thing the 'old' way.

You can actually feel the barrel getting smoother and smoother as you clean it during the FinalFinish firing process. Stop firing when YOU feel it is 'good enough'. No one says you have to fire all the bullets in the kit if you feel it has worked to your satisfaction after, say, 10 rounds. With the TESLONG bore scopes now going for $50, a person can even check the progress very easily. We are living in the Good Old Days!

Of course you would never use those on a good barrel but As said if the barrel is not performing and you are not happy with it you are not going to lose a thing you only have a chance at improvement

 

[FEENIX]

Going back to the OP's post ...

@KSAv8r, any status update?

 

[KSAv8r]

Called Savage and left a voice mail but have not received a call back yet. Guess the pandemic may be having an impact so giving them the benefit of the doubt for now. Will keep everyone posted.