stagpanther
New member
I tried the temperature difference thing as well as soaking in Kroil--still no budge. It wasn't my gun and I didn't want to damage the receiver so I told he owner he needed to consider sending it to the Howa outfit and get a new barrel--or I could try to fire-lap and polish the bore to see if the consistency would improve. It's purely a hunting gun--so it really isn't important that it printed MOA "all day long"--what is important is that first 2 or three shots consistently went to the same generally area. Something was causing the first shots to vary wildly in POI, the lapping I did did seem to help since that first shot POI variance dropped to a max of about 2.5" at 100, which seems reasonable for a 30 year old well-used gun. Of course, that improvement could be just temporary.Would heating the action while freezing the barrel help loosen the threads? Packing the barrel in ice and very lightly heating the action, maybe with a blow dryer. I read on another forum, in one post, thread penetrating solvent was allowed to soak in overnight. The poster said his barrel came out easily. All of these ideas are great if it's some other guys gun. It seems dicey to me, trying to save a few bucks and risking ruining an action.