How do you know a rifle barrel is gone?

[reynolds357]

I have never shot out any .30 cal barrels. I have shot out quite a few 6mm and 6.5 mm barrels. I abandoned "setting them back" long time ago. It would coax another 200 or so shots out of them, but in my opinion it was not worth the machine work for that little amount of benefit.

 

[Colorado Redneck]

Bart--Before taking it to the smith the bullets I was using were Sierra 32 gr BK. After that trip to the smith, I tried the Sierra 39 gr Blitz Kings with H4895 and was getting about 3500 fps from the most accurate load.

Three points:
1. The rifle was goofy from the get-go. Would not shoot anything I tried except Berger 35 gr worth beans. After a thorough cleaning it would take 15 rounds or so to get the gun to settle down, but it would be really good for another 50 or so, which was acceptable.

2. After the monkey circus shortage of components, Bergers were unavailable so I tried some of the 32 Sierra bullets I had on hand and got a fairly tight group out of Benchmark at near max load data. So, I ordered 500 of those bullets. The new lot was evidently an "updated version" or some darn thing, and wouldn't shoot for crap. They started to keyhole almost immediately. Went to the smith. He said the loads ere too hot. I Google the deal and found that Sierra had recommended using the 32 grainers with milder loads and lower velocities. Toned those down to about 3700 fps (which is 600 fps slower than the cartridge is designed for) and got fair groups---1 moa as I recall, not great for long range prairie dogs. So then I started with the 39 grainers to try and get the potential from the caliber. Key-holing started to become common place.

3. I had a few Berger loads that I had forgotten about (in my truck) and tried those and THEY key-holed some of the time. About this time I said to heck with it and got rid of the gun.

I would estimate somewhere over 2500 rounds. Since the shortage thing messed with the various component supply, there was quite a bit of work on trying different stuff to make that gun work. When it shot good, I loved it. I had replaced the factory trigger (which was terrible) with a Timney. It was the best trigger I have ever used. And with the 35 Bergers it was a sure enough tack driver after it got settled down.

 

[Jimro]

Colorado Redneck,

Sounds like a classic symptom of a "loss twist" barrel. Generally a rifled barrel isn't uniform across the inner dimension, so a good smith will figure which direction has a "gain twist" and make that end of the barrel blank the muzzle.

So what it sounds like to me is that your barrel is actually slowing down the stabilization spin to slower than your cartridge is designed for, and the faster you do it the more intense the destabilization on the bullet is (driving it faster spins it faster which causes a bigger "smack" when it hits the slower twist area).

Anyways, I can't say for sure if that is the case you are having or not, but the reduced velocity bringing some accuracy back inclines me to think that it is. The problem should go away on a the next barrel replacement.

Jimro

 

[Colorado Redneck]

Jimro--If I knew a year ago what I know now, a new barrel would be on that gun and it would be in my safe.

"Here is a partial list of Northland’s normal inventory for the Criterion – Rem/Age barrels with current pricing:
•26″ – Stainless Match – Rem/Age – 204 Ruger – 11 Twist – $300.00"

Dang it--I looked for an inexpensive way to re-barrel the thing, but this Rem/Age thing hadn't happened yet. I know where the gun is, and have thought seriously about buying it back and doing a re-barrel. 20-20 vision is usually fairly good for me.

Thanks for you comments. I agree--something was not "just right" with that original barrel, and as time went along things got worse. I scrubbed the bore and eliminated all the copper several times. I even tried as a last resort, lapping the barrel with a bore mop and Flitz. I didn't overdo that, but thought it might rescue the gun. First few rounds it was looking real promising, and then it started the keyhole thing. I should have put it away after the first keyhole on the target, but shot one more and it keyholed into the chrony. It went bye-bye.