I promised to report the outcome of my rifle problems while elephant hunting last year in Botswana. As you may recall, when I tried to zero Louise, my .416 (rather than Thelma my .375), the solid ammo tumbled (key holed) as well as flew all over the target. The soft points held a moderate group at 50 yds. After we got home and checked it out again, we found both solids and softs were erratic, that is if I could get them on the target at all.

Louise was sent off to Jim Brockman. After he encountered similar frustations, he determined the main problem was the barrel, so he re-crowned it. That improved the groups with the soft points slightly, but it didn't improve the groups with the solids at all. So he replaced the barrel entirely. The wear was less than one-half a thousandth of an inch.

Although I have used Louise on three previous safaris with no problem, and, of course, had shot it at the range, I have probably only put 600 rounds total through the barrel which was new when I had it custom built. I never dreamed that such minimum wear on the barrel would have such a major effect.

Mystery solved, Louise is shooting tight little groups again.

Regards, D. Nelson

D. Nelson,

Refresh our memories. What make of rifle is Louis and if custom, what barrel?

Louise is a .416 Winchester Pre 64 model 70, built by Robby Barrkmann aka: Robar in Phoenix, AZ.

The old barrel was either a Lilja or Schneider. The new one is a Douglas.

D.Nelson,

Glad your rifle problem is fixed. Of course I have a great idea on how to test out the new barrel. This idea involves buff, Masai and a major holiday. Ring any bells.

Mark

Great news, Darin! Where will you be hunting this year?

Glad you are back in action! Nothing is worse than flying a long way and having rifle problems at the sight in range. Unfortunately, speaking from experience here.

Out of curiosity, how did the smith arrive at the .0005"? Where and how was this measured? From what it sounds lik e(keyholeing) I would have to think that eother the bore was VERY shot out or there was a bulge some where in it, probably near the muzzle. It does not take much of a bulge to do crazy things to a bullet, that's for sure. WHat type of bullets were you shooting? Did you ever have even a minor obstruction, or did you always hunt with tape over the bore?

At any rate, very happy to hear that you are back in action! Hopefully she will be the one you get to hunt with this time.

quote:

Originally posted by Marc_Stokeld:
... It does not take much of a bulge to do crazy things to a bullet, that's for sure. WHat type of bullets were you shooting? Did you ever have even a minor obstruction, or did you always hunt with tape over the bore? ....

That is one thing you rarely see on safari ie taping over the end of the barrel with insulation tape.

Back home it is almost always done, to keep mud, twigs and dirt out of the barrel.

D, nice to hear from you again. That was a very expensive fix. As it is, glad you got "her" back into action.

Ann: As I've mentioned before, my husband is losing his vision, so we've really put things on "Fast Forward" while he still has minimum vision to shoot. Although we hadn't planned on it, we accepted an invitation to join another couple for a Buff/Sable hunt in Mozambique end of August. I intend to look for you traveling through Jo'berg!!!! After that, it is Wyoming for mulies and Oregon for the new Columbian Whitetail season.

Marc S.: The .0005" was, I believe, an educated guess. He bore scoped the barrel and couldn't see anything obvious. The rest of the explanation is way over my head technically. However, the ammo I use for solids, 400 gr. Federal Trophy Bonded Sledgehammers and for softs, 400 gr. Trophy Bonded Bear Claw. Interestingly, now that it is repaired, I've come to love using Thelma,my .375 so much, I'm not even going to take Louise, the .416, to Mozambique.

Mark Young: You devil!!!! Always the temptations!!!!

Regards, D. Nelson