I have a 6.5X54 Mannlicher Schoenauer 1903 Carbine Greek military that has been customised.

The bore was very dark and I tried polishing it & firelapping it. Now I suspect that I have ruined the barrel. When I use Hornady 160gr .268 diameter bullets, they are shooting dinner plate groups at 20 meters and some bullets seem to be key holing. Will the barrel shoot better with paper patched cast bullets?

I realise that I will ultimately have to rebarrel the rifle.

Any help would be appreciated.

I doubt a paper patched bullet would make any difference, but a different bullet might. You may just need a lighter weight (shorter) bullet. If the bullet is keyholing, then the rifling isn't stabilizing the bullet. This could be because there's no rifling left in the bore, or it could just mean that the bullet is too long for the twist rate in your barrel, and the velocity you're driving it at.

If you do try a paper patched bullet, try one that's shorter (lighter) than what you've been shooting. A 160 gr bullet is pretty long in this caliber.

Maybe a 120 to 140 gr bullet would give you better results?

I forgot to mention that I was getting 3" groups with open sights at 100 meters beforee I tried polishing & lapping the barrel!

So I am sure I have damaged the bore & probably the muzzle.

check your muzzle first you may just need a recrown.

anyways to paper patch you want the bullet to be bore diameter and the paper to be groove diameter.
use a starting jacketed load.
make sure the paper don't overlap on the ends.
two wraps seem best.
use minimal,minimal lube on the final sizing.
one or maybe two thousanths over groove diameter seems to usually work best.
a hard alloy is okay but a too soft of one will usually give poor results.
you want the paper to shred at the muzzle.

by doing paper patching you can match the size to the gun so measure the bbl by pushing a soft,oiled piece of lead through the bbl and measuring it.

I used to make up reduced loads for my double 9,3x74R, using lead .356 bullets (Lyman 358429) patched up to .369 diameter.

Pushed by a medium load of 2400, held in place by a filler consisting of a balled up square of Kleenex, they shot well and grouped both bbls. reasonnably at 50 m.

This might be a dumb question, but isn't the 6.5x54 MS a .264 bore? I thought the .268 bore was just the 6.5 Carcano and that Hornday made the .268 160's just for it. At least that is what I think I read in my Hornady #8.

The older 6.5X54MS military / Greek carbines often had .268 grooves. You can check this with Ken Waters' Pet Loads as well. I had the bore slugged right at the begining by a good gunsmith. So no guess work.

I think I will have the muzzle recrowned.

Thanks guys for the great input.

better stick to crayons, you'll hurt someone with your stupid antics

wyoske

I am not sure whom that comment ws aimed at. I'll just ignore it.

I feel comfortable sharing the truth on AR as there are many knowledgable and intelligent people who do give good advise. Yes I made a mistake but I do not think I was being irresponsible or unsafe. Firelapping a dark bore or trying to polish it is not an unsafe exercise and all proper care was taken in reloads as well as firing the rifle.

I was just wondering if there is some way to salvage the old classic barrel rather than dump it & add the cost of a rebarrel job....

Andre Mertens thanks for the information and photo of your set up.

quote:

Originally posted by Nakihunter:
wyoske


I was just wondering if there is some way to salvage the old classic barrel rather than dump it & add the cost of a rebarrel job....

I found a good read on paper patching a few days ago but cant find it now. It was written by Richard Corbin. It is possible that you may be able to pull something off, but you would have to begin by re-slugging the bbl again. That is the first step to a quality paper patch. Its all about matching it to YOUR gun, and I expect that firelapping that old corroded bbl has altered the bore diameter rendering the first slugging job no longer valid.