does anyone have experience with tubb's final finish bullets? i have a new unfired barrel. years ago i tried neco's fire lapping and wasn't too happy with it. this is a factory savage button rifled 6.5x284 bbl.
velocity is like a new car, always losing value. BC is like diamonds, holding value forever.
Savage rifles have a fine reputation for shooting really well. I would shoot the rifle before I fire-lapped or messed with the barrel. You'll probably find that you don't need to do anything but shoot and have fun.
Posts: 868 | Location: maryland | Registered: 25 July 2004
These pictures are of my Ruger Stainless Model 77 in .30-06 I purchased new. Scope is a Leupold VX-II 3-9X 40MM in Ruger rings. The first group is about the best it would do. That is a 4" orange bull at 100 yards. I tried every handloading trick in the book with this gun, and finally was at Cabela's and saw the Tubb Final Finish Ammo and thought what the hell. I cleaned the barrel per the instructions to remove any and all copper fouling. I then fired the 10 coarse abrasive loads. Then cleaned again per instructions. I then fired the remaining 10 fine grade cartridges. Cleaned one final time, then shot the second group you see boxed in after a few of the outside shots for the gun to settle in. That is an 8 shot group shot at 100 yards with a 1" orange bull. I started with a cold barrel, and ended with a warm one. It wasn't too hot to touch, however. The improvement was substancial. I could see the difference looking through the bore after I got home and cleaned it. The cleaning rod went through with a tight patch much more smoothly. I've found most who knock this product have not used it. If you have tried everything, and can't get the gun to shoot, I would recommend this product. It performs as advertised. If I were to use it again, I would buy the bullets and handload them myself, now that I know how well they in fact work in cleaning up a rough barrel. Bill T.
The most important thing if you do decide to use these bullets, is to clean all of the copper fouling out of the barrel before you begin. If you don't you will just be polishing copper, and not your barrel. I used Bore Tech Eliminator.
It works very well, doesn't stink, and has no Ammonia. It will not etch a barrel regardless of how long you leave it in. The patches will come out green immediately, and will continue until the barrel is spotless. Usually no more than 5 minutes is required for the most copper fouled barrel. I've found this product to be far superior than anything else I've tried for copper removal. Bill T.
I have never used the Final Finish bullets in one of my good barrels but have experimented with them in rifles I intended to cannibalize. Sometimes they improve and sometimes they don't but the throats never lengthen appreciably the way they do with abrasive fillers like Puff-Lon. I have even considered using the TMS bullets in a match barrel to see if they do any good.
I've used the DIY Wheeler kit from Midway to firelap many bores for different reasons, with varying results BUT I wouldn't use it on a new barrel until attempts at break-in, load work, etc prove fruitless.
If it's a stinker barrel, you have nothing to lose! Like Bill's Ruger, my Rem 7600 pumpgun was a 4 MOA, copper fouling POS. It's now smooth, shiny and a 1 minute rifle!
Mark
"Greatness without Grace is mere Vanity" - Hank the Cowdog
Posts: 1121 | Location: Florence, MT USA | Registered: 30 April 2002
