I have a friend that bought a bolt action rifle from a gun show years ago in 223 that has turned out to be very accurate. It would out shoot my remington 223 varmint rifle so bad at 200 & 300 yrds that I sold it.

The question is how do we tell what the twist is in this barrel it is not marked?

The barrel is about 1.25 inches in DIA (If memory serves me correct) from muzzle to the action.

"Steel Slinger Thanks for the correction on the DIA instead of length"

One simple method you can use is to get a cleaning rod without a rotating handle. Insert it into the barrel with a tight fitting patch. make a mark on the rod, push it in until it has made one complete turn, then make another mark. The measured distance between marks is your twist rate.

If your barrel isn't long enough to push the rod in and make a complete turn, try a quarter turn, then just multiply your results by 4. 1/8th turn, multiply by 8, etc.

Get out your cleaning rod. Put a patch on it that fits tightly in the barrel. Make a mark on the top of the rod with a permanent marker. Push the rod through the barrel until the mark rotates 360 degrees. Make another mark on the rod. Remove the rod and measure the distance in between the marks. This will tell you the twist rate (1 revolution in ten inches etc..). Twist rates for .223 run from 1 in 14", to 1 in 7". Most new rifles have faster twist rates close to 1 in 9" to stabilize heavier bullets in the 60 grain range.