Last fall I purchased a used 338 Lapua Sako Trg-S from a local dealer. At the range results were dismal--minute of half a door at 80 yds. After a second futile trip to the range (groups varied brake on or off from 2-16 ") I cleaned the rifle with brake removed and noticed a complete loss of friction in the last two inches of barrel as I pushed a patch through. Diameter at the muzzle measured .338-normal. I checked the barrel with a micrometer and found a reverse in taper of about .008 per inch ahead of the brake. The dealer gave me a refund while he worked on it and would let me try it again after removing the bulge--338 Lapua carbine anyone?
A couple of weeks later I picked it up again--by now we're waste deep in snow and before I went back to the range I removed the brake and looked at the bore. Now it looked big. I couldn't believe the gunsmith didn't measure it before recrowning and install the brake again. I didn't want to scratch it with calipers so I put a Barnes 185 xbt in the end of the barrel, and it swallowed the whole thing. The dealer had taken an inch off the barrel and the bore was at least 10 Thou oversized. Either the rifle had a poorly manufactured barrel or had been fired with a mild obstruction in the bore, causing the barrel to stretch and not break. When I picked up the rifle initially there was primer ring powder fouling on the bolt face and a tiny cut in the steel under that residue.


Is there a simple way to discover a problem like this? Should you be able to see a variation when you look down the bore? Actually I looked at the bore in the store before I bought it, but it was fouled and I noticed nothing unusal. After I found out it was defective I never looked down the barrel again. I'd been back to the dealer too many times already and was flat out fed up with that particular rifle.

I have to say I liked the cartridge but not the price of the brass. I would have preferred a Sako in 338 Lapua
but I settled for the next best thing or maybe better--time will tell.

I picked up a new 338 RUM LSS for less money than I paid for that other used rifle.

Sako should eat that one. There's no excuse for that what so ever!

My brother once bought a secound hand .270 and after using up almost a box of shells we still couldn't get a group smaller than a trash can lid. He finally noticed a slight bulge just back of the muzzle. The sight ramp had camouflaged it pretty well. I'm guessing it had been fired with snow in the barrel.

quote:

Originally posted by D Humbarger:
Sako should eat that one. There's no excuse for that what so ever!

Actually, the dealer gave me a full refund. He had taken it as a trade-in and the more he worked on it the less he felt like discounting the price. I didn't want to pay top dollar for a 338 Lapua with a barrel that would wind up less than 24". The other thing that struck me as unusual, was that under the muzzle brake almost 1/4" was relieved between threads and shoulder to a diameter of .500". The bore was about .348" directly under the shoulder leaving a tube thickness of .076". While I understand muzzle pressures to be 8 to 10 thousand pounds normally, if a pressure spike occurred for any reason, it seems to me that the barrel had been substantially weakened by the way the muzzle brake was installed.