Rough barrel??

07 May 2002, 16:08

Ron L

Rough barrel??

My .375 H&H barrel takes quite awhile to get clean. I was using Sweets and I could still visibly see copper in the lands after several sessions of hard cleaning. I have now tried Wipe-Out and it took 6 treatments of Wipe-Out left in the barrel for at least 6 hours each time to get all the visible copper and powder out. I then shot 20 rounds and had to use the Wipe-Out 3 times with a 6 hour soak each time to get the barrel clean again. Any suggestions about how I might smooth out the barrel? It is a Winchester Model 70 stainless factory barrel. The gun was used when I bought it so I do not know how it had been treated before I owned it. There is not rust on the gun or in the barrel that I can see.

Thanks.

07 May 2002, 17:10

Pecos41

Start shooting cast bullets. Nothing polishes a barrel like cast bullets. Ever look down an old .22's barrel after cleaning?

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A well placed bullet is worth 1,000 ft/lbs of energy.

08 May 2002, 02:33

aladin

Ron your barrel needs polishing. A tight fitting cloth wrapped around an old undersized brush- JB or similar. Follow the rifling carefully.

Hey Pecos!

08 May 2002, 02:50

<eldeguello>

The Lyman 375449 with 60 grains of H4831 makes a great cast bullet target load (and whitetail load) in the 375 H&H.

08 May 2002, 03:11

<Don Martin29>

A rifle barrel does not have to be clean for any reason except to prevent corrosion or to restore accuracy. If that .375 rifle shoots ok then just wipe it out and use it as is.

I have target rifles with premium barrels. One of them does not come clean with normal brushing. I leave it that way! It will shoot over a hundred shots in a match without cleaning to a very high standard.

This is the first I heard of firing cast bullets to lap a barrel. But that's why I am here to amuse myself and share knowledge.

If you want to lap the barrel then make a lap and do it that way.

How does it group now? If it's anywhere near one MOA leave it alone is my advice.

08 May 2002, 03:16

wallyw

quote:
Originally posted by Ron L:
My .375 H&H barrel takes quite awhile to get clean. I was using Sweets and I could still visibly see copper in the lands after several sessions of hard cleaning. I have now tried Wipe-Out and it took 6 treatments of Wipe-Out left in the barrel for at least 6 hours each time to get all the visible copper and powder out. I then shot 20 rounds and had to use the Wipe-Out 3 times with a 6 hour soak each time to get the barrel clean again. Any suggestions about how I might smooth out the barrel? It is a Winchester Model 70 stainless factory barrel. The gun was used when I bought it so I do not know how it had been treated before I owned it. There is not rust on the gun or in the barrel that I can see.
Thanks.

Go to NECOs website and check out fire lapping.

http://neconos.com/

Wally

08 May 2002, 04:48

DB Bill

Rather than use the NECO system you might take a look at another "fire lapping" product that generally uses finer grades of abrasives to do the job....David Tubbs "Final Finish".

I've used both with some sucess...the NECO system on a factory Rem 700 barrel chambered in .350 RemMag...a decent shooter (3 shots into 1.5" at 100 yards with good relaods) but it plated copper so badly I couldn't fire more than 10 shots...after firelapping their wasn't any appreciable increase in accuracy but it didn't plate copper nearly as badly and I could shoot 30+ shots before accuracy fell off....it did the throat a bit forward but it wasn't a big deal.

I also used the Tubb's Final Finish (at the suggestion of the custom barrel maker) to break-in a new SS gain-twist barrel...worked great, very, very small movement of throat, hardly fouls at all and the accuracy is superb (as I expected).

I would use Final Finish on any barrel that wasn't behaving the way I wanted without any hesitation. You should also know these are faily controversial procedures and yo will get a variety of opinions....do a search on several sites to see what others are saying and make-up your own mind.

08 May 2002, 04:51

GeorgeS

Ron,
I have two questions:

What bullets are you using?

How well does the gun group?

George

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Shoot straight, shoot often, but by all means, use enough gun!