My 6.5x55 has a shilen barrel with 600 odd (some very odd) rounds through it.

After just one or two shots the first 3-4 inches of the barrel feels 'rough' when you pass a patch through on a jag. A couple of passes of a brush removes this.

The barrel was broken in according to shilen's procedure and is cleaned after every trip out.The rifle gets a dose of Hoppes BR every 5 rounds or so otherwise it's just parker hale solvent. I don't try to remove all the copper as it shoots different first shot if I do, I just try to prevent it building up.

Bullets are 100/120gr ballistic tips and powders VVN160, N150 and N550 - same with all.

It's accurate and this does not cause any problems, I just wonder what causes it.

1894,

It is probably powder fouling. If it were copper you would probably be working harder to remove it.

1894,

I would certainly believe powder fouling to be a possibility with N550. I get a lot of muzzle flash using it in the 6.5x55, and quite a lot of partly-burnt powder is expelled. I did once go out foxing with it, but it completely blinded me when I took the shot (fox didn't seem to notice the difference however).

I know I have kept banging on about it, but poor or incomplete combustion is quite common with this round, and I think you just have to live with it. I'm at Bisley in 2 weeks and I will be trying some new loads with Varget If you're interested, I will let you know the outcome. The immediate problem with I can think of is the price: Vit is just such good value by comparison.

Laurie Holland did an article on reloading for the 6.5 in a recent edition of Target Sports. The article includes details of how each of the powders tested burned. That's worth a read. If you can't get a copy I can send some images.

Patrick