Re-barreling a Rifle - Cost and Options

[ArtP]

I tried IMR 4350, IMR 4831 (not the short cut) and Reloader 19. I tried all those powders with Sierra 130’s, Sierra 150’s BT, Remington 130’s, Sierra 130 with BT and Hornady 130’s. I have since acquired some Berger 130 VLD’s & H4350 in a trade that I am skeptical to try. It was frustrating because sometimes I get two holes touching then the third in outer space. As far as OAL the box mag and the rule about a caliber length worth of neck tension happens before I reach the lands – so I’ve made the rounds pretty long, well beyond book OAL. I have also tried two different factory loads with the same results. I have a very good rest setup and I’m confident my technique and abilities are responsible for no more than a quarter MOA of error.

With the Tikka 243 I get between .7 and .4 MOA with my pet load. I have a model 70 that gets just over 1 MOA.

I'm not sure what you mean about fouling shots. I know what fouling shots are, not sure what you mean though. I clean the barrel about every 40-50 rounds. I do not notice a difference in accuracy starting clean and going to dirty like I do with the Tikka.

I neck size with a Lee collet die that I am very happy with as opposed to the Redding die I use to neck size a different caliber.

Barrel is floated. As far as the other mechanical things you mentioned, I don't feel qualified to determine.

The Sako has had trigger work done (previous owner) and breaks very light, around a pound.

As noted above, the throat is deep.

Brass is Winchester and Remington (not in the same group)

Regarding taking it to smith, here is my response to a friend I emailed:

I have a pretty decent camera. I’m going to try and give you a picture of the bore. My eye isn’t trained to tell a really good bore from a mediocre one and I think if I can get a good set of eyes on it that will help. I live in a rural part of this state, up North. There is a gun smith I visit for the purpose of FFL transactions. By his standards I’m pretty young at 42 and I speak slow and respectful to him. He’s nice and likable and I respect him enough, but when I mention my accuracy troubles and that I reload he wants to send me to our local, private range to let the “know-it-alls” help me – as if I must be doing something wrong. Quite frankly, I’m better than most of the know it alls, but I keep to myself and only give answers when they’re asked of me, and then the standard disclaimer (that I know nothing) applies – that means I’m not a know it all.

 

[ArtP]

This thread is spawning a new question... How many rounds does it take to shoot out a barrel? I've read a variety of numbers ranging from 1500-2500 up to many thousand. The only thing I've been able to put together is the ratio of powder burned and caliber diameter has an effect.

 

[ArtP]

If anyone is curios about this rifle, here it is:

By the way, I pronounce it "say-co", I've heard others say "saw-co". Which is it?

 

[dubbleA]

By the way, I pronounce it "say-co", I've heard others say "saw-co". Which is it?

That would be "sock oh"
"say co" makes watches

 

[ArtP]

I removed the barreled action from the stock. To my surprise it appears someone did a bedding job, but I don't know enough about it to say if it's a good job or not. It certainly looks sloppy, but I can't tell if it's effective. I did run a dollar bill down the length of the barrel, it is floated up to the bedding.

Opinions? Thoughts?

Yes, this is the first time I've removed the action. I haven't had a need to, and don't go poking around for fun.

 

[Afy]

get a savage..

 

[OYE]

It sounds like you are doing o.k. as far as the reloading . As for the fouling shots, some guns will tighten groups dramatically after 10 or 12 rounds and then shoot tight groups for 40-50 more rounds
( and some are just the opposite ). Why, I don't know for sure, so I won't say.
As far as barrel life, if you do a google search for " The infamous throat erosion gauge "
I think that will explain things better than I can. For the hot magnum calibers 1000-1500
rounds is often the case with some individual guns running hot loads less than that.
Sometimes the first clue on a worn throat/barrel is the boat tail bullet accuracy goes first ( but not always). For my part don't bother with the barrel /muzzle pictures, I can't tell anything from these pictures usually.
On the glass bedding. I like to float it to within an inch or so of the recoil lug.
You can easily do that with some sandpaper. I can't tell you if it will help or not. Same
with the crown. Sometimes it tightens a group up some, sometimes it doesn't.
In the mid 80's we checked with one of the manufacturers about their tolerance on throat depth. The answer we got was quite shocking, far more than we expected. We do know a gun with a short throat is better, but guns with long throats can be very accurate as well.
I offered those questions as mainly a checklist that we go through to get those sub-minute groups. It's often not any one thing, but a combination of many. Good Luck

 

[USSR]

ArtP,

I had a L61R like yours in .30-06. Could not get it to group well no matter what I did. When I got a throat and muzzle gage for my M1 Garand, I stuck it in the muzzle and it went all the way up to "3". With a .311" muzzle, no wonder it did not shoot well. Sold it and got a Winchester M70 with a tight (.308") muzzle.

Don

 

[PigButtons]

Over on the CZ topic there are instructions for cleaning a CZ rifle bore. I just bought a used Norinco and it shot rather poorly. The bore looked clean and crisp and I cleaned it the "normal" way first with no improvement.

Then I went through the whole WD40, scrub, patches until clean, scrub and repeat process. It took about 40 minutes to clean the bore this way. I shot the rifle the next morning and the groups had gone from 1 1/2" to an average of 3/4" (with open sights at 50 yards). Groove fouling can be extremely hard to detect and even harder to clean.

Some foreign manufacturers use a very thick packing grease and if the original owner didn't get it out to start with it could still be there causing some of your problems.

Hope you get it resolved. Hate to see a good rifle turned out if it ain't dead.

 

[benzy2]

Yes, a fouled bore can certainly look clean and shiny looking through the muzzle/chamber. You really need a borescope if you want to see what is going on in the barrel.