Inspecting New Rifle Barrel
Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2013 8:53 pm
I recently purchased a bore-scope that allows me to take videos and still pictures inside of a rifle barrel, from either a head-on view, or a 90 degree view with the aid of a tiny 45 degree mirror that lets me inspect the lands and grooves in detail.
Looking in my rifles at home, I discovered what I expected... Copper and carbon fouling, chatter on both button-rifled and cut rifling, and so on. - And I thought that they were clean!
I still hesitate to inspect my 54 caliber muzzle-loader... I'm afraid of what I might find in there, it was well-used when I bought it.
Today I brought home a new rifle that had been on display in the rack at the gun shop, and decided not to fire the gun until I had had a chance to look at it with the bore-scope.
What I discovered was an amazing amount of dust! Near the muzzle it was really thick, and I didn't see uncluttered steel until the 17" bore-scope was poked all the way down the barrel, close to the chamber and bolt face.
Boy, was it dusty!
I guess I'll run a mop through there, and try again. - And I'll never assume again that a new gun is clean. Besides the dust, I saw a small amount of copper fouling, some of it blue-colored from cleaning I assume. This must have been from a factory test-firing. The copper was in a spot about 3/4 of the way forward from the chamber.
The gun is a Browning BLR Lightweight '81, in .308 Winchester. There was no visible chatter in the barrel, the interior finish was very good.
Nobody likes to think of their barrel having chatter in it, but the truth is that my custom Savage 16 in .243 Winchester has chatter - and it is by far the most accurate rifle that I own. - So chatter is not necessarily the kiss of death. This is why proper break-in of a new barrel can make a big difference on some guns, but makes little difference on others. The Savage was very carefully broken in.
Tomorrow morning after it warms up here in the mountains, I'll take the new BLR to the range to sight it in, and see what it will do with the ammo that I have on hand.
The videos I took average from 20 to 35 megabytes in size. I had to move the scope slowly enough so that I could observe detail, which takes at least 30 seconds, preferably a minute.
I own several websites, and will try to find one that I can park a few videos in, and provide links here without cluttering up this forum.
Looking in my rifles at home, I discovered what I expected... Copper and carbon fouling, chatter on both button-rifled and cut rifling, and so on. - And I thought that they were clean!
I still hesitate to inspect my 54 caliber muzzle-loader... I'm afraid of what I might find in there, it was well-used when I bought it.
Today I brought home a new rifle that had been on display in the rack at the gun shop, and decided not to fire the gun until I had had a chance to look at it with the bore-scope.
What I discovered was an amazing amount of dust! Near the muzzle it was really thick, and I didn't see uncluttered steel until the 17" bore-scope was poked all the way down the barrel, close to the chamber and bolt face.
Boy, was it dusty!
I guess I'll run a mop through there, and try again. - And I'll never assume again that a new gun is clean. Besides the dust, I saw a small amount of copper fouling, some of it blue-colored from cleaning I assume. This must have been from a factory test-firing. The copper was in a spot about 3/4 of the way forward from the chamber.
The gun is a Browning BLR Lightweight '81, in .308 Winchester. There was no visible chatter in the barrel, the interior finish was very good.
Nobody likes to think of their barrel having chatter in it, but the truth is that my custom Savage 16 in .243 Winchester has chatter - and it is by far the most accurate rifle that I own. - So chatter is not necessarily the kiss of death. This is why proper break-in of a new barrel can make a big difference on some guns, but makes little difference on others. The Savage was very carefully broken in.
Tomorrow morning after it warms up here in the mountains, I'll take the new BLR to the range to sight it in, and see what it will do with the ammo that I have on hand.
The videos I took average from 20 to 35 megabytes in size. I had to move the scope slowly enough so that I could observe detail, which takes at least 30 seconds, preferably a minute.
I own several websites, and will try to find one that I can park a few videos in, and provide links here without cluttering up this forum.