Freebore: Does Accuracy Generally Suffer?

If you gave 10 shooters a bullet and rifle and told them to determine length to lands you’d get about 3 different methods and 11 different answers. Its a little hard to get them to agree on how much they are jumping or jamming when they can’t agree on where the lands start.

A bullet will jam in 35-40 thousandths just dropping it into the chamber. What heavy handed and closing the bolt techniques can do is considerable.
 
Great contributions, guys! Actually, when I started this thread, I was thinking about the kind of freebore you see in most Weatherby rifles--a clear .25" to .5"--and not the lesser amounts of jump you control with seating depth. This greater freebore has been used to jack up velocities while maintaining acceptable pressures--at least in the Weatherby rifles, and, I'm told, in some Schultz & Larsen 7x61 S&H chamberings in their earlier rifles (M54J to M68DL).
 
OP - your initial post made the assertion that , "Often best accuracy if achieved by having the bullet just kissing the rifling, so that freebore is a step in the opposite direction." Then you asked, 'What have you guys noticed re accuracy with rifles having freebore?" There are some of us who have experienced differently than the first part - a couple have mentioned that you might want to consider measuring for "straight" / runout, and a couple have mentioned that you just have to shoot with your loads in your rifle to tell us what results you get with it - we can not experience with our stuff what you might experience with your stuff.
 
South Pender said:
Great contributions, guys! Actually, when I started this thread, I was thinking about the kind of freebore you see in most Weatherby rifles--a clear .25" to .5"--and not the lesser amounts of jump you control with seating depth. This greater freebore has been used to jack up velocities while maintaining acceptable pressures--at least in the Weatherby rifles, and, I'm told, in some Schultz & Larsen 7x61 S&H chamberings in their earlier rifles (M54J to M68DL).
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For many years, the Weatherby Mark V rifles had a 1-1/2" accuracy guarantee, while many other rifles had 1" or even 1/2" guarantees. From my experience with Mark V rifles n Weatherby cartridges, I can understand why.
 
I have 2 Weatherby Vanguards chambered in 257 Weatherby. One is happy with lots of jump, using the 120 Partition.
The other shoots way better tucked right up closer to the lands. [.015"] Both will shoot sub-moa.
I think that individual firearms will show more variance than we generally assume. Dave.
 
Dogleg said:
And for even more decades Weatherby had that 1 1/2” guarantee while everyone else had SFA.
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Then again. most other companies that have no accuracy guarantee, charged half as much for their rifles as Weatherby charged for the Mark V. And many of their rifles were more accurate than the Mark V.
 
Eagleye said:
I have 2 Weatherby Vanguards chambered in 257 Weatherby. One is happy with lots of jump, using the 120 Partition.
The other shoots way better tucked right up closer to the lands. [.015"] Both will shoot sub-moa.
I think that individual firearms will show more variance than we generally assume. Dave.
Click to expand...

I'm finding firearms more particular and fussy about what goes in them than today's women! :)

Next date I go on, I'll tell her I'm chasing the lands because she has too much freebore!
 
Every gun is different...Some like it jammed some dont!

Thats why we handload. First load i try is 10thou then 20,an go from there.
or how far the mag will allow,which is the ###est thing ever.
 
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