Is this bore wear? (pictures included, Tikka m65)

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stickhunter

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I recently bought a Tikka M65 Deluxe in 30-06. From the breech, the bore looks great (bright and well-defined rifling), but I noticed something peculiar with the appearance of the muzzle, so I decided to take some pictures and seek some advice as I don't have a lot of experience evaluating bores. I've also included pictures of an unfired Remington 700 30-06 bore for contrast.

Notice how one edge of each of the Tikka's lands is not as well-defined as the other. I would have also thought that the leading edge of each land would wear faster than the trailing edge, but if my understanding is correct, the opposite is occurring with this barrel. Is this a typical wear pattern for rifling and if so, what kind of round count would induce the wear? Is there any cause for concern or is there still lots of life left in this barrel?

The following two pictures are of the Tikka's bore at the muzzle:

032.jpg


047.jpg


And the next two pictures are of a NIB/unfired Remington 700 SPS Stainless bore, also in 30-06:

024.jpg


015.jpg
 
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Looks like two different styles of rifling.

Worn rifling is rounded on both sides of the lands. Nice shape edges on the first pics of rifling.

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The leading edge experiences more lateral forces - so wears in that direction, which makes it visually appear to wear less. That bore looks in decent shape. The majority of the wear appears right at the muzzle. Perhaps this is damage from cleaning. In any event, if this is causing problems, than a cut and recrown will likely solve them.
 
blargon said:
How does it shoot?
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I haven't shot this rifle yet; it was while cleaning it in preparation for the range that I noticed the rifling.

I suspect it will shoot great as it was the main hunting rifle of the gentleman I bought it from (he was giving up hunting due to health) and he took very good care of all his firearms.

The proof is obviously in the shooting, but since I'm relatively new to firearms, I wanted to check if my understanding of bore wear was correct. I'm planning to shoot the rifle this coming weekend so I'll post a followup with the results.
 
thebigslide said:
The leading edge experiences more lateral forces - so wears in that direction, which makes it visually appear to wear less. That bore looks in decent shape. The easily visible wear appears right at the muzzle. Perhaps this is damage from cleaning. In any event, if this is causing problems, than a cut and recrown will likely solve them.
Click to expand...

corrected that for you. To really determine wear, you need to use a bore scope at the chamber end (throat wear).

To the OP: Give it a good copper removal cleaning then see how it shoots. Only way to answer the question without a bore scope.
 
SuperCub said:
Looks like two different styles of rifling.

Worn rifling is rounded on both sides of the lands. Nice shape edges on the first pics of rifling.

.
Click to expand...


You may be right SuperCub; I should try to track down other M65 owners and see what their rifling looks like.

I did some more reading yesterday and discovered that Shilen has "ratchet rifling":

ratchetRifle.gif


The above image is looking from the chamber end of a RH twist barrel, so the lands appear opposite of what you see in my muzzle image. There are definitely some similarities, but it could just be coincidence.
 
Yes, if a barrel wears out from shooting, it wears out by the throat (breach end) eroding away. Not just one side of the lands, but the entire throat.
Some rifles that have no rifling left in the first couple of inches or so, still shoot great. A hunter would likely not be able to tell the difference between that and a new barrel.
 
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