Shooting my 6BR at Vokes last weekend in the Lower Mainland Regional Championships with Bill F. I started having a hard time chambering rounds, when I would pull the round out there were large scrapes in the copper jackets of my bulelts (3 tries to chamber 3 different rounds).
I pulled the bolt to see what was the matter and I could see (what looked like) a chunk of copper jacket stuck in the throat, I used my chamber flag to dig out the offending piece and continued to shoot the match.
I did not shoot particularly well but I chalked it up to very windy conditions and switchy mirage.
Jump forward to this past Friday evening when I sat down to start loading for the BC Provincials happening August long weekend.
I decided I should check the throat for wear as I knew the throat was starting to wear more rapidly than it had in the past. So I make up a dummy round to my "at the lands" measurement, chamber the round and I see no marks.....OK.....so I use my inertia puller to move the bullet out some, adjust my die .005 and chamber again.
I pull the round out and count 3 marks on the bullet......it's a 4 groove barrel. OK.....knock the bullet out another .005, reseat, rechamber, check bullet.....still only 3 marks....hmmmmmmmmm.
Take the bullet out a full .010 more and I see 3 hard marks and 1 soft mark......WTF? Reseat bullet another .010 out, check marks and then it dawns on me that the previous weekend when I thought I was pulling a piece of copper jacket from the barrel it was actually a piece of the lands that had broken off.
Now of course barrels do eventually go south, but did it have to go when I have only 4 days to load for the biggest shoot of the season in BC!?!?!?!?!?!?
Needless to say I am going out tomorrow with my backup gun (also has 1600 rounds through it) to see if I can find a load for the bullets I have on hand so I can at least have a sporting chance at the provincials.
Oh well, that barrel has been very good to me over the past 1.5yrs and I will miss it dearly. I don't expect to run into a hummer of a barrel like that one was for some time.
Wish me luck, I have 4 days to make sure a load works in my backup, load 300 rounds for it plus load another 200+ rounds for my long range gun for the weekend following in Portland.........No rest for the wicked.
I pulled the bolt to see what was the matter and I could see (what looked like) a chunk of copper jacket stuck in the throat, I used my chamber flag to dig out the offending piece and continued to shoot the match.
I did not shoot particularly well but I chalked it up to very windy conditions and switchy mirage.
Jump forward to this past Friday evening when I sat down to start loading for the BC Provincials happening August long weekend.
I decided I should check the throat for wear as I knew the throat was starting to wear more rapidly than it had in the past. So I make up a dummy round to my "at the lands" measurement, chamber the round and I see no marks.....OK.....so I use my inertia puller to move the bullet out some, adjust my die .005 and chamber again.
I pull the round out and count 3 marks on the bullet......it's a 4 groove barrel. OK.....knock the bullet out another .005, reseat, rechamber, check bullet.....still only 3 marks....hmmmmmmmmm.
Take the bullet out a full .010 more and I see 3 hard marks and 1 soft mark......WTF? Reseat bullet another .010 out, check marks and then it dawns on me that the previous weekend when I thought I was pulling a piece of copper jacket from the barrel it was actually a piece of the lands that had broken off.
Now of course barrels do eventually go south, but did it have to go when I have only 4 days to load for the biggest shoot of the season in BC!?!?!?!?!?!?
Needless to say I am going out tomorrow with my backup gun (also has 1600 rounds through it) to see if I can find a load for the bullets I have on hand so I can at least have a sporting chance at the provincials.
Oh well, that barrel has been very good to me over the past 1.5yrs and I will miss it dearly. I don't expect to run into a hummer of a barrel like that one was for some time.
Wish me luck, I have 4 days to make sure a load works in my backup, load 300 rounds for it plus load another 200+ rounds for my long range gun for the weekend following in Portland.........No rest for the wicked.
