Caution: What you are about to read may shock your sensibility! Reader discretion is advised.
What I am about to describe is a nightmare story. You can decide for yourself whether the ending is happy, sad or neutral.
This is a story about my very first target rifle -- the one that is arguably responsible for my nickname on CGN (P-17).
A number of years ago now, I became interested in trying my hand at target shooting. I didn't have much money or experience, so I discussed the matter with my gunsmith friend Fred Bardua, and we decided to build a basic .308 out of a 1917 Enfield action. My friend Martin Teglasi donated a used Donnelly target barrel which had about 1,000 rounds through it at the time. It's a chrome-moly barrel and had a 1-11" twist with a tight bore of .3065. It was also not lapped OR heat treated in any way, and it fouled like a bastard and did tend to walk a bit when it got heated. Nevertheless, it got me into the game.
Martin also donated a used walnut stock for the project, and he talked Fred into welding a block of steel into the magazine and drilling new holes for the action. He also talked Fred into installing a Remington 700-style recoil lug washer between the barrel and receiver face, and letting the original lug just hang free. I added a Timney trigger, and the finished product does not look half bad. I recently purchased a 6.5-20 x 40 Leupold from a fellow CGNer and mounted it on.
Suffice it to say, this is a somewhat unique rifle and I have a bit of fondness for it, after all these years.
Recently, my plan was to transform it into a varmint rig in .22-250. However, I wanted to get maximum use out of it as a .308 first, so I thought I'd work up a few new loads with some 155, 168 and 180-grain match bullets. In the past, it had averaged between .5 and .7 for 5 shots at 100 metres fairly regularly with loads that it liked, so I wanted to see if I could improve upon this.
The horror happened after I shot it last December. I'd taken it to the range to zero in the Leupold and I'd put it away afterwards without cleaning the barrel. Let's face it, we've all done this after shooting only a few rounds, with no trouble. In this case, the rounds were not corrosive, so I didn't think anything of it.
I'd been planning to take it out for serious testing since early January, but each time I planned to go out, something came up. Finally, I was able to go last Sunday, Feb 17.
The night before, as I was checking things, I checked down the barrel... and nearly had a heart attack. I saw a level of rust through the entire bore so heavy that I could not even detect the swirl of the rifling! What caused this? I still don't have an answer, but I speculate that it resulted from my last outing without cleaning. Perhaps the barrel was cold and caught some condensation? Who knows.
After I started my heart again, I decided to run a wet patch down the bore. As expected, it came out coloured like a red brick. Even worse, muscle power was not enough to push the cleaning rod through -- that's how rough and ugly it was. I had to gently tap the rod through with a mallet. Imagine what would have happened if I'd fired the rifle in this condition?
I followed this with a serious bronze brushing, but it was doing next to nothing. By this point, I was resigned to the likelihood that I'd be getting the .22-250 barrel sooner rather than later. It was over. This is when I did something shocking, as a last-ditch effort.
I slathered up a thick patch with VALVE-GRINDING COMPOUND and ran it back and forth through the barrel 10-20 times. Things were actually getting noticeably smoother now, but I was wondering if there was any rifling left. What the hell? Why not break another taboo? I followed this with a thick wrap of steel wool. I washed it out with solvent, and followed with another heavy patch of valve grinding compound.
After this, as my "light" cleaning, I ran a patch coated with JB through, and then ran a few more patches with G96 to wash everything out. When I looked down the muzzle with a flashlight, I could still see a few small patches of tenacious rust, but overall, it didn't look too bad. It looked like a rifle barrel again.
I figured that I'd have to blow that crap out of the barrel before I started any kind of serious testing, so I resized three old military cases and poured 44.5 grains of Varget in before seating some surplus 147-grain FMJ bullets that Martin had pulled from old IVI ammunition. I simply seated the bullets to the cannelure.
On Sunday afternoon, I took it to the range and fired these three rounds at 100 metres, keeping the Leupold set at 16x. I was happily surprised by the results:
That's not match accuracy, perhaps, but it is not bad, considering the circumstances, and considering that I was using crappy bullets.
Things got even better when I started doing the serious load testing. I have to confess that the breeze was picking up a bit, and I could even see the mirage through my scope at 100 metres. As a result, I had to shade the crosshairs into it a couple of times. Here's the best result with the 155-grain Sierra:
I'd like to think that the flyer low and to the right was a result of wind and/or lousy shooting on my part. When you consider the other four shots, I'd like to think of it as an anomaly, but even if it wasn't, the entire five-shot group is still just a hair over 3/4 m.o.a., which isn't bad, considering the situation. This used to be its favourite load, so I'm fairly confident that on another day I should be able to get back into the .5s again.
The results were even better when I went to the 180s. I loaded a moly-coated Hornady BTHP match bullet over varying charges of Varget. Here is the best group. As an aside, this was the very first moly-coated group I fired, and I shot it AFTER the 155s, without cleaning the barrel first. Usually, the first shot with moly like this is a bit of a flyer. Can you guess which of the shots below was my first shot?
Once again, I take full responsibility for the flyer. Still, it is tantalizing to think that this rifle might be capable of shooting less than 1/2 and inch for five shots with these bullets.
When the guy beside me saw these results and heard my story of rust and desperation, he joked that from now on he was going to try rusting the barrel if his rifle didn't shoot!
So there you have it. Maybe there is hope for this barrel yet.
While I wouldn't recommend valve-grinding compound or steel wool for anything but an emergency situation, it looks like they can work.
What I am about to describe is a nightmare story. You can decide for yourself whether the ending is happy, sad or neutral.
This is a story about my very first target rifle -- the one that is arguably responsible for my nickname on CGN (P-17).
A number of years ago now, I became interested in trying my hand at target shooting. I didn't have much money or experience, so I discussed the matter with my gunsmith friend Fred Bardua, and we decided to build a basic .308 out of a 1917 Enfield action. My friend Martin Teglasi donated a used Donnelly target barrel which had about 1,000 rounds through it at the time. It's a chrome-moly barrel and had a 1-11" twist with a tight bore of .3065. It was also not lapped OR heat treated in any way, and it fouled like a bastard and did tend to walk a bit when it got heated. Nevertheless, it got me into the game.
Martin also donated a used walnut stock for the project, and he talked Fred into welding a block of steel into the magazine and drilling new holes for the action. He also talked Fred into installing a Remington 700-style recoil lug washer between the barrel and receiver face, and letting the original lug just hang free. I added a Timney trigger, and the finished product does not look half bad. I recently purchased a 6.5-20 x 40 Leupold from a fellow CGNer and mounted it on.
Suffice it to say, this is a somewhat unique rifle and I have a bit of fondness for it, after all these years.
Recently, my plan was to transform it into a varmint rig in .22-250. However, I wanted to get maximum use out of it as a .308 first, so I thought I'd work up a few new loads with some 155, 168 and 180-grain match bullets. In the past, it had averaged between .5 and .7 for 5 shots at 100 metres fairly regularly with loads that it liked, so I wanted to see if I could improve upon this.
The horror happened after I shot it last December. I'd taken it to the range to zero in the Leupold and I'd put it away afterwards without cleaning the barrel. Let's face it, we've all done this after shooting only a few rounds, with no trouble. In this case, the rounds were not corrosive, so I didn't think anything of it.
I'd been planning to take it out for serious testing since early January, but each time I planned to go out, something came up. Finally, I was able to go last Sunday, Feb 17.
The night before, as I was checking things, I checked down the barrel... and nearly had a heart attack. I saw a level of rust through the entire bore so heavy that I could not even detect the swirl of the rifling! What caused this? I still don't have an answer, but I speculate that it resulted from my last outing without cleaning. Perhaps the barrel was cold and caught some condensation? Who knows.
After I started my heart again, I decided to run a wet patch down the bore. As expected, it came out coloured like a red brick. Even worse, muscle power was not enough to push the cleaning rod through -- that's how rough and ugly it was. I had to gently tap the rod through with a mallet. Imagine what would have happened if I'd fired the rifle in this condition?
I followed this with a serious bronze brushing, but it was doing next to nothing. By this point, I was resigned to the likelihood that I'd be getting the .22-250 barrel sooner rather than later. It was over. This is when I did something shocking, as a last-ditch effort.
I slathered up a thick patch with VALVE-GRINDING COMPOUND and ran it back and forth through the barrel 10-20 times. Things were actually getting noticeably smoother now, but I was wondering if there was any rifling left. What the hell? Why not break another taboo? I followed this with a thick wrap of steel wool. I washed it out with solvent, and followed with another heavy patch of valve grinding compound.
After this, as my "light" cleaning, I ran a patch coated with JB through, and then ran a few more patches with G96 to wash everything out. When I looked down the muzzle with a flashlight, I could still see a few small patches of tenacious rust, but overall, it didn't look too bad. It looked like a rifle barrel again.
I figured that I'd have to blow that crap out of the barrel before I started any kind of serious testing, so I resized three old military cases and poured 44.5 grains of Varget in before seating some surplus 147-grain FMJ bullets that Martin had pulled from old IVI ammunition. I simply seated the bullets to the cannelure.
On Sunday afternoon, I took it to the range and fired these three rounds at 100 metres, keeping the Leupold set at 16x. I was happily surprised by the results:
That's not match accuracy, perhaps, but it is not bad, considering the circumstances, and considering that I was using crappy bullets.
Things got even better when I started doing the serious load testing. I have to confess that the breeze was picking up a bit, and I could even see the mirage through my scope at 100 metres. As a result, I had to shade the crosshairs into it a couple of times. Here's the best result with the 155-grain Sierra:
I'd like to think that the flyer low and to the right was a result of wind and/or lousy shooting on my part. When you consider the other four shots, I'd like to think of it as an anomaly, but even if it wasn't, the entire five-shot group is still just a hair over 3/4 m.o.a., which isn't bad, considering the situation. This used to be its favourite load, so I'm fairly confident that on another day I should be able to get back into the .5s again.
The results were even better when I went to the 180s. I loaded a moly-coated Hornady BTHP match bullet over varying charges of Varget. Here is the best group. As an aside, this was the very first moly-coated group I fired, and I shot it AFTER the 155s, without cleaning the barrel first. Usually, the first shot with moly like this is a bit of a flyer. Can you guess which of the shots below was my first shot?
Once again, I take full responsibility for the flyer. Still, it is tantalizing to think that this rifle might be capable of shooting less than 1/2 and inch for five shots with these bullets.
When the guy beside me saw these results and heard my story of rust and desperation, he joked that from now on he was going to try rusting the barrel if his rifle didn't shoot!
So there you have it. Maybe there is hope for this barrel yet.
While I wouldn't recommend valve-grinding compound or steel wool for anything but an emergency situation, it looks like they can work.
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