Shooting Traditional Firearms and Weapons > General Interest

long-term accuracy

(1/3) > >>

vermontfreedom:
So, here's a topic for discussion:

Why determines how long a ML will stay accurate?

or

What degrades accuracy long-term?

That is, besides obvious things like shooting rocks or nails out of the bore, not cleaning your bore and letting it rust away, or letting a segmented cleaning rod rub against the muzzle crown each pass while cleaning or loading....

I ask because (1) it's time for some discussion here and (2) interesting that you occasionally see in these books about old rifles that a bore was found "with a trace of rifling" suggesting it was shot many many many times and/or the iron was really soft and degraded quickly.

I'm hoping any discussion here will help instruct some newcomers to take care of their rifle bores and remind those of us "old hats" the importance of 'careful caretaking'.

Wyoming Mike:
Other than not taking proper care of a gun, I would say the biggest problem is muzzle wear.  The new barrels are not iron like the old ones and don't wear out like they did.   The ramrod picks up all sorts of grit that works like rubbing compound can wear the muzzle when used a long time.

I have two rifles that have seen heavy use for over thirty years.  At first I just used the ramrod in the rifle.  After four or five years the accuracy degrated and I thought I would have to replace the barrels.  I didn't really want to do that because one was a Sharon that wasn't made anymore and the other was a Mountain Rifle with a Douglas barrel that could not easily be replaced either.

I found an article in one of the BP magazines about recrowning to bring a tired barrel back.  I ended up cutting an 1/8" off the muzzle on both rifles and recrowning them with a shallow crown.

It brought the rifles right back.  At that time I started using a range rod with a muzzle protector.  The only time the ramrod with the gun gets used is when I am hunting.  Both of these rifles are still shooting great after the surgery 25 years ago.

Captchee:
i think also the amount of shooting  should be considered .
 one of my rifles has a iron barrel .
  my wife bought the rifle for me used in 1991 . it was originaly made in the early 1970 .
 i have no doubt that i have put at least 10,000  rounds through it . who knows how many were put through it before i owned it .
 today its just as accurate as it was when i got it .

 so through the years i have came to think that many of these iron barrels  were shot out simply from 1000 s of rounds being fired . that being added to that the barrel may have started out with  light  riflings to begin with . that added with  contaminates , both from the RR and in the lubes  that may have been used .

 today  i think its  about cleaning . this is both how you clean and how often .
 i see some folks that scrub , scrub and scrub somemore . wire brushes , you name it .
 myself i have never used a brush  in any of my  barrels .
 i also dont clean  tell a batch comes out  white as if new .
 i clean tell the patch comes out a nice  light grey color. then i lube  tell the bore is well coated .
 i have never noticed any pitting from this  and  in my iron barrel i can shoot 30+ rounds without running a patch . of course this depends on how good the powder is . dirty powder fouls more .
 which brings up another real  possablity .
 if the powder used was low grade and dirty  in its make , just the process of cleaning can scrub the bore .
 those of us that  have  shot  the old Dupont powders  can attest to how they fouled  in comparission to  the Swiss and Goex  of today .

greyhunter:
My first TC Hawken flinter, after many shoots and deer seasons,not sure of timeframe, lost it's accuracy. I guess over ten years of use. It developed a slick spot (tight,loose then tight at loading) about a foot down the barrel. I cleaned it as good as I could then unbreeched it and looked at the bore to the muzzle. Couldn't really determine anything different in rifling, so put it back together and tried different patch thickneses, same thing. I assumed that the barrel had opened up in dia. from the powder burn getting hottest at that point.  Shot out? Anyway I traded it off and picked up another one. Should have made the barrel into a pistol and rebarreled the rifle. Haven't worn one out that way since. Your thoughts Capt?

Captchee:
well  IMO the  highest pressure and hitest temps in burn ar at the breech to within about 12 inches of the breech .
 the further down the barrel the charge moved s , the lower the pressure and the lower the temps . this is speaking of BP of course . synthetics act a little differently .
 Inspecting  original iron barrels its not uncommon to find this original area  where the ignition starts , to be larger . This can be from poor cleaning practices or just plain use .

 With modern steals , something many folks don’t think about is loading and RR use..
  Some times if we  think about it  we find that  the wear comes from being consistent . IE
A)  we use  X length short starter that pushes the ball to that spot
B) this is the area where maybe your RR drags  when  removing it  
C) when cleaning   sometimes , I know with myself , ill find myself swabbing the bore  and then realize  I was only scrubbing one area more then others
D) Lube . Ya lube ,   namely things like bore butter. See when the lube  gets old , it gets hard , it collects dirt and dust . Then when you load it  , It get  slammed with the short starter  to a point in the barrel . Then taped  with the RR . This I believe causes a slick area to form    as this is  may be the area that  the dirty lube is  pushed away

 Now if you have ever shot conicals ?  Leading can also act in strange ways  and will effect accuracy
 The other thing to consider is  was the rifle ever accidentally short started. this can happen  and  happens more then we want to think .
 If this happens 1 of 3 things will happen
1) Nothing  to the visible eye . But if one uses one of those longer short starters , over  time the pressure can effect the  barrel  for a few inches  just back of the  area  where the ball stopped .
2) the barrel  acorns . .
3) the barrel fails  completely and its walls get breeched

 I would bet though you probably will find the cause though in A, B, or C rather then 123
 There are many things that cause  things to happen , your problem could be any number of them
 But IMO to often we say . ‘I shot the barrel out “  when really what  needs done is the barrel freshened .
 IE Lapped , leading removed . Plastic removed .
 Yep plastic . If your not using 100% non synthetic blended patches  or wads , your burning plastic, just as any sabot shooter would be doing .

  Again , a lot of things could cause this . But my point is , very few folks actually shoot enough to  have the shooting alone , wear  the bore

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page