Bore wear and the paper patched bullet

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D. Taylor Sapergia
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Bore wear and the paper patched bullet

Post by D. Taylor Sapergia »

At a recent discussion, a BPCR shooter proclaimed the evils of bore wear when using paper patched bullets. As much as he is entitled to his opinion, I would like to initiate another discussion with you about this subject.

Another shooter whose opinion I trust, offered that running a patch with sperm whale oil ( or its equivalent) down the bore after cleaning between shots, will take care of any wear imparted by the paper. Opinions on this point please, as well.
bobw
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Re: Bore wear and the paper patched bullet

Post by bobw »

With original guns with there soft steel barrels, wear could be a factor after thousands of rounds. With Shiloh barrels it is not a factor period. Figure out what reloading costs are on 20,000 rounds of ppb loads and compare that to a new barrel and install cost. The cost of replacing the barrel is insignificant to the cost of actually wearing one out in ammo costs. That any of us will last long enough and shoot enough to actually wear one out will be the real trick in my line of thought and an actual cause for a celebration. The comments about accelerated barrel wear by ppb use are mostly from people too incompetent to patch their own and need the grease groove crutch to get by. Flame on :lol: bobw
bobw
D. Taylor Sapergia
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Re: Bore wear and the paper patched bullet

Post by D. Taylor Sapergia »

Like you way of thinking. Many thanks. I shall never again let it concern me.
D. Taylor Sapergia
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Re: Bore wear and the paper patched bullet

Post by D. Taylor Sapergia »

..and the second question, regarding oiling the bore between shots?
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kenny s
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Re: Bore wear and the paper patched bullet

Post by kenny s »

I've often wondered about this. should I oil the PP, SPG? etc.
most have said no,,,,just shoot dry.
I think oiling the patch will just add another factor that could change a shot. more oil, less oil etc.

the trick is to duplicate everything , shot to shot.

what think? Ken
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Lumpy Grits
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Re: Bore wear and the paper patched bullet

Post by Lumpy Grits »

Some of us with 'Old Arthur' issues in their hands, have to stay with GG if they want to keep shoot'n BPCR.
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BFD
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Re: Bore wear and the paper patched bullet

Post by BFD »

kenny s wrote:I've often wondered about this. should I oil the PP, SPG? etc.
most have said no,,,,just shoot dry.
I think oiling the patch will just add another factor that could change a shot. more oil, less oil etc.

the trick is to duplicate everything , shot to shot.

what think? Ken
Whenever I have oiled patches or bore the variance in velocity has always increased.
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powderburner
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Re: Bore wear and the paper patched bullet

Post by powderburner »

oiling the bore after every shot would probably help lubricate it. Consistantly doing it might be a problem.
Perhaps the lube cookie has a purpose after all. And i do not mean that sarcasticly
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Ray Newman
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Re: Bore wear and the paper patched bullet

Post by Ray Newman »

Do believe Powerburner is onto it....
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Ray Newman
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Re: Bore wear and the paper patched bullet

Post by Ray Newman »

Do believe Powerburner is onto it....
Grand PooBah
WA ST F. E. S.

In real life may you be the bad ass that you claim to be on social media....
BFD
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Re: Bore wear and the paper patched bullet

Post by BFD »

powderburner wrote:oiling the bore after every shot would probably help lubricate it. Consistantly doing it might be a problem.
Perhaps the lube cookie has a purpose after all. And i do not mean that sarcasticly
Aye, but the lube follows the bullet. For all practical purposes, the bullet never even "knows" there is any lube in the bore.

And, of course, when wiping between shots, the lube from the previous shot is pretty much removed. So, when wiping, lube cookies only operate to contain pressure, ie, as a wad.
martinibelgian
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Re: Bore wear and the paper patched bullet

Post by martinibelgian »

And as a protection against gas cutting too.. I shoot military rifle with PP and grease cookie, blowtubing only. One needs a THICK lube cookie...
mdeland
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Re: Bore wear and the paper patched bullet

Post by mdeland »

Kurt's bore scope pictures of his rifles leave little doubt that paper smooths out reamer marks in the bore. What has surprised me is how long it takes to accomplish.
What baffles me is why perfectly clean , smooth and even bores stop shooting when they previously shot very well. I keep coming back to the "glaze" situation described by early match rifle shooters.
Being muzzle loaders and not having modern bore scopes I doubt they were actually observing this but rather theorizing from what they could detect at the muzzle then experimenting with various methods until something worked. Breaking up the so called "glaze" in a bore was an excepted and practiced technique for restoring previous accuracy in this era but seems to be pretty much ignored now days.
A good hand lapping serves several purposes that should be investigated in these cases, in my opinion.
1. It levels any tight spots.
2. It defines lands and corners because it cuts faster on the raised surfaces.
3. The back and forth action of the grit charged lap breaks up glaze and textures the bore interior.
4. Smooths reamer and rifling marks wither broached, buttoned or cut which includes button chatter that is quite common in modern barrels.
BFD
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Re: Bore wear and the paper patched bullet

Post by BFD »

martinibelgian wrote:And as a protection against gas cutting too.. I shoot military rifle with PP and grease cookie, blowtubing only. One needs a THICK lube cookie...
For unrelated reasons, how thick is thick Gert? I've been using 0.15" or 0.12" thick lube wads when I use them. I don't now that thicker would help, but maybe.

This being for hunting loads.
BFD
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Re: Bore wear and the paper patched bullet

Post by BFD »

martinibelgian wrote:And as a protection against gas cutting too.. I shoot military rifle with PP and grease cookie, blowtubing only. One needs a THICK lube cookie...
For unrelated reasons, how thick is thick Gert? I've been using 0.15" or 0.12" thick lube wads when I use them. I don't now that thicker would help, but maybe.

This being for hunting loads.

In the FWIW Department, all of my target rifles (those with the most shots fired), still show the tooling marks that came with them. In other words, many many thousands of rounds of paper patches without any lube whatsoever have not smoothed them out, although the Winchester shows some sign of this, but not much.
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