Shiloh Rifle Forums

Another interesting conversation came from Proof Research. They do a lot of stuff with barrels for big military guns (tanks and things) and have done a lot of research concerning barrels in general. The thing that caught my attention was the polish of the inside of the barrel. Apparently, a mirror finish is not the best and actually a certain amount of roughness is better. I was surprised as I would have thought the bore could not be too smooth. I have thought that perhaps that explains some of Savages barrels as a lot of them shoot very well, and are surprisingly rough when you look down them with a bore scope.

Kurt wrote: ↑Wed Nov 24, 2021 2:37 pm Just shoot PP bullets and you will get it done.

New rifle
IMG_1417.jpg
20, 000 plus down the bore
bore 2.jpg

It will get seasoned with use.

Pretty amazing Kurt. I would say she don't need anymore polish!

I’ll post up when I hear back. He might still be in Montana killin critters…

One thing about this stuff is that I believe it’s for brand new barrels, not used. Once a guy starts shooting rounds through a barrel some fouling and bits of bullet jacket get into those pores and you never really get all of it out, so it would maybe make this treatment less effective. I’ll double check all this with him when he gets back to me.

Yes and no. Cody, I've just shot the darn thing, and I've shot and cleaned. Truthfully I can't tell the difference. To my recollection, it was 10 jacketed or 40 lead bullets to achieve the desired result. The idea was to lay the "nap" of the bore down for a cut rifled barrel. I also recall that Dan T. advocated lapping the bore on barrels that in his opinion were too smooth. Again, I can't tell the difference.

Woody

I have done the barrel break in with copper jacket bullets, with grease groove lead bullets and with paper patched bullets. The barrel that shoots the best is the one broke in with the paper patch bullets and it seem easier to clean and has less of a fowling problem, but all the barrels were from different manufacturers. They all shot extremely well. I seriously don’t think it makes that much difference but that’s just an opinion. Do what you think is best and if your in the winner’s circle, it’s not due to your barrel break in process.

KA

The stupid is strong on some of those FB forums. The guy advocates using cartridge, totally un friking aware it has not been made since 1997.

Then admits for all of his great advice he hasn’t loaded a BP round in 8 years.


Yup….the German and Dutch er screaming law violations for alterations to a breach block. Be glad you live in America.

Kenny W.

I'm not following you Kenny. Who and what are you talking about?

Woody

I think the roughness is similar to a cylinder bore in an engine. You roughen it by honing it with a stone and putting cross-hatch markings on it for the rings to seat and seal. Super-smooth cylinder bores, low compression, low power.

As for breaking in a barrel, I never bothered to. I just shoot it and clean it like any other. Nothing special......

Sharps and bps forums on FB Woody.


Kenny

Well, the owner of Shiloh says just shoot it. He should know. I've done two break-ins on BPCR barrels when they were new and had never been shot. I read that it was done at this time or forget it. It was said that part of the process was to seal the pores of the metal before they were full of fouling that got sealed in the pours to only appear later as pitting when it rusted thru. That is one reason to use factory loads and not BP and lead. I didn't say it, that's what I read. Shoot the round, clean out the powder fouling first, then clean out all of the copper. Dry the barrel and repeat. It was very easy to see the fouling becoming less and less on the patches from the next shot. By the 5th or 6th shot the fouling had decreased by over 50%. I stopped at around 8 or 9 shots, it had done all it was going to do. These 2 barrels were both stainless, one was a Douglas and the other was a Ron Smith. It made a believer out of me. Did it make them shoot any better, I don't know. Did it make them easier to clean, I don't know, stainless barrels clean very easy anyway. I just liked what I saw. I'm not trying to convince anybody to do it, to each his own, it's your barrel.

sackett wrote: ↑Wed Nov 24, 2021 7:01 pm I think the roughness is similar to a cylinder bore in an engine. You roughen it by honing it with a stone and putting cross-hatch markings on it for the rings to seat and seal. Super-smooth cylinder bores, low compression, low power.

As for breaking in a barrel, I never bothered to. I just shoot it and clean it like any other. Nothing special......

Actually you don't have to do that for the new ring technology as the ring face is finished very smooth. Worked in a race engine shop for 24yrs. The hone pattern is to hold oil for lube for the skirts primarily and some for rings. Alusil blocks are finished with special felt pads and a special lapping compound to lap down the aluminum leaving the silicon proud for the rings to run on and the piston skirts are tin coated so they won'[t scuff. F1 engines use nikasil coated aluminum liners finished with a very fine cross hatch and use special iron rings with a chrome top with a round face, have built a few of those.

Jim O

Smithy advises to use this product. Bore must be absolutely clean, not even the slightest trace of any kind of fouling at all.

https://www.brownells.com/gun-cleaning- ... 24122.aspx

Hey Jim O (alfajim),
I liked reading your comments on racing engines. I used to be nuts on building Chevy small-block engines my way. My bud was a specialist in building engines for not only circle-burners and hobbyists, but also for AA & AAA fuel dragsters up/over here in WA State; Pat Murphy was his name. Great wrench. Pat's gone now. Off topic, but Pat's theory was cast rings DID carry oil better than chrome moly, but they never found their seat - cast for racing, but chrm moly (Perfect Circle) for the hobbyist.

Using that same theory and applying it to BP barrels, wouldn't one think that shooting paper-patched bullets over a barrel's lands and grooves for many, many years 'might' wear the steel more that soft lead with grease in the bullets' grooves? ...Get ready for the comments from both sides... btw, I shoot nothing but pp in my three Shilohs, because I'm a traditionalist, and I like wrapping the slugs, and I don't have to mine lead out of the bore anymore after I discovered how to adjust the patch on the slug. BTW, I've taken trophies with pp loads at 300,400, and 600 yd. (at 1,000 I lost by 6 points to a very fine competitor...once) competitions against those shooting gg, so I feel I'm a little justified in saying what I'm crowing about.

Also, about mining lead from the bore - I've done this both while shooting both gg, and pp loads. The process in removing this lead from the barrel's interior is pretty hazardous to the bore, IMO, IMO. Driving the TIGHT turpentine-wetted patch through the bore with a rubber mallet (with a coated Dewey .45 cal. rod and bore guide, mind you) has got to be destructive! I've found holes in the patch(s) after they exited the bore, which means that the brass jag on the end of the rod contacted the bore; not every time, but sporadically. When I saw this I immediately decided that I'd never go back to shooting gg ever again, and sold both of my Paul Jones gg Postel bullet molds (which were the last two molds Paul ever made) to a close friend. All I clean with now is a 3/8" delrin rod, two or three wetted patches, a couple dry, and oil the bore with EEZOX.

Didn't mean to offend anyone. it wasn't my point. Still free, human, and twenty-one.

Enuf; it's getting late,
Robert