How do you tell if a barrel has been shot out?

[Hoss50]

Do what Lance and others have said. Also try and check your barrel twist, and maybe try lighter bullets.

[forepaw]

It is pretty easy to tell for someone who knows how to read barrels, but the best bet is find someone with a borescope and see if they will take a peek inside that thing.

 

Basically, look at the rifling just ahead of the chamber. It helps to take the action out of the stock so you can get your eye as close to the back of the action as possible. Try varying background and lighting. On a good barrel, the lands are sharp at the edges and flat on top. The grooves and lands are clear. On a barrel with some wear, say 1000 - 2000 rds. you can see the tops of the lands are getting a little indistinct at the corners. With high-velocity cartridges, at 2 - 3k rds. or so, you can see the lands are flattening out less distinct, and the edges may be slightly rounded. When you get past 4k, you may see just an outline of where the lands used to be for say, 1 1/2 or 2" in front of the throat. In some rifles, you can't see any lands at all in front of the throat - there is kind of a frosty or blurred outline, sometimes a sort of wavy remnant of where the lands used to be. Usually a rifle will lose accuracy well before it gets to this point. You can't tell much about the main part of the bore without a borescope, but you won't need one if the wear is this far advanced. I have only seen a couple of bores this bad. One was on a Sako .308 (a very nice rifle) at a pawn shop. When I pointed out the washed-out throat, the owner went a little nuts and told me I was full of bull, that anyone with a lick of sense knows these modern barrels are good for 100k rounds.

 

I occasionally shoot with a guy who has a Rem. 40x in .308 that he swears has 40k rounds through the original barrel. It shoots ok, not great, but that must be some steel!

 

Sometimes you can "chase" the worn rifling by seating your bullets out further and further. I am doing that on an old .270, and it still shoots pretty well, at least in terms of hunting accuracy. It probably has at least 2k rds. through it. I have a spare barrel ready to go, but just haven't seen the accuracy drop off enough to get it installed - but it is getting close. Eventually you either run out of neck to hold the base of the bullet securely, or else your OAL becomes too long to fit the magazine. It's actually time for a new barrel long before you have to worry about those conditions, however.

 

Hope that helps.

 

forepaw

[Titanium700]

Check the crown...

[452b264]

Follow Lances list and put medium loc-tite on all the screws, bases and rings.

[Big or Bust]

Vortex is junk....

 

Even a crown I wouldn't expect that bad of groups at 100....

 

Scope, mounts in that order....

[GreyFox]

After you rule out the scope and bases and rings; get some good bore cleaner (Copper out, Lead out) and follow the directions.

My 7 Mag did similar (2 1/2 MOA). I use Buffalo bore, Copper Out and Lead out. Follow the directions and scrub it (get a NYLON brush) Scrub until you're 100% sure it's spotless. let it sit over night (barrel down) then repeat!

 

I recently read that 98% of "shot out" barrels are fouling!

 

PM if I can assist - I'm in Georgia.

[300RUM]

I've shot a 300 RUM since the round was introduced and I've burnt up a few barrels over the years. It's a gradual process when they go. Groups slowly get bigger, Flyers more common. It's hard to imagine someone would keep shooting a worn-out barrel to get to the point of 6 to 12 inch groups at 100 yards

[More D]

My Winchester 70 in regular old 30-06 was was at 0.6-1moa. I had a recoil pad installed and the trigger cleaned up. Once I got it back the group's grew to 3-4moa. I was heart broken. I finally figured out that the action screw was tightened 1/2 turn too tight.

 

Rifles can be a finicky gal......

[Explorer]

One piece mounts sometimes need to be bedded to the action, also if using Remington rings they need to be set true. Never had the issue but my machinist friend used a piece turned on a lathe to line up the rings before mounting the scope to eliminate twist on the scope. Had a Winchester model 70 that I could never get to shoot good. eventually gave up on it.

[Explorer]

Correction, one peice rails need to be bedded sometimes.

[lancetkenyon]

I might be going to ben avery sunday, if anybody wants to go check it out.

I will be out tjere tomorrow morning to refoul a barrel before hunting season. I would be happy to check it out with you.

[lancetkenyon]

I am headed out in 5 minutes. I won't be there too long this morning. I am wearing a black Wounded Warriors t-shirt, tan shorts, and tan/white Columbia baseball cap.

 

Only shooting 1 rifle today. My 7RM. Look for it if you want to stop and check out your rifle. I brought some tools with me.

 

[lancetkenyon]

I was in contact with the OP. He did not make it to the range, but he picked a great day to skip it. Wind was terrible, and it was cold. Last weekend, it was in the 80s, today was 59 out there with the 11-19 mph cross wind per my Kestrel. Should have grabbed a sweatshirt.

[Rock30golf]

I was in contact with the OP. He did not make it to the range, but he picked a great day to skip it. Wind was terrible, and it was cold. Last weekend, it was in the 80s, today was 59 out there with the 11-19 mph cross wind per my Kestrel. Should have grabbed a sweatshirt.

I am picking my 300 win mag up today from the gunsmith. I will be out at ben avery saturday with the 7mm problem child.

[lancetkenyon]

I won't be around this Saturday.

 

Unless you used a copper remover, and took your time, I would look at finishing cleaning the rifle bore. Try Sweet's 7.62 until you get no blue or green. Then a carbon solvent again.

 

As we discussed, try different factory ammo. An R700 7RM should have a 1:9.25" twist, so anything under a 175-180 should shoot just fine, but some guns are really picky. Also, I personally have only found a few guns that shoot an ELD-X really well. They both happened to be owned by the same guy too. I would try some rounds with a 150-168gr. bullet. Maybe see if anyone has just 5 rounds you can buy off them in various loads, so you are not shelling out for a full box of unknown quality.