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twoworms
01-20-2007, 08:44 PM
How do you polish the leade on a single shot rifle barrel?

I have a Encore barrel that is starting to shoot better with my cast boolits but I feel that the leade could use a little work. It looks gray when you look at it, not like the rest of the barrel and chamber.

Thanks for you help.

Tim

Phil
01-20-2007, 09:02 PM
Virtually the only way you can do that is to fire "some" jacketed bullets in it. OR, you can try the Tubbs firelapping kit. Other than that, anything you do will likely do more harm than good.
What sort of problems are you having with it?

Cheers,

Phil

twoworms
01-20-2007, 09:28 PM
Phil,

Thanks for your post. I have shot some J bullets in the barrel about 50 or so. I have had many problems with the barrel. My first groups at 50 yards, ran over 18" I could not keep them on a 20x20 box. That was Lee 440gr boolits lube with Lee Alox, I now shoot them lube with Hornady one shot lube and then run 1 to 1.5" ctc at 50 yards. But today I had a little lead in the barrel near the chamber for about 1.5" or so. I'm going to try some Felix lube if I can come up with a sample of it.

Tim

Tim

Phil
01-20-2007, 11:45 PM
Hi Tim,

One idea that you might try is to use some JB Bore Paste. Make a patch that is a VERY tight fit in the barrel, particularly in the throat area. Coat the patch with the bore paste and do about 25 complete strokes (both ways) going an inch or so up the bore (from the breech end). Then completely clean the barrel and repeat the process with JB Bore Bright. Then use a bronze brush and plenty of bore solvent (Hoppe's 9 or equivalent), repeat with clean patches and bore solvent, then dry patches to make sure you have ALL the bore paste out of the barrel. Then shoot it and see what you get.

Is there ANY jacket material fouling the bore at all? If there is ANY jacket fouling in the bore modify the above instruction to include the entire barrel from breech to muzzle. That should get all the jacket material out of the barrel. Having any jacket fouling in the bore will usually preclude good results with cast bullets.

What caliber is the barrel and have you slugged it to find out what the throat measures? The cast bullet must match the throat, regardless of what the groove diameter is.

I imagine the throat area looks different from the rest of the bore and chamber due to the radial tool marks left by the chamber reamer. They probably gave the chamber body a lick and promise of polish but of course wouldn't do anything to the throat.

Let us know how you make out. The Encore reviews I have read from people who own them seem to be generally favorable. They sure are handsome firearms. I have never fired one but have fired a Contender belonging to a buddy. Nice gun.

Cheers,

Phil

twoworms
01-24-2007, 12:48 AM
Phil,

My rifle barrel is a 20" Encore in 500 S&W. The are a few post about it, as I have been working on getting it to shoot my plinking loads.

I'll work at it with the JB bore cleaner and fire a few more J bullets. Each time out it seem to shoot a little better at 50 yards. I'm working on getting it under 3" at 100 yards with my light load. Just for fun, I like to shoot clay birds at 100 yards or so.

One other problem is the forend shoots lose after about 10 or 15 shots.

Thanks for your post.

Tim

P.S. Here is one post.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=11681

Bret4207
01-28-2007, 07:48 AM
If you use the patch method Phil mentioned don't let it getto the muzzle. The patch will expand there and you''ll be opening the muzzle. With JB it might not hurt, but why take the risk?

Fire lapping sounds like what you need. Search this site and you should find several posts relating to fire lapping.

twoworms
02-10-2007, 12:07 AM
I have over 215 rounds loaded for testing next time out. Some of them lubed with Felix lube, some with Lee Alox some with the Hor ONe shot and some J bullets. I also got a new black plastic? forend for the rifle. I think it will stay on better and from what I read it may shoot better. As for the leade, at this time I plan to shoot the heck out of the barrel and see if it gets better. I have worked a little with JB polish, it didn't look like it did anything then then I have 45 year old eyes... :)

Thanks for your post everyone.

Tim

Molly
05-11-2007, 10:02 PM
This is a quick and easy bore clean / polish technique that has worked very well for me, and for a few others too. It was written up in the CBA's 'Fouling Shot' magazine, and others have since reported excellent results with the technique. But if you aren't a CBA member, here's the short version:

The first trial occurred because I bought one of those Yugoslav 8x57 rifles that were being sold as new, unfired military surplus for a pittance. Well, to judge from the cosmoline and condition, I believe that’s exactly what it was. But the bore, though obviously not worn or pitted, wasn’t very smooth either. I could perhaps illustrate it as looking more like the surface had been finished with 400 grit wet-or-dry paper. It may have been new, but it sure wasn’t polished either.

I’d done a lot of reading about fire-lapping, but for the life of me, I simply couldn’t see the logic of pushing abrasives as coarse as what I’d seen recommended down a good bore. And the reports of throat enlargement lent some credence to my reservations.

No doubt I could have used the rifle as is correction - as WAS - for the rest of my life with jacketed bullets, but I’m a cast bullet enthusiast, and have been for decades. I wanted to use it with cast bullets, and a rough bore isn’t commonly considered optimal for them. So I gave the concept of fire-lapping some serious thought. It seemed reasonable that the finer the abrasive, the less likely I was to encounter serious enlargement problems, and I was willing to accept a longer process for this assurance.

I’m a long-time fan of JB Compound too, and it seemed like a reasonable choice for the trial. I was thinking of using cast bullet, mostly because I could hand-lube their grease grooves with JB, but then again, I had all those pulled slugs from milsurp ammo - I decided to use them instead, and simply use a bore mop between shots to introduce the polish.

I pulled down some ammo, weighed the charges, and reduced it to provide a safety factor. It was well I did, because I did obtain some substantial pressures on the first few shots. But when I ran a patch down the bore to check progress, I was astonished to see that it gleamed like someone had coated it with mercury! But measurements with lead slugs before and after didn’t show any bore enlargement. I suspect that there was some - polishing being a metal removal process - but it was apparently darned little! I wrote it up for the Cast bullet Association, and they’ve since published reports that others have tried it with excellent results. One guy had about ruined the bore of his match rifle, but restored it’s finish and accuracy with this process.

Equipment:
Cleaning rod
Cleaning solvent
Bore mop
Patches
Cleaning solvent
JB compound
Specially loaded ammo (See special notes below)

Procedure:
Take everything to the range, as proceed as follows:
1. Remove the bolt from the rifle.
2. Coat the bore mop with JB compound.
3. Swab the bore to leave a LIGHT coating of JB compound throughout.
4. Replace the bolt.
5. Load with special ammo and fire.
6. Repeat for about half a dozen rounds, swabbing with JB compound between each shot.
7. Clean the bore to check on progress / improvement.
8. Repeat as necessary.

Special notes:
1. Used with some common sense, this process works beautifully and quickly: It will leave a bore mirror bright if everything is done correctly, but will result in little or no enlargement. But it CAN be hazardous if the following warnings are not carefully observed.
2. You MUST NOT use factory ammo. This procedure will elevate pressures, and if factory ammo is used, the results could be very dangerous.
The reason is at least two-fold: the JB compound will increase the friction between the barrel and the bullet quite a bit, requiring much higher pressures to push the bullet down the bore.
Also, the paste will reduce the clearance at the case neck. If the chamber neck area is too heavily coated with JB compound, the case won't be able to expand and release the bullet properly. This can also raise pressures quite a bit.

My first trials used military ammo from which I’d removed a fourth of the powder charge. Even so, I experienced very high pressures for about three shots, though I didn’t notice the pressure signs (badly flattened primers) until I’d finished. After that, the cases all had perfectly normal pressure signs. I found that removing at least 1/3 of the powder charge from a factory round seems to give very satisfactory results in my experience, but I will probably use a 50% powder charge for extra safety from now on. And a heavy coating of JB compound won't work any better or faster than a really thin coating, so use some common sense.
3. I used jacketed bullets, and got fine results. A new rifle (but with an obviously rough bore) gleamed like chrome after about five or six shots. A pitted bore will undoubtedly require more shots. And I strongly suspect that if you want to use cast bullets, you may get somewhat slower but still safer results.
4. Cast bullets may have another advantage too: The 6.5 Carcano's generally have a BORE of about 0.264, and a GROOVE dia of about .270 to .272 in my experience. Handloads with .264 jacketed bullets require base expansion to really grip the rifling and spin the bullet. With light loads, all you may be able to do is polish the tops of the lands. Cast bullets will expand much more easily, and fill the bore grooves for more uniform polishing. Or if you use milsurp jacketed bullets, they are larger than .264, and may work better too.
5. As an extra safety margin, I recommend firing the rifle from the bench (not the shoulder) with the bolt and breech covered with a couple of sandbags. I think this should be adequate to provide greatly improved safety even is everything else goes wrong.

Sorry about all the potential hazard warnings, but they ARE just potential - not necessarily probable - hazards. I think the process is plenty safe if used by someone with ordinary experience and caution, or I wouldn't mention it to you. But I have no way of knowing the level of caution you consider appropriate. So this information is for your information and consideration only; it is not a recommendation to be implemented blindly. Use at your own judgment and risk.

Regards,
Ken Mollohan