Fire lapping -Help needed.

[buck1]

I bought at midway, a wheeler lapping grit kit. BUT I bought the refill kit by mistake. No instructions, or steel plates. I can come up with the steel but does anyone have the instructions? The grits are, 220,320.and 600 in paste form.
I have always been spooked of fire lapping ,but decided to smooth my new 270 win bbl that way. Any help would be great! Thanks...Buck

[waksupi]

Buck, I'm assuming it is like the LBT lap kit. You put a small amount of the compound on the lower plate, and roll you bullets between another top plate. You just want to impregnate the bullets with the compound.

[HotGuns]

Impregnate the bullets with the compound and then load them into the case.

The key here is to load SLOW. You only want the bullet to exit the barrel, you dont want any more speed than needed.

Unless your bore is really rough, I'd go past the 220 and start out with the 320. Load about 10 rounds and shoot them through.

Then completley clean your barrel.
Reevaluate and see how it looks. Put a piece of cotton on your cleaning rod and run it down the barrel. If ANY of the cotton ball comes off and you see little fibers in the barrel, it is still rough and you need to repeat the process.

When it looks good..
Start the process with the 600 and repeat.

When smoothed out, you'll eventually notice that your barrel will last longer between cleanings, and it will be easier to clean. It might even tighten up your groups. What ever you do, dont get carried away with the process. You are grinding the rough spots out, if you do too much you are reducing the life of the barrel.

If your barrel is reasonably smooth to begin with with you may not see any improvement.

[buck1]

Its a new bbl. I put 200 jacketed full loads through it. But is still a little rough.
Its a 270 win singleshot with a 14 in bbl. I will use the 120 gr 280473 GC boolit. I am thinking 12 gr of Unique??
Also should I use hard/soft alloy for the shugs.
I just want to get it ready for CBs. Its not real bad, but its juuuust bad enugh to need a bit of smoothing out. I am tired of shoothing high $ jacketed fodder through it, and I want to shoot some real boolits!! ......Buck

[44man]

Make sure your lapping boolits are soft. Don't use hard lead. I don't know about the 12 grs. of unique, might be too fast. Someone else here should know.
LBT says use 2 to 4 grs. of Bullseye in rifles. Also use old, fired, unsized brass and assemble by hand. MAKE SURE EVERY BOOLIT LEAVES THE BARREL. They should come out slow and you should see them fly, but look down the bore after every shot.

[David R]

I was wondering if JB bore cleaner would work for fire lapping. I shot some too high velocity for the alloy and leaded my 308 up like I never saw. I did get it clean after much scrubbing. I shot similar loads in my old enfield and it cleaned up pretty easy.

SO I am now going to shoot some condom boolits in my 308 to get rid of the rough spots, but was thinking of JB for firelapping.

Anybody done it?

I was thinking of lubing ONE boolit with JB, shooting it, clean and see how it looks.

Thanks for the cotton tip, I never heard of it till now. I am going to try it tonight after I clean the barrel.

David

[Willbird]

I have read of using it Dave, but it is very very fine.

also a question for the thread, I assume you discard the brass you used to firelap because it has the grit embedded inside the neck ??

Veral insists the Clover will not work as well as his special sauce, has anybody found that to be true ??


Bill

[Singletree]

Buck,
You'll need a large soft bullet to completely fill the bore. If the bullet is too small or made that way by aggressively rolling it between the steel plates, only the top of the lands will be polished with no beneficial smoothing of the grooves.

[MOA Shooter]

I bought at midway, a wheeler lapping grit kit. BUT I bought the refill kit by mistake. No instructions, or steel plates. I can come up with the steel but does anyone have the instructions? The grits are, 220,320.and 600 in paste form.
I have always been spooked of fire lapping ,but decided to smooth my new 270 win bbl that way. Any help would be great! Thanks...Buck

Buck I'm a newbie here who lurked for a time and then signed on. I have read the old shooters archives somewhat on barrel lapping. I read where Aladdin wrote allot on barrel lapping and what I remember from it was you can't firelap a barrel right unless you understand what your doing and what needs to be done. Just "firing that wet sand down a tube" to quote him wasn't a good plan. Your assuming your barrel needs it. If might not and you might screw the throat up for size.

MOA

[David R]

I have read of using it Dave, but it is very very fine.

also a question for the thread, I assume you discard the brass you used to firelap because it has the grit embedded inside the neck ?

Bill

Good thought Bill, All I have for my 308 right now is Federal (was) once fired MATCH brass. I think I will go buy some of those factory condom loads and shoot them. If the barrel doesn't clean up, I'll use that brass for the fire lapping and toss it when I am done.

Do you use the abrasive as a LUBE or just on the outside of the boolit?

My 22-250 doesn't lead at all, boolits are going av 2684, but I shot a bunch of condoms (300 or so) it before trying lead.

David

[Willbird]

I'm asking for guidance and input, I have not done one yet, Veral sells the info along with the stuff to do it, I just never seem to get round to ordering it, and would like to hear from people that just used clover and had good results

Bill

[MGySgt]

I have the same kit - I just have to go find the danged thing. I am pretty sure that the instruction booklet is still in the box. I

I never used it, I used the one from LBT. I am heading out to the casting shed to see if I can find it.

Drew

Ok Wentr to casting shed and low and behold the kit was only in the second foot locker I looked in, and the instructions were there!!!!

Short Version:

First clean barrel and remove all traces of Jacket fouling.

You must also clean the bore very well between grits.

Smear a small amount of the 220 grit on one plate and place a boolit on the plate and roll it back and forth to impregnatge the bullet (note: I used unsized cast from straight WW).

Wipe excess from bullet.

Load as normal LIGHT LOADS. (as mentioned earlier use as little powder as you can.

Load 5 rounds at a time and check barrel between sets.

Continue through the grits.

Word of warning from experience - If you load too hot - very bad leading - remember no lube!!! I didn't remember that!

[JohnH]

Clover is a bit watery, bt I see no reason that would affect a thing. NAPA I believe sells a valve laping compound in a squeeze tube that has more the consistancy of toothpaste, but once it is rubbed out on a plate then had a boolit rolled through it till the boolit is empregnated, what does it matter if it is watery or not? As cheap as lapping compound is, one could buy samples from various parts stores till one of a pasty consistancy is found. No big deal there.

What firelapping may not show is any tight spots in the bore, but pushing a pure lead bullet through will show it. I've read that some find tight spots where the barrel has been roll marked. I've no idea how tight a spot would have to be to affect accuracy

[carpetman]

Hot Guns--Could you possibly use another term--other than impregnate? Waksupi heard about rabbits and is seldom heard from. He reads that about bullets and the thoughts he might conjugate,we may never hear from him again--you know how those guys from Montana are.

[Slowpoke]

Its a new bbl. I put 200 jacketed full loads through it. But is still a little rough.
Its a 270 win singleshot with a 14 in bbl. I will use the 120 gr 280473 GC boolit. I am thinking 12 gr of Unique??
Also should I use hard/soft alloy for the shugs.
I just want to get it ready for CBs. Its not real bad, but its juuuust bad enugh to need a bit of smoothing out. I am tired of shoothing high $ jacketed fodder through it, and I want to shoot some real boolits!! ......Buck

I use a med. hard bullet 12-15 BHN

Find your load before you ever fire a lap round, I use a piece of 3/4" pine ten feet from the muzzle as a gauge. I use the same bullet just sans the lap. When the bullet will bounce off the board I call it good. Any faster and you are courting unnecessary throat enlargement, any slower and you will most likely stick a lap bullet in the barrel.

Your bullet will gain diameter when you inbed it with lap compound, myself I don't want a lap bullet that is larger than groove diameter for smoothing a barrel, . By all means lube the bullet most anything will work, Vaseline works fine.

Hopefully you have a number or a precise spot in the barrel that you will use for a gauge so you will know when to stop.

Good luck

[drinks]

I have the LBT stuff, only difference between it and Clover is imagination plus a little more oil in the LBT. Also, LBT costs about 8 times what Clover does.
I used air cooled wws, all I had at the time, and 4-5gr Universal, the fastest powder I had, did 3 very old barrels, 1 with Lbt, 2 with Clover fine, same results after 20 shots each.
Caught the bullets in a box of newspaper, did make sure all came out the barrel.
Just rolled the bullets on a piece of plate glass I had with another piece of glass on top.
All 3 barrels came out as well as could be expected, all shoot pretty good, quite an improvement over the original condition.
I have never used it on a new barrel, have been lucky enough to get good ones.
Don

[Blackwater]

Willbird, I didn't use clover, exaclty, but I did "firelap" the barrel on my #3's .45/70. It was badly rough, and I really want to rebarrel it with a 28-30" oct. barrel anyway, so figured I'd try it. If it ruined the barrel, that would only hasten my evil plan, right?

I took some of my 400 and some 1200-2000 grit polishing compound left over from my knifemaking, and mixed it in with my BPCR lube (Emmert's with lanolin). Lubed up about 30 bullets, and it really improved the barrel. Some folks admonish that I've left grit embedded in the barrel, but I've also heard that most of it, if not all of it, will eventually shoot out. It DID smooth up the roughness of my barrel, and where it once copper fouled very badly, it's not much more tractable and easier to clean. My groups tightened by a measurable bit as well, but I can't right now recall just how much. Just off the top of my head, I think it was about 30% or so, but it didn't shoot badly to start with. It just fouled badly, and I wanted to shoot some cast in it.

If it's a barrel that you really like, I think I'd get the kit and do it "right." I don't shoot that #3 much, and was willing to ruin the barrel, so I tried it, and maybe I just came out lucky, so I can't recommend doing what I did. Just thought I'd relate the info to you, FWIW.

I really want a tapered oct. barrel on that thing, with the "tulip" and all. Ought to make oen FINE rifle if I ever get my round tuit. If and when I move on that one, it'll shoot cast almost exclusively, if not actually exclusively. I'm thinking at least a .45/90 if not a 2 7/8", but with neck/back problems, I'm thinking that a 2 7/8" case WILL be too much to resist loading up some "elephant" loads a' la' the .450 Watts and .458 Lott levels. My recoil limit ain't what it USED to be!

[Bret4207]

Blackwater- Walmart has Round Tuits on sale fo $3.44 this week. You'll find them near the sky hooks and Johnson Rods.

[buck1]

Drew, and everybody... THANKS A MILLION!!!!!! Yoy guys have been very,very helpfull !!!!!
All the boolits I have cast up are BHN 20 , so I am off to grab my ww ingots and mold.
I am thinking a small charge of 2400 powder say 5 gr will push it out the bbl with out any ill effects.
One more question Should I use the gas check?? ....Buck

[Bass Ackward]

One more question Should I use the gas check?? ....Buck

Buck,

Up to you. It just requires more pressure to guarantee exit. Plus, rolling them to try impregnating can make them lose and come off. It will make you bite your tongue.