Tight Bore In A 10Yr Old Savage 110

[MediumCore358]

As per title I purchased the rifle(7mm Rem Mag) New on sale 10 years ago I've shot it a lot with J-bullets, getting real into feeding all my firearms cast within the last year I decided to slug the bore on this one...to my surprise the slug measures .281 Hmmm let's be sure I ran another one through and checked again, yep .281. What's the deal has anyone had similar measurements? I've recover bullets years ago and noticed deep engraving didn't think too much of it since I was in my infancy reloading. Should I have any concern shooting .285 cast boolits or long/heavy match J-bullets?

[Moonie]

Did you measure with a caliper or a micrometer? That seems awful tight for a 7mm.

[MediumCore358]

I measured with an older micrometer that a smart buddy of mine gave me I trust them to the .001 but they seem accurate to .0001 Also confirmed measurement with cheap but seemingly accurate calipers got the same .281

[izzyjoe]

Boy I bet that one copper fouled bad. I've never seen one that tight, May be time for new barrel.

[swheeler]

Boy I bet that one copper fouled bad. I've never seen one that tight, May be time for new barrel.

I think being full of copper fouling is why the slug measures so small

[country gent]

One thing to try is drive a bullet in from the muzzle 2"-3" and then back out the muzzle, then the same from the chamber end 2"-3" after throat and back out then measure them will tell you if the bore is tight or a tight spot in the bore. Another to try is to push the slug thru the bore by hand feeling for tight spots. Lead will compress down to th smallest part of the bore and not spring back. Te bore may not be tight but have a tight spot where roll stampings or other work has been done.

[MediumCore358]

I'm going to try and remove the copper before I do anymore shooting with it,slug once more +measure then try shoot some J-bullets

[Iowa Fox]

Maybe I'm just getting old and lazy anymore but I never measure a bore these days. I fit them to the throat and use a good bullet lube. I start with a bottom end book load working up slowly as I watch things.

[nekshot]

call me lazy to because that's now my method! Simple Lube for simple cast reload works good for me.

[northmn]

I am kind of in that lazy school also. First I try shooting a normal bullet and if it works and don't lead I don't worry about it. I used to like to shoot cast in collectable old military bolt actions. Some of the bores had variations that would send some off the deep end today, but they would shoot.

DP

[nicholst55]

If the barrel of your rifle is that tight, I'd be talking to Savage for a replacement barrel, personally. First I'd have someone else measure the slugs though, just to eliminate that question in my mind - did I measure correctly? Just MHO.

[rintinglen]

That tight bore could be an issue with factory loads in a 7mm,in fact, I suspect that it does cause high pressures. But with cast boolits, it is less how well the boolit fits the bore and more how well it fits the throat. Your 285 boolit will only increase pressures by a few thousand psi max. Given that cast boolits operate at pressures well below the factory 60,000, a modest rise in pressure would be of no consequence.

[MediumCore358]

Well I cleaned the barrel thoroughly last week with Sweets 7.62 as per directions got a lot of creamy blue froth, took a break and repeated a second time getting a bit more blue continuing until the blue was gone. Now today I finally slugged the bore again and it measures .2835 !! Being this my only bolt action and a magnum caliber I was unaware that copper could build up by the thousandths. Looks like I'm good to go with my .285 cast as well as those J-things. Thanks again for the replies.