50 cal inline ?

[RP]

My son got himself a 50 cal inline rifle and has been gathering info. He came to me today and was asking if I had any 50 cal hollow base bullets so he could fire lap the barrel. From what he has been reading online if he fire laps the barrel it will smooth it out and would help in two ways. First it will making cleaning the gun easier and faster since the barrel will be smoother and also aid in how the rifle shoots.
I do not think firelapping a barrel right out of the box is a good thing but I am not a expert. The only time I would do it if I had a barrel that needed cleaning up and it was not shooting very well at that point what do I have to lose. Any advice on this would help. And if there is anything you do to a BP rifle to break it in ?

[NSB]

I've never done it. One of my in-lines, a Savage ML2, had rifling that looked like it was cut with a hammer and chisle. Worst thing I ever saw. In spite of that, it shot three shot groups of one inch at 100yds on a very consistent basis. My current TC Encore shoots even better and it's never been lapped. I think it's a waste of time but I don't think it will hurt anything either. If he wants to do it, it's probably not going to help or hurt any. The only guns I've ever lapped and got any improvments with were rimfires used for target shooting.

[Lloyd Smale]

never lapped a in line barrel but will say ive had some that could definitely use it. No reason why I wouldn't work. I try some 501s in it if they chamber. If not pick up a cheap lee sizing die and size them down. Ive lapped a few centerfire rifles. Havent seen dramatic increases in accuracy but there usually at least easier to clean and foul less. Couple of the cheaper inlines ive had looked like a beaver chewed out the rifling.

[tdoyka]

yeah you can firelapp it but why bother. i've given my boys two cva wolf's and i have a encore 50 cal and we just fire them.

if you do intend to firelap, you should lead slug the bore.

[Beagle333]

How much easier does cleaning the barrel need to be? On mine, I just unscrew the breech plug (it's designed to be removed every cleaning) and then it's like cleaning out an open-ended piece of pipe.
'Takes seconds compared to a traditional ML with a patent breech. (which doesn't take very long anyway)

[DougGuy]

If it needed smoothing out I could see cold lapping where you make a cast lead lap and use it on a bench with a vise, there are plenty of youtube vids on this procedure, and with an open ended inline barrel, I can't see why there would be any instance of firelapping that would come anywhere close to the precision a cold lap would give.

You can take a brand new airgun barrel and make it shoot the wings off a fly at 50yds by lapping so there is something worth gaining by lapping these barrels so he may be onto something with his inline, I dunno. I think I would just shoot it. My White seemed to take a "set" of it's own about the 75th shot on the new barrel and it will easily cloverleaf a playing card at 100yds.

I don't think he would hurt the barrel by cold lapping and he would have a LOT more control over what part of the barrel got lapped and how much. With firelapping, you are more or less at the mercy of whatever voodoo happens when you do it.

[mooman76]

I'd shoot it some before jumping into something like fire lapping that might not even need to be done.

[charlie b]

shoot it first, then decide if it needs it.

I've seen people do things like cryo treatments and such, and they can't hit the broad side of a barn with any gun. Just bragging rights as to how neat their toys are.

[RP]

Thanks for the reply s he is over today and working on personalizing it now I spoke to him about shooting it first and he agrees to let see what it will do first. The big reason he was thinking of it was to smooth out the rough spots so cleaning would be quicker I like the cold bore lapping a lot more control.

[mooman76]

Does it even have rough spots? Has he checked yet? If he does I would just hand lap first and go from there. Shooting a new gun especially a ML will smooth it out some.