bore conditioning

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Last Post 18 December 2015

CBA Member

Ken Campbell Iowa posted this 15 December 2015

i would like input on bore conditioning even if ... maybe especially if ... your thought/observations seem non-conclusive . or a little goofy ...

i am wondering if bore conditioning changing every shot might be why perfect cast bullets still seem to shoot into 2-3 moa .

based partly on my rimfire experience of needing a consistent bore condition to shoot 1/2 moa ... if i waited 3 minutes between shots the zero would change maybe 1/2 moa .... i am thinking the match rf rifles were accurate enough to see the zero change ... a deer rifle at 2.5 moa maybe not ... it just looks like a bigger group .

back when i wuz shooting accurate single shots that might have shown me something i wasn't looking for bore condition changes ... and now due to self-indulgence in just shooting bean cans with as many different rifles as possible i have nothing good enough to tell the difference. i need to reform . ...

just to add something myself, us 22 rf match shooters for a few months tried dipping our bullet in hoppes #9 just before chambering .. a lot of us thought it did something good, but results were lost in the static ... could it have been stabilizing the conditioning ?? maybe not enough hoppes ?? what would happen if we ran a kroil patch down the barrel between shots ?

i need to put together an accurate gun ... potentially accurate ...next spring for dang sure ...

ken

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CBA Member

Wineman posted this 16 December 2015

My thinking is that it is hard to get a bore to have the same condition for two consecutive shots. Cold from the case, possibly cleaned after the last range session. One shot, now the bore is different, warmer, slicker, less slick, something has changed. Let the rifle sit, is it cooler or hotter than the safe or car? Do I really want to sit here at the range for five or six hours (don't answer that question) and let the rifle cool, run a patch through it, fire it again? More lead or copper is deposited, the bore has changed again. Enough to make a difference? Depends on your OCD.

There was an “Outer Limits” or “Twilight Zone” episode where a gangster goes to what he thinks is heaven. Everything is easy, he can't loose gambling, all the beautiful women adore him, no challenges confront him. He looks for his guardian angel to get out of heaven and finds out “Who said this was heaven?"

If it is easy, maybe its not so fun anymore.

Keep up the good questions Ken.

Dave

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CBA President

John Alexander posted this 17 December 2015

I think one of the reasons the best competitive shooters with custom rifles can produce aggregates of about .5 MOA is that they keep bore condition constant. I doubt that they think of it that way necessarily. They know how many fouling shots are needed, usually between zero and five, and then shoot the record shots at a more or less uniform cadence -- thus bore condition is about the same for each shot.

Some folks claim not to need fouling shots with their cleaning method, type of lube, and load. We maybe should look there first.

John