LET'S TALK LANDS...

OBSERVATION:   To explain further, I noticed this trend after a full 10-hour day of testing loads. My shooting partner confirmed on the ride home, that he was observing the same phenomenon. If the bolt closes tight the velocity string you were in would be blown by a jump in velocity. If the bolt closed exceptionally loose, the string could be blown low. In fact, while shooting in the calm air from 300 yds, I was able to predict where the bullet would strike on the target by how hard the bolt closed. In a four shot string, two holes were touching, one was one inch high, one was one inch low. Don’t get me wrong this was not bad results at all, but what disturbed me was that this was the only deviation observed.  Somewhat looser cases varied at some less number, but were not consistent (ah-hah!!! He says, consistent is a key word in precision shooting, don't we all agree?). At this point it was possible to back out the full-length sizer (it doesn’t take much) until it just started bumping the shoulder back, using a very tight case. The shoulder was moved back gradually until the brass chambered smoothly but not loosely. It was determined that my chamber had a nice fit at .008" longer than SAAMI standard. The die was then set to this headspace, and all brass resized to this setting. This was much more consistent than neck sizing, as far as bolt-closing compression was concerned. By the way, I did not invent this method. It was originally told to me by one of the more experienced members of the High Power club I belong to. The High Power-bolt gun guys do this to ensure proper feeding during Rapid Fire. I was told it has very little effect on case life. The validity of this method was confirmed by one of the Sierra technicians who agreed that there was a lot of bad info on what is "consistent" in reloading.

EXPLANATION:   I think that the 22-250 is especially vulnerable to this growing effect because of the tapered neck, body and shallow shoulder angle (and the fact my new loads are honking on!). It seems that the velocity jumps are associated with a crush in the shoulder that pinches the bullet in the neck, substantially varying bullet pull. In fact, using this crush in the neck-splitting-finding-the-distance-from-the-lands-technique proves this. In this technique, a hard closing, tight case is used to achieve crush, (to create a pliers-like effect) so that the bullet is not left in the lands of the rifle upon the closing of the bolt (but is free to move the rest of the time). Now that this is said, keep in mind that high-power shooters with bolt guns do this all over the country with obviously very consistently good results (these guys can shoot!!! Try holding less than a MOA out to 600 yds. with a peep sight). High Power bolt guns have chambers more similar to most factory rifles than, say, a benchrest gun. Bench rest shooters (who advocate neck sizing all the time) use non-typical cambers in their guns to achieve very tight fits. They also use very straight-walled cartridges with very steep shoulder angles (like the PPC). Again, I will say that the common shooter could learn a lot from high-power, probably more than benchrest (unless you have very deep pockets).

PATCH CATCHER

    Take a 2 liter Pepsi bottle and the base o-ring from a Lee die. Use a Dremel or drill to grind a hole in the top of the cap that is larger than the o-ring but small enough to keep the o-ring sealed between the tightened cap and the bottle. Slide the bottle over the end of the barrel and the o-ring will hold it in place with a press fit. . This will be a good seal on a Varmint barrel OD. Run patches and solvent through your barrel at will. No mess! No stink either.

WEB BALLISTICS

    YOU DON'T NEED AN EXPENSIVE PIECE OF SOFTWARE TO PERFORM BALLISTIC CALCULATIONS.  SOME NICE FELLA HAS PROVIDED IT ON THE WEB FOR FREE.  IT WORKS VERY WELL...TRY IT OUT.

MOLY MADNESS

    I moly all my own rifle bullets. It seems to basically prevent any significant fouling. Even though, when I went on my first prairie dog hunt ,there was a lot of fouling when I got home. I don't think anything will stop the copper with that many rounds shot, in that short of time (750 ROUNDS IN THREE DAYS). After using a cleaning brush and Sweet's solvent, everything was Corsair blue. It was clean after two brushings, though. Took about 1/2 an hour.

    In regards to this, I have some advice on cleaning barrels using moly ALWAYS.  I called Berger about a question on moly and bullet pull (another subject).  I figured if anyone knew moly, it was Berger.  This led to the tech asking about my cleaning procedure.   I told him how I cleaned, and said "well there's you problem".  He said moly barrels are not to be cleaned like non-moly barrels.  SWEET'S WAS RIGHT OUT!

  Here it is...

1.       WET PATCH THROUGH THE BORE WITH KROIL.  LET SET FOR A FEW MINUTES.
2.       STROKE BORE (10) TIMES WITH JB'S (available at Brownell's)
3.       WET PATCH THROUGH WITH KROIL (same).
4.       DRY PATCHES TILL CLEAR.
5.       SHOOT....

       I though this sounded a little optimistic, but I have stuck to this religiously.  I do not use Kroil, I use penetrating oil.  (Rem Oil, wd-40) this clears carbon fouling very well!  The bores of my rifles have gotten to be glass smooth inside.  My .223 is the best, it has never shot an uncoated bullet.  Hogkiller's 22-250 has about 400 rounds through it, and all he has ever done is run a little Hoppe's powder solvent through the bore, after about every 100 rounds.  That is about the standard for cleaning with moly FOR US, about every hundred rounds.  Some of the best groups in a days shooting will be at the end of the day!  I do not clean at the range anymore...

How do I clean my rifle when using Moly Coated bullets?
The best procedure for cleaning when using Moly coated bullets is as
follows:
1. Two wet patches with Kroil.
2. Run one dry patch through.
3. One patch with USP Bore Paste. Short stroke the patch from the
breach to the muzzle.
4. Two wet patches with Kroil.
5. Two dry patches.
This procedure is suggested after approximately 80 to 100 rounds,
depending on the class of rifle being fired.

How do I break in a barrel with Moly Coated bullets?
The procedure that Walt has found to be the best is as follows:

1. Run a wet patch of Kroil through the barrel.
2. Fire one shot then clean using our cleaning prcedure.
3. Repeat step 2 two more times.
4. Fire 3 shot groups 5 times cleaning after every 3 shots.

Your barrel will now be broken in.

   Another good idea is to vigorously lap your barrel. Use JB or Rem paste, about (10) patches (20) strokes per patch (lotsa work). Clean with penetrating oil. Moly coat the barrel with (5) fowlers. Use JB's for cleaning for the next (400) rounds. At this point, you could start to see very little need for any vigorous cleaning.

    I think the best thing to prevent fouling is to lap the barrel. My lapped smooth barrels just do not foul like they did before (in terms of copper fouling, anyway). I recently got a little curious about some "funnies" I had shot at the range (see my RUNOUT FEATURE) and was examining all culprits. One evening I went back to my prairie dog cleaning method. This comprises of Sweet's patches, brush scrubbing, and more Sweet's patches, dry till clear. IN THIS CASE, the only blue I observed was after the vigorous brushing, a TINY little spot of blue on the end of the patch. I think that might actually be from the brass brush breaking down. Now, be that as it may, it is not to say that this will continue. I have no problem doing this type of cleaning occasionally, it is still nice not to foul in the field. I still feel this may be from keeping an extremely smooth bore, moly or no. I bet Walt's barrels are very nice, that is why he gets very little fouling, regardless of his cleaning method.

ABOUT LAPPING...THIS WAS SO GOOD I HAD TO PUT IT IN MY DISCUSSION....

From: "Z. Ohanian" (zareh@utcc.utoronto.ca)
    The goal is to polish the bore in order to improve accuracy/consistency of shots. One will also benefit from ease of cleaning,less fouling and longer accuracy life before any cleaning is required.  I use RemClean to polish the bore, Remington rifles tend to have rough bores (about 2/3 do) and this is my solution to problem. I have since started to do this to all my match barrel and I have only seen improvements, if not in accuracy in ease of cleaning, less fouling per number of shots ...
    Shake the RemClean well, use a tight fitting patch and a rod guide. Insert the soaked patch in the bore. The goal is to polish the bore and not to disturb (or create ramps as one enters and exits) the crown and the throat of the rifle. Place the rifle in such a manner that it is against a wall, I place a rag at the muzzle to dampen the blow of the rod, there you
have your muzzle stopper. I place my leg in a position as to stop the rod from exiting the bore. This ensures that you will keep that patch in the bore and you will not exit and re-enter the bore 60-80 times. If you care for visual assistance use a magic marker and mark your rod at the end of each stroke, mark it about 1.5" before it actually exits the bore as to give
yourself a time to react (on SS rods use electric or masking tape). One needs to inspect the bore before you decide how much polishing is required (experience will help here). The bore should be mirror like, if not you need polishing (I would do it even for a mirror like bore that fouls after 10 shots (you can see the copper streaks when looking at the bore at the muzzle
end, look sideways). I push and pull 20 times, I change the patch to a newly soaked patch with couple of dry/clean patches to clean what you just did.  For a rough bore I do this four times (about 80 push and pulls, the barrel will actually heat-up at little from this if you do it fast). I change the patch every 20 strokes with couple of clean ones in between. Once I am
satisfied I pass few clean patches through. I then clean the chamber (use a pencil with Kleenix around it, nice and thick to a nipple..). Clean the guide rod too, inside and out before inserting it back into the action. You do not want it to give you a false reading on the patch (most people clean a clean bore because they see dirt on the patch which is coming from the guide and not the bore).  I then rap Kleenex (tissue paper) around the jag and I use it to finish my cleaning. Tissue paper is soft and it conforms to the land/grooves well and it removes the residue at the base of the rifling (which is missed by the patch). I roll the Kleenex on the jag like a cigarette and then I roll it the other way (use both sides of the same piece). I clean until there is no more thin, black streaks coming out. I then oil the rifle IF I AM NOT GOING TO SHOOT IT FOR MANY MONTHS, if not I leave it as it is.
    A polished bore would not foul as fast, it will be very easy to clean and would not walk the shots as much as a non polished bore. I have shot my magnum in the provincial (4 days of shooting) and then I took it to our monthly sniper match without cleaning. I did not notice any accuracy degradation after 250 shots of HOT magnum loads with 220 gr match bullets.
It then took me about 20 minutes to clean the rifle, fast and easy.  I then shoot one round and clean the barrel with Shooter's
choice (or your favorite ammonia cleaner), I do that for 10 shots I then clean with RemClean again, I then shoot 3 shots and clean in between the shots (7 times) and then I shoot four 5 shot groups with cleaning between each group. hence the barrel is broken in with 10+21+20=51 shots.
    I have found that polishing improves accuracy (consistency mainly, you do not get those nasty flyers anymore), the bore does not foul easily, it is really easy to clean and the accuracy of the rifle last lot longer before a cleaning is required.

Now, to address carbon fouling.

   I am going to just say this. Carbon fouling in the first part of the barrel could be a function of the powder type or load combustion. I have seen a marked improvement in carbon deposits since I switched to a much hotter load. Actually, hotter may not be the effect at all.  I switched powders and I feel the new hotter loads, with the new powder, burns much cleaner. I always clean the first foot of the barrel about three times as much as the rest of the barrel. I have found that JB's cleans this, as long as is attacked regularly and vigorously.

  I have tried leaving excess moly on my bullets. I figured you can't have too much of a good thing right?  Well, not really... My main technique is to clean briefly with corn cob to make all the bullets shiny silver after coating. I started thinking that this coating looked a little thin. As an experiment I started leaving the moly dust coating on the bullets. It was my first impression, that this dust acted as good protective coating and lube as the bullet is being seated. A thin coating will be partially stripped as the bullet is seated, unless one is really anal about polishing the inside of the case necks. It was proposed that the best solution would be to have a dusty coating of moly. This is basically what Hornady factory moly looks like. This seemed to leave the most moly on the base of the bullet.   I shared this train of thought with some people on the NET, and I got one really informed response that said he tried the same thing.  He had good data that said this started leading to some real funnies...So I quit.  The rounds that I did shoot sure made a black hole going through the target.

    DIES AND RUNOUT

   BY THE WAY! THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE IN TOLERANCES BETWEEN RCBS "COMPETITION" AND "STANDARD" DIES. Call RCBS and ask them. The "comp" dies just have more features. The die bases are the same. I think that is a little misleading myself.