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Handloader
- Dec 26, 2007
- 4,973
- 8
I know we had a thread on rifles having smooth and rough bores but I want to ask a few questions and maybe find some technical reasons for some events that happened to me. First let me say that I have been shooting for a long time now as well has hunting and developing loads for my rifles. Many of you know I spend a lot of time developing loads for my rifles and sharing the results. I have owned Remington, Savage, Ruger, Sako, Brown, Marlin, Winchester, Interarms, Weatherby and some others along with six custom rifles. On my Customs rifles I had the following barrels - 2 Douglas, 2 Shilen, 1 Lilja, and 1 Krieger. Now the factory rifles all but one I was able to accomplish Moa and some under MOA with hand-loads. Now all my customs shot 1/2" moa or under. Here is the question - "Some of my rifles had very smooth, some very rough barrels. Yet I was able to produce MOA groups out of all of them but one. Some of my rough barrels out shot smoother bores. Yet the tightest groups of under a 1/2" MOA were smooth bores except one custom barrel. Rougher bores did foul quicker but for all my hunting purposes they all were more than accurate for the task at hand. I had one custom that shot two groups at one tenth of an inch and nothing over .324" with it's favorite load. I assumed because it was shooting so well that the bore must be one smooth slick bore. Well when I put a bore scope down it and saw how rough it was I surely was surprised. I know there are a lot of variables that can impact a rifles accuracy from bedding to optics much less how smooth the barrel might be. Three things! 1. I wonder outside of competition how much difference there really is in practical terms between rough and smooth bores? 2. Does it bother you if your rifle is MOA accurate at 100yds whether are not your bore is rough? 3. I have seen some real rough bores shoot well as I have seen slick ones shoot ok, and although it's not to big a deal, I still wonder why this happens when logic tells you the smooth bore should always out shoot the rough bore?