Working on the Whelen.

[ShadeTree]

It puts the first couple tight together on several back to back testings on a clean barrel. Tried it again today and the first 3 on a super clean barrel is a 3/4" group at 100. Pretty darn good with the 180 speer which doesn't really fit that cartridge. Out the neck pretty far when loaded to the cannelure, and a mile off the lands. Really happy with it on that front. Just a starting load of H4895 and loaded to the cannelure.

After that things go south in a hurry. It's copper fouling on me very quickly despite doing some work on it. I'll keep working on it and see if it will get better. Shows me it wants to be a shooter if I can get it to stay clean.

 

[Jimbeaux82]

You might try the Tubbs finishing system. I have had some luck with it in the past smoothing out a rough bore

 

[JD338]

JB Bore Paste and a jag may be time well spent.

JD338

 

[DrMike]

JB sure worked for me on a variety of rifles.

 

[ShadeTree]

I could be wrong but I believe the Tubbs is much more aggressive than what JB's would be as far as using it to smooth out rough spots.

I done a partial run of the Tubbs FFS, then finished it off with bore coat. I only done a partial run of Tubbs because viewing it with a borescope I was somewhat alarmed at how much rifling I had wore down ahead of the throat. It didn't do that on the one previous rifle I had used Tubbs on. Differences in steel I suppose and maybe a tighter bore for the caliber on this rifle.

So I opted to slow down before I went too far. Obviously I didn't based on how it shot the first several on a clean bore. The tech guy from Tubbs is supposed to call me Monday and I'll see if it's recommended to finish out the system or not.

If I can't come up with a definitive plan, then I'll likely just keep shooting it to see if it gets any better with more shots and cleaning in between. If I see some improvement I'll give it a second treatment of the bore coat to try and give it a jump ahead.

It is cleaning up much quicker now since the Tubbs and the 10 shot curing string I shot yesterday after coating it with bore coat on Thursday. So gaining.

Always learning. Ha.

 

[grry10]

I'm another JB fan but I've never tried the Tubb's product

 

[wvbuckbuster]

My son Ben who is a member here had JES rebore a 30-06 into a 338-06 recently and fired it 20 times its first range trip. Said it didn't foul too bad. Maybe he'll chime in here about it. Dan.

 

[ShadeTree]

My son Ben who is a member here had JES rebore a 30-06 into a 338-06 recently and fired it 20 times its first range trip. Said it didn't foul too bad. Maybe he'll chime in here about it. Dan.

Dan, my statement about it fouling is in no way a slight towards JES. They can't all be this way or he wouldn't get the business he does. I suspect there is a substantial difference in barrels. Age, how they were heat treated, how hard or how pliable the steel is. The boring speed and forward speed that produces slick results in a post 64 M70 for example, might make things grind, jump, and chatter in something else.

This was the original military barrel on an 03 Springfield. He worked with what was in front of him, now I have to do the same. I'll get there I believe. Also it could be this particular bullet is bad about fouling in this particular bore. It's a LONG jump to the lands. Maybe it's slamming into the rifling and peeling copper off right from the get go. I'll keep working with it and see what I come up with.

 

[wvbuckbuster]

Dan, my statement about it fouling is in no way a slight towards JES. They can't all be this way or he wouldn't get the business he does. I suspect there is a substantial difference in barrels. Age, how they were heat treated, how hard or how pliable the steel is. The boring speed and forward speed that produces slick results in a post 64 M70 for example, might make things grind, jump, and chatter in something else.

This was the original military barrel on an 03 Springfield. He worked with what was in front of him, now I have to do the same. I'll get there I believe. Also it could be this particular bullet is bad about fouling in this particular bore. It's a LONG jump to the lands. Maybe it's slamming into the rifling and peeling copper off right from the get go. I'll keep working with it and see what I come up with.

Shade I know you weren't slighting JES. I know Ben ran some patches of some bore paste before shooting his just not sure what it was and maybe he can tell you. My Rem 700 30-06 fouls but really bad with Nosler 180gr BT not as bad with 150gr AB or PT. Go figure. As you said you'll get it figured out. Keep us posted. Dan.

 

[truck driver]

I had a brand new Ruger Hawkeye 338 Win stainless steel model that copper fouled heavy from day one and would loose accuracy. I ended up having to go the fire lap route and used the last stage of the Tubbs final finish kit to smooth out the bore. It stopped fouling and the accuracy improved greatly.
My 35Whelen AI is a JES rebore made from a M70 push feed I had it long throated and hand lapped the barrel after I got it. It still fouled but it seems to have smoothed out with shooting.

 

[ShadeTree]

Super windy yesterday. So I just done a little bit of short range testing yesterday here at the house with cast. Initial testing was very promising. Pretty cool project I came up with. Will do some more testing today after church, will post results of what I'm doing if it keeps working.

 

[ShadeTree]

I had a brand new Ruger Hawkeye 338 Win stainless steel model that copper fouled heavy from day one and would loose accuracy. I ended up having to go the fire lap route and used the last stage of the Tubbs final finish kit to smooth out the bore. It stopped fouling and the accuracy improved greatly.
My 35Whelen AI is a JES rebore made from a M70 push feed I had it long throated and hand lapped the barrel after I got it. It still fouled but it seems to have smoothed out with shooting.

That's what I'm hoping TD. Shooting will show some improvement, then I'll hit it again with a treatement of bore coat.

 

[PJGunner]

I have a Winchester M70 Featherweight 7x57 Mauser that would foul so bad that just one box of ammo that accuracy totally disappeared. LGS had a wheel firelapping kit so I decided to see if it would help that rufle. Kit had three grits, coarse, medium and fine. You were supposed to coat 10 jacketed bullets with each group of grit, shoot and clean thoroughly between each grit. I kind of cheated and did five with each grit using cast lead bullets instead of jacketed. The fourth batch of five has the bullets coated with JB Bore paste. The rifle shoots a lot better; usually MOA or better and fouling is while not totally gone is at a level I can live with that cleans up easily. I have been tempted to run a few more bullets with the fine grit and JB but since it really ain't broke, I hesitate to fix it.
Paul B.

 

[ShadeTree]

Paul, on that bore coat I used, I did read somewhere that it will still foul during the "curing" string of 10 shots they tell you to shoot after treating it. You're supposed to clean it agian, then after that it's supposed to be much better. That curing string was the last shots I shot where it still fouled up pretty quckly. I've since switched over to testing lead cast and it is not fouling with that......although they are cast round balls, so very little bearing surface. I'm gonna keep shooting cast and not be wasting good jacketed bullets on testing at this point. Maybe after 100 or more cast rounds it will help smooth out some of the remaining problems. I'll try jacketed bullets again down the road.