Are hawk hill barrels slow?

[vigildom7]

Hey everyone
I understand hawk hill barrels are some great 4 groove barrels. While I am getting great accuracy my velocity is suffering greatly. Not really trying to catch every bit of velocity I can get. I am just curious and like number crunching.
So my first 6.5cm build was a criterion barrel (button rifled hand lapped} 24 inches on a 700 action with peterson brass, cci lr primers, imr4451 (40.6gr) and 140ELD-m was average 2770 fps
fast forward a year later new build.
Origin action hawk hill 6.5 cm barrel 24 inch barrel (cut rifling hand lapped) this time lapua brass, CCI 450 primers, IMR4451 (41.6), and 140 eld-m average is 2715

Nearly a grain more in powder but 55fps slower. Is this change probably due to the cut rifling vs button?
or a change in brass and primers?

 

[spife7980]

Is your new barrel broken in yet? As it wears in for the first 100 or so shots and the manufacturing artifacts get polished smooth it will speed up, sometimes (but not always) as much as 100 fps.

Also, there are so many factors that can play into this, land diameters, chamber, reloading specs, lots etc all have a hand in it.

 

[vigildom7]

Is your new barrel broken in yet? As it wears in for the first 100 or so shots and the manufacturing artifacts get polished smooth it will speed up, sometimes (but not always) as much as 100 fps.

Yes it has about 310 rounds through it.
It has increased in velocity from 2680 to 2715

 

[dirthead1]

I've only had 1 Hawk Hill barrel. It was a 22.5" 6.5 Creedmoor for my Desert Tech. It was an extremely fast barrel. Right out of the box I was getting 2770 from factory Hornady 143 ELDX ammo.

 

[Huskydriver]

Hey everyone
I understand hawk hill barrels are some great 4 groove barrels. While I am getting great accuracy my velocity is suffering greatly. Not really trying to catch every bit of velocity I can get. I am just curious and like number crunching.
So my first 6.5cm build was a criterion barrel (button rifled hand lapped} 24 inches on a 700 action with peterson brass, cci lr primers, imr4451 (40.6gr) and 140ELD-m was average 2770 fps
fast forward a year later new build.
Origin action hawk hill 6.5 cm barrel 24 inch barrel (cut rifling hand lapped) this time lapua brass, CCI 450 primers, IMR4451 (41.6), and 140 eld-m average is 2715

Nearly a grain more in powder but 55fps slower. Is this change probably due to the cut rifling vs button?
or a change in brass and primers?

How are you verifying your speeds?

 

[whatsupdoc]

2770 FPS from 40.6 gr of 4451 seems fast.

 

[vigildom7]

How are you verifying your speeds?

Magnetospeed then plugged into my kestrel elite

 

[Milo 2.5]

I've shot a lot of HH barrels in the last 3 yrs. This is not a one and done question. I had 2 marksman contour barrel that needed to be fired at fast speeds, where M 24 seemed normal, no faster than a Brux or Mullerworks, middle of the road stuff.
Your barrel or load does sound slow though, I'd tell you to switch powders before adding existing powder.

 

[vigildom7]

This one happens to be a marksman contour.
I was thinking of switching to rl16

 

[spife7980]

This one happens to be a marksman contour.
I was thinking of switching to rl16

If you want speed and temp stability that would be a good way to go.

 

[DDoug]

Have you tried the same load in the Hawk Hill as the other. Peterson brass and the large rifle primer. Could be the Peterson brass is thicker and larger rifle primer could be hotter. Making it faster vs the Lapua Brass and small primer.

 

[DDoug]

Also is it the same lot of powder.

 

[Supersubes]

I have one that’s a little on the slow side. About 50 fps. Having had a bunch of custom tubes, I’d say that’s pretty typical. Sometimes they’re just just a little slower.


I’ve also got a Broughton 5c(button barrel), which were always touted as being fast. Even at 27” as a .260, it struggled to make 2800 fps with a 140. Stupid stupid accurate barre though. I set that barrel back to 23.5 and switched to 147’s and rl26. Easily exceeds 2800 now. RL16 is good stuff too, and i’ll pretty much guarantee it’ll go faster than 4451.

 

[vigildom7]

Have you tried the same load in the Hawk Hill as the other. Peterson brass and the large rifle primer. Could be the Peterson brass is thicker and larger rifle primer could be hotter. Making it faster vs the Lapua Brass and small primer.

Just about to try this

 

[vigildom7]

Also is it the same lot of powder.

Yes same 8 pound keg

 

[Banango]

Following since I'm eyeballing hawkhill for my next blank

 

[redneckbmxer24]

My experience as well as what I've seen from others have been that Hawk Hill barrels are on the faster side. This is a trend I've experienced with other 4 groove barrels as well from Lothar Walther, Krieger, and Proof.

I'd experiment with other powders before deciding it's a slow barrel though. Try some tried and true H4350 and see what it does.

 

[tho98027]

My personal experience is limited to 3 kriegers, 1 hawkhill, 1 bartlien. Currently the hawkhill is a 26" creed and one krieger is a 25" creed. Chambered with the same reamer. Exact same load in both, the krieger is about 60 fps faster, they each are around the 500 round count. I've spent a lot of time reading in the reloading depot forum. One thing I've noticed is that Broughton 5C, Krieger, Rock Creek, all seem like really fast barrels compared to other brands. Just an observation. Doesn't mean they are better.