Barrel Damage?

[SmallBoreSnipers]

You might have seen my other post where I asked about why my shots started to walk lower and lower. We came to the conclusion that it was most likely from overheating and copper in the barrel. I ordered some wipe out to take care of it.

my question now is, now that the barrel is cold, will it shoot accurately again? Also, did I do any permanant damage? It's the first time this has happened to me so I don't know these things.

I won't be using it until I get the wipe out through it. I am just really concered about whether or not I have damaged it.

 

[buffybuster]

Re: Barrel Damage?

After you clean it the only way to know (unless you have a borescope) is to shoot it. If you have a chronograph and have data from when the rifle was new, check the current velocities against the previous data. If your current velocities are significantly lower than before, you might have some throat erosion.

 

[SmallBoreSnipers]

Re: Barrel Damage?

I went out and fired 3 shots before the wipe out comes. Thank god it seems just fine. I looked at the throat before I went out and it looks fine from what I can see, but I'm guessing this is not somethng easily visible to the naked eye.

 

[jeffm]

Re: Barrel Damage?

I'm no expert, but I have gotten a lot of barrels hot and it does not seem to do perminete damage. No worries

 

[ivanthesane]

Re: Barrel Damage?

Get it hot (like burn your skin when you touch it) and keep it that way and you can shoot your barrel out. Not likely with a 22 of any sort.

 

[SmallBoreSnipers]

Re: Barrel Damage?

Due to the velocity of the .17 hmr, I was told to basically treat it like a centerfire. Around 40 second cool downs between shots and a cooling break between groups. Should be fine.

 

[LoneWolfUSMC]

Re: Barrel Damage?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: SmallBoreSniper</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Due to the velocity of the .17 hmr, I was told to basically treat it like a centerfire. Around 40 second cool downs between shots and a cooling break between groups. Should be fine.

</div></div>

You apparently have not seen how some of us shoot precision centerfire's.

 

[jeffm]

Re: Barrel Damage?

This is a good topic, how hot can you get a barrel before it damages it? I know that most of my centerfire rifles will start shooting low when very hot. I generally let them cool at that point. Has not seemed to effect how they shoot when cool. I also have shot AR's SKS's and AK's well past that point with no noticable change in accuracy when cool (but we are not talking about pin point accuracty with these). I think it would take all day to get a .22 hot enough to hurt it. I don't know what kind of heat a .17 makes, but they don't burn much powder.

 

[Dave Kravetz]

Re: Barrel Damage?

Have you ever seen a M2, 240b, M60 or SAW? they get quite hot...I cant see a 17 hmr getting to hot.

 

[Badshot308]

Re: Barrel Damage?

When you get the barrel this hot, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGAwrmOapb4 , then you can worry about damaging your barrel.

 

[SmallBoreSnipers]

Re: Barrel Damage?

^ HA! That was awesome.

 

[Dave Kravetz]

Re: Barrel Damage?

Guess that was a FPF