Gunsmithing Bore condition

[4dds]

Is there any good methods of checking the condition of your bore without a borescope. I have a Howa 1500 in 243 win that seems to be falling off accuracy wise. When I got my load dialed in it would shoot .5 consistently with the occasional .25 group. Now it seem to be more in the 1.5 area. Don’t have a round count but would guess 800-1000 down the tube. Would like to check it before rebarreling.

 

[whatsupdoc]

Make sure that the barrel is clean and are you chasing the rifling.

 

[DrainTheSwamp2017]

I’ve seen one guy burn out 6mm in 750 rounds. That was on a 243 factory rpr
Live fast, die young they say
I don’t shoot 6mm so I don’t know what to expect for bbl life
Accuracy and borescope are about all I’ve heard.
Just some tweaking to the load may be required as mentioned above

 

[kansas]

I bought a Hawkeye borescope thinking I could tell when my bore was shot out but when the rifle started shooting erratically the bore looked pretty much the same as it did at 1000 rounds. I couldn’t see where the throat or down the barrel looked any worse at 2300 rounds than it did at 1000. That barrel still shot 1/2 moa at 100 but wouldn’t shoot at 500. Go figure.

 

[Lowlight]

MV and group.... if it's throwing fliers toss it.

Barrels are expendable, there no sense playing around with something with less than a 2000 round barrel life.

Not performing anymore, change it

 

[4dds]

I had already been throwing around the idea of changing the barrel anyway. Now the question is what to chamber the new barrel in. It’s never ending.

 

[DrainTheSwamp2017]

One question I had as it sort of pertains to this situation, is if you cut off and inch or so at the chamber, get it re chambered and fitted, are you basically good to go for the same round count as it took to wear out in the first place?

Or Once it starts throwing fliers does that mean the rifling is burnt for a good portion of the bbl, a cut and rechamber would only be a bandaid fix and money could have been better spent on a new bbl?

 

[Yoteslayer50]

Sometimes accuracy loss can have nothing to do with the throat but more to do with the crown just cleaning can wear the crown and make it not shoot and if it was me I would not set back a barrel because why pay for the work to be done with no Guarantee that it will do any good I would just bite the bullet and have another barrel put on then you know it will be good for a while just my two cents