I have an AR-10 by Wilson Combat. This is their Super Sniper model in 6.5 creedmore. It originally came with the 22" barrel. The gun is beautiful and is ultra reliable but in the beginning, i really didnt get the precision thing so in my mind, the performance was OK. Fast forward to today, I am now much more educated in precision shooting. I had a desire to improve the precision of my gun so one of the steps i took was to replace the aging 22" with a new 24" barrel from Wilson Combat. Here is where the frustration begins.
First of all, i recognized that my reloading process was holding me back so i set out to correct that. Today, my reloads have an average SD of 7. For the AR-10, my loads consist of Lapua brass, Lapua Scenar-L 136gr bullet and VV N550 powder. I use a LabRadar to track MV and SD.
After installing my new barrel, i noticed that the average MV was about 60fps slower than the older 22" barrel. I did go through a break-in process even though WC told me that they polish their barrels and break-in is not necessary. In addition, my groups sere NOT impressive. I went through many incarnations with my loads going from pushing the bullets to the lands and hand loading and adjusting bullet seat depth for magazine length bullets, powder measure and on and on. Performance never improved.
Finally, i decided to step-up my game in analyzing the situation by purchasing a barrel scope. What i discovered were about 4 areas in the grooves where there were significant copper deposits. Thinking that my cleaning process my need improving, i purchased some new bore cleaner (boretec) and spent three days getting the barrel very clean and use the borescope to verify all copper deposits are gone. Upon going back to the range, i was shocked to find that my first few rounds had MVs in the 2500 range. They eventually got back to the mid 2600s but precision never improved. Upon returning home, i scoped the barrel again and found the same copper deposits in the same locations. After cleaning, my borescope seemed to reveal rough areas in the groves of my barrel and that is why i was getting those copper deposits and also why my MVs were so slow pending filling in the rough areas with copper.
I reached out to Wilson Combat and they said to send the barrel at my own expense and they will measure dimensions of the barrel. My concern is not dimensions, it is about having a barrel with grooves like sandpaper.
I subsequently purchased a new Bolt Gun in 6.5 creedmore. The same bullet in both guns results in a .7MOA in the bolt gun (but it is capable of better) and 2"MOA in the AR-10.
My question is first of all, is this type of copper fouling typical? Secondly, should i NEVER have any expectation of ever getting consistent sub MOA out of my AR-10? If the answer is yes, i will just have to accept it for what it is and turn my attention for precision and accuracy to my bolt guns.
First of all, i recognized that my reloading process was holding me back so i set out to correct that. Today, my reloads have an average SD of 7. For the AR-10, my loads consist of Lapua brass, Lapua Scenar-L 136gr bullet and VV N550 powder. I use a LabRadar to track MV and SD.
After installing my new barrel, i noticed that the average MV was about 60fps slower than the older 22" barrel. I did go through a break-in process even though WC told me that they polish their barrels and break-in is not necessary. In addition, my groups sere NOT impressive. I went through many incarnations with my loads going from pushing the bullets to the lands and hand loading and adjusting bullet seat depth for magazine length bullets, powder measure and on and on. Performance never improved.
Finally, i decided to step-up my game in analyzing the situation by purchasing a barrel scope. What i discovered were about 4 areas in the grooves where there were significant copper deposits. Thinking that my cleaning process my need improving, i purchased some new bore cleaner (boretec) and spent three days getting the barrel very clean and use the borescope to verify all copper deposits are gone. Upon going back to the range, i was shocked to find that my first few rounds had MVs in the 2500 range. They eventually got back to the mid 2600s but precision never improved. Upon returning home, i scoped the barrel again and found the same copper deposits in the same locations. After cleaning, my borescope seemed to reveal rough areas in the groves of my barrel and that is why i was getting those copper deposits and also why my MVs were so slow pending filling in the rough areas with copper.
I reached out to Wilson Combat and they said to send the barrel at my own expense and they will measure dimensions of the barrel. My concern is not dimensions, it is about having a barrel with grooves like sandpaper.
I subsequently purchased a new Bolt Gun in 6.5 creedmore. The same bullet in both guns results in a .7MOA in the bolt gun (but it is capable of better) and 2"MOA in the AR-10.
My question is first of all, is this type of copper fouling typical? Secondly, should i NEVER have any expectation of ever getting consistent sub MOA out of my AR-10? If the answer is yes, i will just have to accept it for what it is and turn my attention for precision and accuracy to my bolt guns.
