PVA Minuteman .308 - Short Freebore?

[Pyr0Monk3y]

Hey fellas,

I finally got my Minuteman barreled action from PVA and started taking a few measurements to get load development started. I'm finding bullets touching the lands much sooner than I expected. A 175 SMK at 2.800" OAL is jammed so much that it separates from the case and gets stuck in the throat upon extraction.

Hornady 178 BTHP touches the lands at 2.78"
Hornady 178 ELD-M touches the lands at 2.73"
Berger 185 Juggernaut touches the lands at 2.803"

The throat seems short so I emailed PVA and asked for reamer specs. They didn't send me a print but they did specify a .095" freebore, which from my research should be plenty to seat most ~175 grain bullets to 2.8".

I thought maybe there is something funky going on with my measurements, so to check myself I put a thin coat of dykem on a 178 ELD-M seated to 2.750". After chambering the round there were clear marks in the dykem where the bullet is touching the lands.

What's the deal here? Am I understanding freebore incorrectly or is the freebore shorter than what PVA specified? Maybe they have a very shallow lead angle?

 

[spife7980]

That free bore sounds pretty close to a saami spec freebore of .090 (2.1388-2.0488)

 

[BoilerUP]

Did you run a brush and/or patch through the barrel first?

 

[Pyr0Monk3y]

Did you run a brush and/or patch through the barrel first?

Yes, I fired 5 rounds through it and cleaned it before taking these measurements.

 

[bohem]

I can't tell you exactly what's going on from what you posted but send us an email and we'll get things sorted out one way or another.
We use an 095 reamer almost always, we do have a shorter one that's 070 for palma shooters but that's in a special drawer in my office, not on the floor.

THere are a bunch of questions to ask, just send over an email and I'll work through them there. I don't get on here much, someone sent me a note saying you had a problem otherwise I wouldn't see it.

 

[Pyr0Monk3y]

I can't tell you exactly what's going on from what you posted but send us an email and we'll get things sorted out one way or another.
We use an 095 reamer almost always, we do have a shorter one that's 070 for palma shooters but that's in a special drawer in my office, not on the floor.

THere are a bunch of questions to ask, just send over an email and I'll work through them there. I don't get on here much, someone sent me a note saying you had a problem otherwise I wouldn't see it.

Thank you for the reply, email sent.

 

[Pyr0Monk3y]

I borrowed a borescope and here are some images of the throat. It looks like the rifling starts tapering in immediately.

The black smudges are from marking bullets with dykem while diagnosing this.