Range Report Rifle won't shoot 175 Match Burners anymore

[JMGlasgow]

I have a Savage 10 FLCP-k that used to really like a recipe of 42.1gr IMR4064, FC case, Win LR primer, and Barnes Match Burner 175 loaded to 2.95" COAL. It was about a year ago that I shot this 5 shot group at 100 yards.



Now, less than 500 rounds later with the exact same load, I can barely muster 2-3" groups at 100yds. It's a shotgun pattern, no reason for where the flyers hit. They could be up, down left, or right with zero consistency. I've cleaned the barrel, stripped the copper build up, refouled, tried again, repeat... This barrel hates to be clean. It takes several (40+) rounds to settle in. When it was brand new, it took a little over it's first 100 rounds before it would group under an inch.

Today I revisited this issue and tried a few different bullets. Hornady 178 A-Max, 175 Match Burner, and I brought along the old trusty factory loaded FGMM 168. If it wouldn't shoot the FGMM, it was getting put away until I got a new barrel. The Hornady improved, but wasn't what I was expecting, Barnes still shot like hell, and the 168 factory ammo did these two 5 shot groups back to back...no cool down between groups besides loading another 5 rounds and inserting the magazine.




The barrel has over 6k rounds through it, and the throat is quite long now. So long in fact that I can't reach the rifling with the 175's without the bullet falling out of the case. I thought I was going to have to replace the barrel, then the FGMM shoots like the above groups without trying too hard.

I had tried Berger 175 VLD with the same 42.1 of IMR4064, and it shot pretty well. Berger is expensive, and it's hard for me to justify them.

Do I just keep shooting the 168's, try to duplicate the FGMM? Maybe try some Hornady 168 ELD's and push them harder? Call Barnes and ask them if I got bad batch(es) of bullets?

Replacing the barrel is inevitable, but not in the very near future, and it looks like this barrel still has life. At least with Federal match ammo.

​

 

[Tiger83]

Wow!!! 6000 rounds and still grouping like that. I say shoot the FGMM until you rebarrel. I would say that you probably just eroded the throat past what the match burners liked.

 

[390fe]

Old MatchBurner loads and new MatchBurner loads used the same can of powder? Or the same lot?

 

[JMGlasgow]

Same lot of powder.

I just bought some Hornady 168 ELD-M to try in it. I rarely shoot it over 800 yards, so if these work, I'll just push them fairly hard and see how they do.

I still want to figure out the Barnes bullet issue though. Maybe try RL15 as well, I'll try some more things. Suggestions as to how to go about figuring this out would be helpful.

 

[gigamortis]

I would chrono your newer match burner loads to see if they match up with your original load development. I shoot a lot of IMR-4064 powder, and have seen where an aged 8lb jug of it had lost its potency to where my go to load lost 80 fps. I was about 5lbs into that 8lb jug when my groups opened up and discovered my 80fps loss that took my barrel out of its accuracy node. As a precaution now, I only buy IMR-4064 in 1lb jugs of the same lot. That way only 1lb at a time is opened up for use.

I replaced my original Savage barrel at about 3000 rounds when I got tired of chasing lands to maintain a .020" jump with my go to load of 178 Amax. Since the Amax isn't produced any more, I recently switched to the Berger 175 OTM. They have a shorter bearing surface and a tangent ogive that is very jump friendly, plus they outshoot my old Amax load. My node with these Bergers came in at 60fps faster than my old Amax load with less pressure signs to boot due to the shorter bearing surface.

I originally balked at the price of the Bergers, but after working up a load and seeing the results, I'm comfortable with the extra expense. If I shoot 50 rounds of Berger bullets on a range visit, it costs me just $10 more per range visit over other bullets for exceptional results. A good analogy is "Why feed your Hemi Challenger 87 octane gas, when it performs to its potential on 93 octane?"

 

[Lunchbox27]

Fwiw, I load the 168 ELD-M with 43.2 grains of 4064 in Lapua brass with CCI200's. 2700fps and single digit SD. Not a harsh load at all and solid to 800 yards.

 

[JMGlasgow]

I switched bullets to 178 AMax, and tried 178 ELD-M. Rifle can shoot under 1/2 moa with those bullets. I have also switched to RL15 powder over IMR4064, although my Rem700 LA hunting rifle in 30-06 likes the same can of 4064 powder and 168 Barnes TTSX.

I've been having issues with Barnes MatchBurner bullets in my 6.5 Creedmoor as well. I believe they are too inconsistent in quality to spend any more money on them. I switched to Hornady 140 ELD-M, changed nothing else, and shot much better groups right away. Switched back to Barnes 140's, accuracy was shit.