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What are the early signs of barrel wear?

shooter98

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Minuteman
Mar 12, 2013
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I know, rookie question but I’ve never shot a rifle as much as I am the Howa and I’m wondering about other than the obvious groups opening up, what signs are there? I have a 26” factory barrel with 700 rounds through it on 6.5cm shooting 2850fps.
 
Loses speed first, then some erratic flyers at distance that dont jive with conditions, then flyers and patterns at 100yd. Some guys will say throat erosion, but that slowly changes from brand new. I dont consider .025-.030" of throat length increase as a sign barrel is done.
 
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I’m not having any issues at all. I just read on some of the 6.5cm stuff here guys talking about 1200 rounds and their barrels are done.

ive had multiple 6.5 creed barrels show the first signs of a speed drop in the 1200-1500 round range, but they all still shot well past 2k rounds

the speed drop only burns you if it happens during a match
 
So just for conversation sake. I shot a group two weeks ago it looked like this.
7092980


Shot it at a match last weekend and I noticed the morning of its opened up to about a 1.5 grouping. I’ve got 1250 rounds down it. As far as cleaning it’s cleaned out. I thought maybe it had a carbon ring in it so I got pretty aggressive with it and C4.
Thoughts??
 
700 is early on a 6.5mm. It's possible you just have some copper or carbon ring that needs more thorough cleaning. It's also possible the barrel had an inclusion from the factory. They aren't exactly the highest quality barrels.

If you have lost faith in the factory barrel just get a new one. They are wearing items and easily replaceable for a reason. Your time and piece of mind alone are well worth the cost.
 
Hows the crown look? I had a 308 start going south at 1800rds. At the time I religiously cleaned it, almost every outing. Smith borescoped it and examined it and said crown has some wear. Recut crown and presto, it was back to being a hammer.
 
My 300 win went from hammer to toast in about 100 rounds. Litterly shooting .5 moa in f class match to 1.5 moa 2 weeks later. It was a factory remington sendero. Had 1200 HOT rounds through it. No chrony back then but I do vaguely remember my elevation having to go up. I cleaned like all the other F class guys, after every match with sweets then clp. So the cleaning every 60-80 rounds may have helped wear it out too.