barrel shot out?

[ShaneG.]

I have a 12BVSS in .308 that I bought around 96-97. This thing shot great for a long time it now has close to 4,000 rounds through it.

It used to be easy to load for to get really nice groups,now it is nothing but a problem it seems. It started going south last year after putting a few hundred rounds through it. After beating the crap out of my shoulder the barrel was threaded and a brake was installed,I thought maybe this had caused the fliers.

The stock had cracked around one of the pillars so it was epoxied back in and bedded(twice) with no change still threw shots,changed scopes,bases and rings also still no change.

So I turned the threads off the muzzle after seeing the crown was pitted from leaking gas on the brake,used a new 11 degree crown reamer and redone the muzzle along with lapping to remove any sharp edge.

Before putting barrel back on I noticed some copper,so after about 10 rounds with a foam bore cleaner and a borescope had it clean,plus ran some Sweet's through it to make sure. Went out to shoot today and just barely got it to shoot under an inch@100,but at 200 looked like a shotgun hit the target.

After about 40-50 rounds the bore looked like a copper striped candy cane, you could see about 3 really bright copper stripes from the muzzle back as far as you could see down the bore. I never noticed this much before and never seen it on anything else I shoot.

I had tried bullets from 110,155,168,175 and used Varget,TAC,4064 and WC846 all with pretty much the same results some better than others but nothing great,this thing would stick 3-5 rounds in one nice tight group,and when I was doing my part one hole sometimes.

So does it sound like it has gave up the ghost? I'm tired of polishing this turd!

[Armed in Utah]

Sounds like a good time to be looking for a new after market tube.....

[ShaneG.]

That kinda what I was afraid of,but been thinking that's what was wrong. Oh well the money and time I spent fooling around with this thing I probably could buy a nice pipe for it.

[Dirk]

You certainly got your money's worth out of that barrel! Time for a new one. The Army Marksmanship Unit changes out their .308Win Palma barrels at 2500 rounds.

[ShaneG.]

Yes i agree I did get my moneys worth out of it.

Now just have to find a replacement 308 barrel pretty quick,was gonna go to the Indiana savage shoot this month.Screwed an new 12 22-250 barrel on for now.

[defoxer]

4000 rounds not a bad inning, are the riflings still sharp?? a couple of inches off the muzzle (wear can bell mouth away from the muzzle) and a chasing of the throat or 1/2 inch off the chamber and re-establish the chamber may get you a few more thousand rounds - or for the money and effort just pick up a new barrel unless of course you have a reamer, hacksaw , thread die.....
brake on a 308?? nothing wrong with that - I was thinking of putting one on my 223 ;D

[ultramag44]

Shane, you got your $$ out of that old barrel. Buy a nice, high-grade replacement tube from one of the sponsors, and watch it cut nice groups again!

[ShaneG.]

4000 rounds not a bad inning, are the riflings still sharp?? a couple of inches off the muzzle (wear can bell mouth away from the muzzle) and a chasing of the throat or 1/2 inch off the chamber and re-establish the chamber may get you a few more thousand rounds - or for the money and effort just pick up a new barrel unless of course you have a reamer, hacksaw , thread die.....
brake on a 308?? nothing wrong with that - I was thinking of putting one on my 223 ;D

Na not gonna go through all that. I did think about cutting it back to 16-18 inches and threading the muzzle again and just use it for slinging heavy subsonic rounds out of it though might be good enough for that!

[AVanGorder]

.....brake on a 308?? nothing wrong with that - I was thinking of putting one on my 223 ;D

I am a muzzle brake fan. I put muzzle brakes on my 20 calibers.
Here is a picture of my 16 pound 20Tactical with a muzzle brake. Talk about soft shooting...