Ian
Notorious member
Four things came together finally today: My new .22 caliber Teslong bore scope, my not so new Mossberg MVP tacticool 5.56, a Tubbs .223-caliber full lapping kit (50 bullets), and some free time. My neck is still sore from the biopsy yesterday so the low-recoil rifle got the not for today's project.
I really, really wish I had figured out the camera capture feature of the scope before I started this so I could share the whole process, but I did figure it out after ten each of the first two grits so there's that. Sfarting out, I cleaned with Ed's Red and patches to get the carbon out and have a look. Machine marks galore from the bore being drilled and drag marks from the button very evident the whole length. The throat wasn't pitted or cracked, so that was good. There was zero copper, it took me a full week to get all that out long ago and I haven't shot copper since. There was no trace of powder coating or lead fouling whatsoever, and the last bullets I shot were powder-coated, gas-checked Lyman bullets. Did I mention powder coated bullets are truly awesome?
Ok, here's the "but". The damned thing won't shoot. Best it ever did was close to MOA at 100 yards with careful handloaded jax. I have something over 500 rounds of all sorts of factory, jax handloads, lead-free cast, lubed cast, powder coated cast, everything but paper-patched bullets through it and it averages right at 1.5 MOA for ten shots no matter what. Last time I cleaned it, after doing the unleaded cast bullet tests, I was using tighter patches than normal and noticed the first half of the bore was tighter than the second half, probably due to the flutes of the second half. Anyway, I decided it was time to use the lapping bullets as a last-ditch effort to get this thing to group.
So, after five lappers and a cleaning I scoped it again. Hijo La! Copper EVERYWHERE. That's gonna be a bitch to get out. So five more and a cleaning, starting to notice some smoothing and it is uniform from one end to the other. Going all the way to the muzzle with the camera for the first time....aw chit. Chit chit chit. Here's what I was looking at:
From the other side:
Gee, I wonder why it won't shoot?
Time to pull this thing apart and lose about 1/8" off the crown.
I really, really wish I had figured out the camera capture feature of the scope before I started this so I could share the whole process, but I did figure it out after ten each of the first two grits so there's that. Sfarting out, I cleaned with Ed's Red and patches to get the carbon out and have a look. Machine marks galore from the bore being drilled and drag marks from the button very evident the whole length. The throat wasn't pitted or cracked, so that was good. There was zero copper, it took me a full week to get all that out long ago and I haven't shot copper since. There was no trace of powder coating or lead fouling whatsoever, and the last bullets I shot were powder-coated, gas-checked Lyman bullets. Did I mention powder coated bullets are truly awesome?
Ok, here's the "but". The damned thing won't shoot. Best it ever did was close to MOA at 100 yards with careful handloaded jax. I have something over 500 rounds of all sorts of factory, jax handloads, lead-free cast, lubed cast, powder coated cast, everything but paper-patched bullets through it and it averages right at 1.5 MOA for ten shots no matter what. Last time I cleaned it, after doing the unleaded cast bullet tests, I was using tighter patches than normal and noticed the first half of the bore was tighter than the second half, probably due to the flutes of the second half. Anyway, I decided it was time to use the lapping bullets as a last-ditch effort to get this thing to group.
So, after five lappers and a cleaning I scoped it again. Hijo La! Copper EVERYWHERE. That's gonna be a bitch to get out. So five more and a cleaning, starting to notice some smoothing and it is uniform from one end to the other. Going all the way to the muzzle with the camera for the first time....aw chit. Chit chit chit. Here's what I was looking at:
From the other side:
Gee, I wonder why it won't shoot?
Time to pull this thing apart and lose about 1/8" off the crown.