Tubb's Final Finish, followup, 7mm Rem Mag

[texfar]

Well, decided to go for the "Tubb's Final Finish" fire lapping system for my 7mm Rem Mag. Results are that it moved my throat forward about .030 (as advertised) and removed all the throat errosion except for two very very small spots. Polished bore very nicely. It was very bad to start with. Rifle is early Rem. 700. Was concerned at first with my new OAL figures, which were for sure longer than before. I loaded some 140gr. Nos. Partitions and some Barnes TSX 140 gr.Triple shock. Nosler was with 4350 powder and Barnes was with 4831. The group with the Nosler Partition 140 gr.was .8 ctc and the Barnes TSX 140gr. was .405 ctc. Both groups were 3 shot groups after a couple of foul the barrel shots. Barrel was cooled between shots. End result is that I have my accuracy back. I still have some copper fouling, but can clean spotless in about 20 minutes vice 3 days!! I would use the product again, but would probably not use the entire lot of Number 1, 2, and 3 rounds unless the throat/bore was as bad as my 7mm Rem Mag. Would use all of the polishing rounds.

Have decided to use it on my Savage 12BVSS, 22-250 for barrel break in. SSS recommended I use only half of the numbers 1,2 and 3 rounds and all polishing rounds. Will let you know what happend with this rifle.

 

[Gewehr98]

I don't understand.

Have decided to use it on my Savage 12BVSS, 22-250 for barrel break in. SSS recommended I use only half of the numbers 1,2 and 3 rounds and all polishing rounds. Will let you know what happend with this rifle.

Why? Is it fouling already? Or did Savage tell you the new 12BVSS had a tendency to foul?

You're fixing something that ain't broken, unlike your throat-eroded 700.

 

[texfar]

Gewehr98, First of all, you are correct....nothing is broke so there is nothing to fix, but there is always plenty of room for improvement with anything not custom made. It is my opinion that the Tubb's system does make the barrel better and smoother where needed, by removing tool marks in the throat and in the bore itself as advertised. I believe it does make it more uniform as advertised. I do believe that the polish reduces fouling which I have already seen in the 7mm that I just did. I do feel it extends the amount of shots before accuracy falls off by reducing fouling. Again, I have already seen it in my 7mm which I just did. I do believe that it won't screw up your rifle. I did not enter into this lightly. If you don't believe in the method, don't use it. How much research have you done regarding THIS product??? How many phone calls have you made to THEIR technical??? If you haven't, then call and ask for BRAND and make up your mind to use it or not based on the information provided. Most comments that I have read regarding firelapping are general in nature. Some have named products that offer you a material for you to put on yourself. I avoided these products. This product did exactly what they said it would do and their technical folks have seen just a few rifles, so I trust them in regards to this product at this point. What is the worst case......I get myself a cool new Lilja barrel and true the action. My opinion is that it is worth a shot, so to speak.

By the way, you might not have caught one of my other posts that stated how my Savage barrel was trashed by Savage right from the factory right out of the box and they put another on no questions asked. If they can make that kind of MAJOR error, there is bound to be tool minor or major tool marks and whatever in the new barrel that this system just might take care of take care of. Appreciate your comments and input.

 

[tINY]

On the Savage, taking the barrel off and restting the headspace is pretty easy. You might consider renting a chamber reamer set if it looks funky and recutting the chamber yourself (just take off another .002 in length). For the length of the barrel, slugging it and hand-lapping it is the right way to smooth it out (if it needs it).

The barrel on my 12bvss in 308 was very good. I wouldn't even consider playing with it (short of repacing it outright with a Shilen, Hart, or Kreiger).



-tINY

 

[Gewehr98]

I wish Gale McMillan were still around these parts.

He'd have a thing or two to add about the topic at hand. Granted, we're not talking about a Krieger, Shilen, Lilja, Hart, or Obermeyer barrel on your new Savage, but why not just shoot the darned thing and see what it does, before going the abrasive bullet route? Scientifically speaking, you're not even establishing a baseline for the improvement offered by firelapping before you go to Step #2, so you won't know what percent tighter groups you got, what percent less copper fouling you achieved, etc.

Standard procedure for new barrel break-in is shoot, clean, and repeat, increasing the interval between cleaning to about 5, then 10 rounds, and watching for fouling or other anomalies.

If it so happens you do get fouling or a borescope says things ain't kosher, then go ahead with the lapping compound on a bullet, assuming it's a cheap barrel. If it's a premium barrel like the ones I listed above (which I usually install on my rifles) then a phone call to the respective maker is in order.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to bust your chops. I've got a No5Mk1 Jungle Carbine with a cordite-eroded throat that would probably benefit from the technique. But you are indeed removing metal when firelapping with each and every abrasive bullet, so I do the standard barrel break-in with new barrels.