Thoughts on BCA barrel.

[NCFED]

So Classic Firearms was running a deal on a 16" nitride 6.5G barrel for $50 and curiosity overcame me so I ordered it. I'm aware of the short throat issues that have been experienced so I'm keeping an eye out for that. I received it yesterday and was able to inspect it and clean it up today.

The bore was FILTHY, I'm not surprised because I have two other BCA barrels in .223 Wylde and they were similar. After running a patch after I hosed the bore out with Ballistol it looked better, then I hosed it out with some Hoppes foaming bore cleaner and let it sit for a half hour....the patches proceeded to come out in what I can only describe as a color you only see after going on a binge of cheap beer and tacos at the seediest Mexican restaurant in town. At any rate, I got patches to come out clean finally.....

Then began the Flitz. I ran probably 20 flitz patches front and back(40 passes) and finished by another hosing out with ballistol and dry patches till clean.....I can say, the bore looks damn near perfect now. I will say that something that has me slightly not excited is the crown isn't very well done so I am going to have to clean that up somehow...it was collecting fibers from the patches at the crown...nothing major, just a little fluff but it certainly needs to be addressed.

[BluntForceTrauma]

Can you describe the process you use for running Flitz patches? Sounds interesting.

Maybe try an experiment with the crown. If memory serves, there was some guy who was cutting down barrels with a chop saw for a velocity test and never cleaned up the crowns between each chop. Didn't notice any difference in accuracy, which surprised him, cuz conventional wisdom says a perfect crown is critical to accuracy.

Maybe shoot your barrel for accuracy before and after cleaning up the crown and see if there's actually a difference? Just for fun. . . .

[Crusty]

Buy a round head brass machine screw, chuck it up in a drill, apply some lapping compound and go to town on your bore and it will do a nice job of lapping in a decent crown. From what I understand the closer in diameter the screw head is to the bore a better crown will result since the lap angle won't diverge much from the bore.

[NCFED]

Buy a round head brass machine screw, chuck it up in a drill, apply some lapping compound and go to town on your bore and it will do a nice job of lapping in a decent crown. From what I understand the closer in diameter the screw head is to the bore a better crown will result since the lap angle won't diverge much from the bore.

This is actually the exact plan that I have

[NCFED]

Can you describe the process you use for running Flitz patches? Sounds interesting.

Maybe try an experiment with the crown. If memory serves, there was some guy who was cutting down barrels with a chop saw for a velocity test and never cleaned up the crowns between each chop. Didn't notice any difference in accuracy, which surprised him, cuz conventional wisdom says a perfect crown is critical to accuracy.

Maybe shoot your barrel for accuracy before and after cleaning up the crown and see if there's actually a difference? Just for fun. . . .

Very simple process....used a patch jag and some basic cotton patches. Soaked them down in flitz and ran them through chamber to muzzle, flipped the patch over and pushed through again...lather, rinse, repeat.

I saw the experiment you're referencing back when I was interested in Mosins and was intending to build a Mosin Scout. I was pretty surprised at what he showed but then again, he wasn't shooting out to 5-600 yds where little things like a poor crown can potentially make a bigger difference but for science sake... I may well attempt a before & after test.

[bj139]

I bought a black matt finished barrel from BHW and when I cleaned it brown color came out of the bore and black from the outside.
Greg from BHW said the brown and black was residual from the black finishing method. No more has come out after the initial cleaning and the bore is so shiny I can see myself in it.

[NCFED]

After the hoppes I never thought I would see the end of the brownish black fowling...I must say though that I am plenty surprised at how pristine the bore looks now

[bj139]

The brown does seem like rust but Greg assured me it is not.
It must be residue from the nitride process. Other manufacturers must clean it off before shipping.
I haven't cleaned it since but there is no black from handling.

[rabiddawg]

For $50 you are lucky it has a hole in the middle.

[NCFED]

You have a point.

[HuntTXhogs]

I hope it doesn’t group 5-6 inches like my 308 BCA barrel

[1Shot]

My first BCA barrel 20 SS flute, came on a complete upper and every shot was a flier. I could see by looking through the bird cage that the crown was not cut properly, the muzzle had chatter marks. Sent it back to them and when it returned it had a 5R SS fluted barrel. It took about 50 rounds for it to start grouping and the more I shoot it the better it has gotten. It is really picky as to loads it wants to shoot but I finally found a few loads that will go under 1". That lapping of the bore probably will help it come in quicker. I have a friend that got one of their 308 Win barrels and initial groups were terrible but he came home and cleaned it really good and then used JB bore paste and ran 40 tight patches back and forth in it and next trip to the range was as different as night and day. It averaged under 1" with the same loads it averaged 3 1/2" with before. I have done many re-crown jobs with the brass round head screw and valve grinding compound. If you have never done it go slow with slow speed on your drill and don't get carried away, it does not take much to clean up and make a good crown. Last crown I did was on my cousins sported M98 8mm Mauser. His son at sometime had gotten some corrosive ammo and did not clean it after shooting and the bore looked like a 100 year old cabin chimney. I soaked it in Kroil oil a couple days and it helped but still was VERY RUFF. It shot average 4" groups with wild fliers. I took a look at the crown and it was well worn so I did the re-crown and when I went back to the range after firing a couple fouling shots I fired for group and it shot 3/4" 5 shots at 100 yards. After about 30 rounds the groups start to grow because of fouling in the ruff bore but a good cleaning and a couple fouling shots and it is back to driving tacks.

[bj139]

1shot,
Amazing story about your friend with the JB bore paste lapping.
I have applied KG-2 bore cleaner to Wolf steel bullets and fired them in my 16" BCA barrel to try to speed up break-in.
I don't know if it helped since I didn't do a followup.
I do know my first BCA barrel shot better after 100 or so rounds fired through it.

[Splatt]

Try IOSSO paste. Every barrel I get, gets a scrubbing with it after the initial cleaning.
Clean with a liquid cleaning fluid of your choice, to get all the paste out.

Use it for lapping lugs as well.

[bj139]

KG-2 is an abrasive type paste.
I think is is similar to JB paste.