The Creedmoor Forum

Guh... where to begin...

We had our final 1000yard match this past weekend. It was a two day match with a 3x1000 each day. Last month I found out that my 139gr Lapua Scenars were going transonic at 1000yds so I did some load testing and found another nice node with 1.6gr more juice (42.6gr now). Good news is that all my bullets went in pointy end first. Bad news is that my barrel is fouling quickly and it is only good for about 30 shots before it goes to hell in a hand-basket. For example, on Sunday my first match was a 191-8x with 4x's in a row at one point. I don't remember how big that group would have been but that is a 4-shot group under 5" at 100yds. The gun was doing well. Then during my second match it just fell to pieces. I was hitting 8's high, low, left and right. My group size exploded. If its not one thing it's another. So, as they say... back to the drawing board. I may try JB Bore Pasting the heck out of it and see if that affects the fouling issue. The weird thing is that I have around 800 rounds through this thing and this issue never showed up on the 600yd line. That 1000yd line will really point out flaws!

I'm not going to waste time trying to rectify this issue. If Bore Paste doesn't fix it then I'm just ordering a new barrel. I thought long and hard about what caliber. 6brx, 284win, 7saum... I keep coming back to the Creedmoor. I really think it is the best option for ME.

Im very surprised that your 139 scenar load, or any creedmoor load for that matter, is dropping sub sonic before 1000y.  Im getting about 2800 from 41.6gr of H4350 which shows its supersonic to around 1400y at my 3000asl average (1250y @sea level).  Thats out of a 26" Rock barrel.

That problem is fixed. It's not doing that anymore. Little more fps and the problem went away.

Sorry to hear it, Trent.  I've forgotten whether your Savage wears its factory bbl or not, but you may recall that my Savage factory bbl (on their 'predator' gun; a medium-heavy contour fluted bbl) is basically a disaster.  I have no bore scope, but personal belief is that these terribly rough bbls are tearing up the jackets, and that's why you were seeing key-holing. Personally, and I have no hard data to back this up, I don't believe that the Scenars tumble once they approach/reach transonic.  I think the rough bbls are tearing them up, and that's what's causing the dynamic instability at range.

Anyway, I haven't decided whether to send mine back to Savage or not, for sure.  A replacement bbl is very tempting, and frankly so is just replacing it with a Ruger.  They seem to be building some of the very best factory bbls around right now, and I'm tired of being a rifle 'builder.'

I too wondered about the possibility of the barrel causing some type of damage or cutting of the jacket material but Kevin Thomas at Lapua assured me that I would surely see signs of this in my groups at 100, 300 and 600 yards as well. I think I'll leave it dirty and take it out this weekend and shoot it at 300 and see if my groups have grown.

The inside of my barrel isn't very rough. There is some chatter marks but the rifling is nice and sharp. One thing I did notice though is that the bullets only seem to be touching the center of the grooves. Almost like the groove diameter is just slightly smaller than .264 and there is a lot of carbon built up where the grooves meet the lands. Like the bullets aren't touching there.

After I shoot groups with it at 300 I will JB the barrel and go from there.

 trent,i was gonna pm you and see how the match went but you answered that. but did you get my pm with my adress? we have another "warm up" match @600 sat. and eric plans on showing us the steel targets set up that we will shoot in dec.
they will be from 300-1000yds variying in size. shoot till you miss ,add up score and top dawg wins. never shot a steel match. looking forward to the challenge. marine corp snipers out of beaufort sc. and the army snipers out of ft benning,ft. stewart will have an advantage as always will the mildot system. but it will be fun anyway.

My CM is out of commission until Feb but after that I would enjoy getting up with Trent and you and shoot some I'm only 1 state away

Trent....I suggest you try a "New" box (plastic) of Lapua Scenar 139 grain bullets as they may have "improved" them from your earlier lot # of bullets.  I dont see anyone else having problems with them, myself included.