257 questions
So, long 257 RL barrel is on its way. I’m curious to know what sort of accuracy everyone is getting? Who has the best valve for this barrel? What sort of distances is everyone getting out of them with what sort of long range accuracy?
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No prob.
OOOPS.. sorry mischief, didn’t intend to highjack this thread. 😳 Hopefully the info will help you avoid some of the same issues I have talked about.
Yes, work with Randy he needs to see what the big hype is about, what shoot bullets you say, but this is a pellet gun with a bullet barrel.
These barrels were made to shoot real bullets. They are firearm barrel liners. He is trying to shoot pellets in them.
You should have asked here before you sent it. You should have just shot it. Worst that can happen is tank dump which is no big deal. Of coarse it’s going to be tight to seal.
What size are your bullets?
Bummer…there’s no “hijacked” smiley 😉 
Update.. Got my .257 R&L barrel’s breech lead-in done for .257 sized lyman 257420 slugs. They fit nice n snug and should be right at the same diameter as the grooves. I tried to push one past the lead in and into the rifling and it was so tight i couldnt go further than about half an inch and had to carefully tap (bang) it back out with a rod. It came out at just under .2570 so figure all should be ok. I am a bit worried to shoot it since it was so dang tight though, so called Randy. He had me send it in to him along with some of the slugs. He was worried about a potential valve lock up/air dump so he will shoot it himself first. He told me that these barrels were intended to shoot pellets and not solids but seems interested in seeing how it works with bullets. I’ll report back with how it ends up.
😆 😆 😆 Already tried. But it wasn’t a fair test. I put the spacers under the top hat that doug sent with the valve to slow the thing down, adn put the power wheel on “0”. The 25.4 JSB King flew out the barrel with a loud KA-CRACK! 😯 at 1134fps. So yes, Dougs valve has a bit of Fuck’n POower! 😈
And the pellets shot like shit! Questions? 😆 Like one foot at 50 yards. Even for supersonic, this is BAD!
Knife :1:
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! Funny, mini pells.
Hey Mike. Let’s find out. Tomorrow how bout try shooting some jsb’s just to see what happens. Maybe the skirt expands or something but I think the skirt goes around the nose of the bullet and makes it a round ball .
The more I read about these R&L barrels, the fishier it gets. 😕 TJ’s are not choked. They are powder burner barrels. Not pellet barrels. And are far too big for a .25 pellet. Iwent ahead and pushed a .25 pellet thru my TJ bbl. and it had NO resistance. None!
Either some one is out right lieing, or totally ignorant in what they are saying.
I think I would tend to lap the sizing die up to just above groove diameter instead of lapping the barrel.
I do fire lap my barrels but only to polish the interior to resist leading.
Obviously Randy does not shoot cast bullets in these barrels, I say that because a cast bullet barrel should have no choke what so ever, and it should always have a lead cut into the breech.
As far as prepping a 257 TJ barrel for cast bullets, for that information you need to go no further than the folks on this forum. There is as much information here on cast bullets in the 257 as you will find anywhere, with the exception of John Bowman who was instrumental in the Haley 257 Scandalous inception, we, Doug, aka Dyotat, Tofasfou, RJ Porter and myself are really the guys who got the 257 craze started on line.
RC
Thanks Dyotat100
That may be something I can do myself with some finesse required. Does it make sense to carefully run a drill shaft with a bit of sandpaper on it into the breech end maybe a half inch or so and hold on to that while rolling the barrel ? I may also be able to make a reamer with a drill press and a file to size it down.
Interesting on the sizes you get when slugging your barrels. I thought I was seeing an unusually small diameter since the available sizing dies are larger. The .2570 bullets must fit VERY tight even without any rifling there. I read that a good tight fit without smearing lead is what is needed.
I might give this a try myself but will call Randy on Monday for his suggestions. Maybe he can add some steps to remove the rifling on the breech end and coach customers on lapping the rest of the way to get a good fit to their die size.
I’m learning, thanks…
Mischief,
I do mine with a dremel and a craytex .25 bulb. I take the bullets I am going to use and have several on hand to use as fiktting guides and do not insert the bulb firther than the length of the bullets driving bands. Then I start polishing. You can use a small cylinder dremel grinding bit to get it started but be very careful.
I only use each individual bullet once to check for the lead fit as you are sizing it down slightly by inserting it.
My Haley barrels I had Doug rough fit and then I did the craytex bulb finial finishing and fitting.
I describe the fit of the bullet going into the lead as a cork sliding into a wine bottle.
I have two barrels for the Haley, the 1-14 I fit for the 257420 and NOE and the 1-10 for the 100 grain NOE. My Haley when I got it with the 1-14 twist barrel was set up for a one size fits all, I could almost fit two 420’s in that lead. It made a difference with the much tighter lead, but it still worked fairly well with the much larger lead.
If you have the old valve that Doug made for me with that rifle, and a RL 257 TJ barrel that is AF specs, I would just cut a lead and then try the barrel you have and see what velocity your getting.
RC
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I do mine with a dremel and a craytex .25 bulb. I take the bullets I am going to use and have several on hand to use as fiktting guides and do not insert the bulb firther than the length of the bullets driving bands. Then I start polishing. You can use a small cylinder dremel grinding bit to get it started but be very careful.
I only use each individual bullet once to check for the lead fit as you are sizing it down slightly by inserting it.
My Haley barrels I had Doug rough fit and then I did the craytex bulb finial finishing and fitting.
I describe the fit of the bullet going into the lead as a cork sliding into a wine bottle.
I have two barrels for the Haley, the 1-14 I fit for the 257420 and NOE and the 1-10 for the 100 grain NOE. My Haley when I got it with the 1-14 twist barrel was set up for a one size fits all, I could almost fit two 420’s in that lead. It made a difference with the much tighter lead, but it still worked fairly well with the much larger lead.
If you have the old valve that Doug made for me with that rifle, and a RL 257 TJ barrel that is AF specs, I would just cut a lead and then try the barrel you have and see what velocity your getting.
RC
Hmmmmm… How do I get the barrel out??