LW .25cal barrel question?
I am thinking of buying 18″ .25 cal LW barrel from PyramydAir and wanted to know how are the quality of LW barrels lately? Did anyone buy one recently and had used it?
I have read that their barrels went down in quality and just wanted to know if it got fixed. Last two barrels I had, had issues with accuracy. When I pushed pellet through the barrel, it didn’t have resistance all the way through but at some points it felt like it was just about to fall through the barrel. It was like the barrel had some patches of tightness inside till it hit the choke. And that was with 43gr Eun Jins which are usually very tight in the barrel. I don’t know but it might be normal and not a big deal since there is a choke but I still feel that it is weird that two of my barrels were not uniform inside. Low quality I guess.
So anyone has experience with how accurate LW barrels are recently? Any improvements?
All Replies
Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
So, if I understand correctly, every LW barrel that is machined down for AirForce rifle to fit the breach will have those loose and tight spots in it?
magnaporting? 😕
At one time, I had a 340 Weatherby barrel mounted on a Remington 700, I made up and magnaported on a 6’s Enterprises stock.
The gun weighed 6.5 lbs with a 2×7 Leupold scope, sling and fully loaded, I had made it up to be the most horse power per pound elk rifle and it must have been close.
It was the finest elk killer I ever had, but I had to write my name and address on the back of my hand to know where to send the meat.
But no elk made it past 2 steps after hit with that beast. Not a true test of stopping power, for I only killed 5 elk and a bear with it, but it seemed to be the answer to blood trailing, for the blood trails were only two feet long.
I once broke the off shoulder on a Rag horned bull at 150 yards by the fall and hitting the shoulder on the ground, not by the bullet but again by hitting the ground. The first elk I shot with it had fallen 15 seconds prior and the fourth 30 seconds after.
Obviouly the statute of limitations has expired by a factor of 2 on that little killing spree.
It was magaported, but after about 300 rounds of 250’s at 2900 FPS the magnaporting blistered up off the pencil barrel, so I cut the magnaporting off with a hacksaw to see what the recoil was without the magnaporting.
I shot three shots using my 1000 gallon propane tank as a rest. It broke the 6’s Enterprise composite stock at the wrist. I retired for three days with a disabilitating migraine after that test.
Ballistically it was what the 338 Lapua is today.
I put a different stock on it and a screw on muzzle break and traded it off for a Phil Fishcer 22-250 improved on a 1909 Argentine Mauser action.
50% of my Migraine headaches went away until I decided to train for the Oregon 1000 yard BPCR SASS Championship shooting 100 550 grain bullets per week in practice which I won in 2000.
I never miked that bore, but I am sure the dimensions were affected by the machining for primers always showed too much pressure and case life was around 3 shots.
I was told at the time the Douglas barrel was sort of rare due to trouble machining it down so far and how it affected the interior dimensions, but not being that imbedded in the barrel industry I never knew if that were true.
But fuck what a elk killer it was.
Regards,
Roachcreek
Regards,
Roachcreek
i agree 100%, maybe lapping or boring the breech area would vastly improve matters, though there still seems to have been a bit of deviation in the barrel midsections. suppose though that skirted pellets will tolerate this deviance well with a choke if the breech is opened up…
I’ve heard of that as well RC and pb barrels usually don’t get machined down as much as AF barrels do…
I’ve heard that LW has producing some of their best barrels lately so i’d think that this tight, loose, tight thing may be from getting the barrel down to the breech diameter for this specific rifle…
I’ll have an un-mutilated 17 cal LW barrel in a month or two I can test.
Synopsys,
I am convinced that is what is happening at the breech. I was told to look out for that on rifle barrels many years ago.
Regards,
Roachcreek
Wouldn’t the effects of machining the breech area down with too much gusto yield a tight lead in? 😕 😯
Anyone slug one of these barrels from the manufacturer before it get’s mutilated for the AF config? 😀
I bought one of the current barrels after having one of the proceeding batches that was tight at both the breech and choke and loose in the middle.
The current one I have has had several slugs pushed thru it in an attempt to get a very close mapping of the interior dimesions for a custom bullet mold.
The bore/breech to the choke measures .2549 and the choke measures in at .251 fo about a inch and a half. The chamber was tight for Kings until modified for cast bullets. Even tho Kings will now fall out if the barrel is elevated and the breech worked back and forth, it has given me some very tight groups, ie., .6 at 80 yards.
I will soon purchase a 16 inch barrel for a custom AF project I have planned.
THe barrel I have seems to be a good barrel, but I can’t vouch for all of the new batch.
Regards,
Roachcreek
Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Moneyshot,
Magnaporting was a process where they EDM’d to slots in the barrel of rifles to act as rocket engines to use the gas to push the barrel down.
It works really well.
In later versions two more slots ere used horizontically to prevent yaw. It is till used today and is the pioneer of porting for recoil.
I believe, if memolry serves me correctly the inventor of Manaporting was Larry Kelly, but then I get paid big bucks to have a bad memory.
Regards,
Roachcree