65BR;
Good afternoon to you sir, I hope this finds you well on this last Sunday in October.
I've just now got off the phone to a recently retired gunsmith who's opinion and knowledge I've learned to trust a whole lot. As usual after talking or corresponding with him I'm a bit smarter now....
So one of the things he told me about the question at hand is that the military barrels were faster than 1:8 - more like 1:7.5" - AND they had very deep rifling as compared to most commercial barrels.
He felt that perhaps that's why the military barreled rifles are so hard on cup and core bullets - that the deep rifling weakens the bullet jacket somewhat or that was his hunch.
As mentioned previously in this thread, our daughter's rifle was indeed tough on some 120gr bullets we tried way back when it was my late father's rifle.
He agreed that fast twists and mono bullets seem to be a match made for each other from all reports in his district (Kootenays, BC) too.
Anyway, as well he's given me some ideas as to where and what to look for in a 6.5 barrel so we'll see now what comes of it.
Hopefully that was of interest to you or someone out there this afternoon sir. All the best to you and good luck on your remaining hunts this fall.
Dwayne
