Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting David Tubbs Final Finish System Thoughts

Has anyone tried this system and would you recommend it? I am soon getting a Remington Sendero SF II chambered in .300 RUM and I want to break the barrel in the proper way, is this system a good way I should go about this?

Others will differ, but I use a similar firelapping compund to break in my barrels. I do not have the time or patinece for the ususal methods. Just a few shots with the finer grits of firelapping compund and a bit of JB and we have a you have a lapped barrel.

The big thing such a system often does, I think, is smooth out the circular machining marks from the throat of the chamber. Even with a new, top-grade, hand-lapped barrel (where all the lapping is along the length of the barrel) the reamer can leave slight marks at right angles to the bore in the throat. Half-a-dozen shots with grit-embedded bullets will smooth those marks right out.

Of course, the same bullets can help a worn or pitted throat as well. But I have seen much better results from a few rounds of "lapping" bullets than dozens of so-called "break-in" rounds, and suspect the good results are mostly due to lapping away machining marks in the throat.

clean it before anything, then shoot it. if it won't shoot or fouls badly, then firelap. firelapping is something that can not be undone.

the best remington barrel i ever had i just cleaned every three or four hundred rounds and shot. this was a SS Sendero II bbl in .264 WM. it shot near .5 moa until almost 1200 rounds (about the norm for that cartridge)

That system is pretty harsh, if you use all the bullets in all the grits. I would shoot it a while first, and then think about the Tubbs kit if you don't like how the barrel cleans up.

That's why I only fire maybe half-a-dozen of the finer grit bullets, just to smooth out the throat.

MD,

Just to be clear- are you saying that you use the more coarse-grit stuff it the barrel in question isn't hand-lapped (like my ER Shaw 338-06 A-Square from Brownell's)? Or are you saying that no matter the "grade" of finish you consider the more coarse of the stuff to be too "invasive" (if I may use that term that you haven't)?

That particular barrel has gotten at best 1" groups at 100 yards and I bought the Tubbs FFS but have been hesitant to run all 50 down the tube but want to be sure just what I ought to do.

Should I just stick maybe 5 each of the two finest grits down and see how they do, then possibly back up to coarser knowing that I have 5 more of each to use later on?

Thanks,

efw

efw,

I hate to sound wishy-washy, but it just depends.

In your case I would probably start with the coarse grits abd see what happens--since you already have the kit. At least I would have three years ago. Today I might shoot a few rounds with the finer grits--then Ultra Bore Coat the barrel.

The Tubbs system was actually developed to smooth the throat in barrels that have been shot and hence developed some throat roughness. If the barrel is relatively new, then a few rounds to smooth the throat has gotten good results for me.

But if a new bore is a fouler, then I tend to UBC it these days, rather than dink around with shooting dozens of rounds and other expensive, time-consuming stuff.

Glad to see that I am not the only one around here who is tiring of, as you aptly put it "dink around" with time consuming stuff that is of dubious merit.

I have not yet tried the Ultra Bore Coat, but will now! I still have some of the bore coat stuff that the Late Bob Milek was recommending some 20 years ago.

Thank you very much... wishy-washy is fine by me... it merely is an admission of the inexactness of this "science"!

I'll "amen" safariman's comments re: ultraborecoat, too. That'll be next on my agenda... and I'll pursue this simpler tack on future "break in" projects.

Thanks again all!

SniperAce016,

Hopefully this is on topic. Since I never heard of Tubb's process, I will give you an example of twenty-five shots fired through my .454. I completely clean the barrel and fired three five shot groups at 100 yards from the Freedom Arms toy. Then I cleaned it again. I fired the twenty-five low velocity lead bullets with 500 grit rolled into their surfaces between two pieces of glass. Then I cleaned it again. Lots of cleaning time and a little shooting time. Then fired three more five shot groups at 100 yards.

With a light I could see absolutely the bore was definately smoother. All three of the second groups were smaller than the first three groups and the velocity increased an average of thirty feet per second.

I hope this info is of value.