Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Remington 700 CDL SF in .30-06

Just when I thought I'd heard it all....

I was wrong again!!

Ingwe

My buddy's Heym absolutely loved the XLC's. The coating is tough too. We shot them into some chunks of oak and recovered them. Still mostly blue.

When I tried them, most of the blue coating came off during the bullet seating process...but no matter...I could never get them to shoot...

Ingwe

It's funny, I have a little piece of iron pyrite that I carried in my pants pocket for years whilst hunting. Just checked those wool pants and it's still in there.


Yep on the XLC's. Here is a Crown box I busted at 700 yards with the 257 Roy (notice the blue on the box). That was the 6th shot ever through that rifle, 7th kilt a bar.



Skinned

I used them in only two calibers--.338 and .470 and didn't have an issue. Yeah, if I saw the stuff come off on seating, I'd been pretty unimpressed.

There was a gunsmith in Idaho a few years ago who was telling customers that if they didn't have him break-in their new rifle barrels "properly" that the barrel would be ruined forever. It almost caused me to avoid Idaho forever, but then I remembered that there are some real dumbasses in Montana too.

In the years of the XLC I found exactly one rifle that would shoot them. My NULA .257 Ackley would put 100-grainers into about 3/4" at 3300 or so. I was pretty happy--and then Barnes brought out the TSX, which shot in about everything, and good-bye XLC.

If that bear had been into my whiskey, I'd a kilt him too!

His hide looks awfully nice.

Actually it was a 17 year old sow.

Hmm, did properly include the Kroil treatment?

I've not bear hunted too much, so my judging skills stink. From the looks of its ears and head in the picture, I would have thought it a boar. Do the older sows start to get a square looking head?

Nice Black bear Scott...

Good that you killed that Crown too...Ive killed some in my time, but it usually took more than seven shots...

Ingwe

Evidently he used a secret recipe that he alone knew. Probably dipped the bullets in a mixture of Quaker State 10W-40, extra virgin olive oil, and bullschidt.

I typically fire 20 rounds of TSX bullets first, with the grooves filled with JB bore paste.

I am hesitant to rise to that bait.....


Ingwe

sorry, maybe i'm missing something? i followed a break-in procedure of cleaning after ever shot for the first 5 shots, then after every 3 shot group for the first 20 and then very 5 3 shot groups there after. maybe i didn't explain something right? the gun shot 2" groups no matter what i threw at it before having gunsmith do a glass-bed/pillar-bed and free-float. obviously, something was out-of-whack, cause after that i achieved better than average groups. the only thing that changed was the gunsmithing work on my rifle. i was only trying to post that maybe the rifle has a problem with the bedding and not the barrel. in my case, it just took a bedding job to realize the barrels potential. my guess is that the pressure point wasn't helping matters any.

No, you're not missing anything--except the fact that the rifle didn't shoot any better after you "properly broke in" the barrel.

There have been discussions on the Campfire for years about the value (or lack thereof) of breaking-in barrels, and quite often the shooters who do talk of doing it "properly." I am of the opinion that break-in is wasted time, powder, bullets and effort. I just submiited an article to Rick Bin on the subject about 3 weeks ago, which will be appearing on the Campfire sometime in the next couple of months. Your post was just some more evidence to back up my data.

Thanks JB..I'd like to see the whole barrel break in B.S. put to rest....
I'm sticking with the Constable Tom Barrel Break In Procedure...

shoot it till you are done for the day...clean it.



Ingwe

I've done both; the "break in" procedure and just shooting the thing like normal (whatever that is) and have not seen a difference. If I ever get a new rifle again, I won't bother with the break in thing.

You have probably spoken to Melvin Forbes as much if not much more than I have. He told me once that "a barrel is just a tube" and is not as complicated as a lot of folks make it.