quote] ..... Lija barrels FAQ
Q. Does Lilja have a recommended cleaning and break-in procedure?
A . Yes we do and it depends on the type of barrel: rimfire, centerfire, .50 BMG
Break-in Procedure (centrefire)
For an effective break-in the barrel should be cleaned after every shot for the first 10-12 rounds or until copper fouling stops. Our procedure is to push
a cotton patch that is wet with solvent through the barrel. This will remove much of the powder fouling and wet the inside of the barrel with solvent.
Next, wet a bronze brush (not a nylon brush) with solvent and stroke the barrel 5-10 times. Follow this by another wet patch and then one dry patch.
Now soak the barrel with a strong copper removing solvent until all of the blue mess is removed from the barrel. The copper fouling will be heavy for
a few rounds and then taper off quickly in just one or two shots. Once it has stopped or diminished significantly it is time to start shooting 5 shot groups
, cleaning after each one. After 25-30 rounds clean at a normal interval of 10-25 rounds. Your barrel is now broken-in.
Q. What is hand lapping?
A. The hand lapping process, that all of our barrels undergo, ensures that you will receive a rifle barrel that has the very best and most desirable type
of internal finish that we can provide. The lapping operation brings the final internal dimensions up to size and also improves the finish. No production
barrels are hand lapped, only the finest custom barrels receive this very important operation. And it is partly for this reason that hand lapped barrels
cost more than lower grade production barrels.
In practice, a lap is cast around a rod placed inside the barrel. The profile of the rifling is cast into the lap ensuring a very precise fit with that individual barrel.
The lap is then “charged” with lapping compound, oiled, and pushed and pulled repeatedly through the length of the barrel. The lap is “recharged” and oiled
many times and several new laps will be cast before the lapping procedure is completed. The man doing the lapping judges when the barrel is finished by a
very experienced feel for the job, inspecting the internal finish as it develops with a full length borescope, and by measuring the diameters of the lands and grooves.
We have, over the years, developed a process that we feel gives us the very best finish and uniformity of diameters the full length of the barrel, that we can obtain.
And the proof is, in our opinion, in the very minimal amount of bullet jacket fouling that our barrels produce, and in their outstanding accuracy.
Our process completely eliminates tooling marks from the inside of the barrel. And very importantly the resulting finish runs parallel with the rifling.
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Over the years we have developed a proprietary lapping system that allows us to create a superior internal finish. We have found through our testing what
is the optimum lapping material and grit. With the finish our barrels are shipped with (especially the stainless steel barrels), bullet jacket fouling is almost
nonexistent, and accuracy is at its peak.
One of the reasons we believe that fouling is minimal has to do with the direction of the surface finish in relation to the rifling. When a barrel is lapped,
the resulting surface lies parallel to the rifling. The bullet does not have to rotate “against the grain” as it would have to with an unlapped barrel or with
a barrel treated in another manner.
Another factor in surface finish has to do with its smoothness. While it is very desirable to have a finish running parallel to the rifling, the finish can be too smooth.
In our extensive testing we found that a lapped barrel could be made too smooth and that these super smooth barrels would foul more than our conventionally
lapped barrels. We have drawn an analogy between these “too smooth” barrels to racing slicks on race cars. These tires have no tread so they can get better
traction (or more friction) on the asphalt or concrete surface. It seems as though a similar situation results between a bullet and barrel if the finish is too smooth.
But in this case, the result is increased fouling, not increased performance.
