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It's Getting Harder To Make Major!


dpeters

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My Open gun is 3 years old, still shoots a full mag in 2 1/2 inches at 50 yards, and just runs and runs. My problem is it seems like it's getting harder and harder to make major with the same load that I have used since the gun was brand new.

It's taking me 11 grains of N105 to make 170 PF with a zero 125 jhp. When I first started shooting this gun, I made 170 PF with 10.4 of N105. What is starting to concern me a little is that I am really starting to flaten my primers.

My barrel has 80,000 rounds on it. Could the barrel be getting worn? or Do you guys think that over the years there just might be a difference in the lots of reloading supplies? (Powder,Primers,Bullets,Brass. I would hate to have to go to a faster powder, I have 24 pounds of N105 on order.

Thanks, Doug

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D,

Take this for what its worth as I personally do not have experience with this, but a local GM was telling me recently that he has experience a chamber giving way over time and round count to the extent that it is time for a new barrel.

Maybe you could take a micrometer and compare some fired and unfired brass and see if you chamber may have gotten dimensionally larger which would allow more case expansion before driving the bullet free of the case mouth.

Good luck Craig

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Just out of curiousity, what kind of barrel are you running?? 80K's a lot of rounds :) It's still a 5 MOA pistol after all that - nice :) I'd agree with the others - check out the wear inside the barrel just in front of the chamber - you may only have rifling in the second half of the barrel, at this point, or your chamber may be well worn, at this point. Larger diameter bullets might help, per Mark's suggestion. You could also experiment with a faster powder - but you may have the same pressure issues, there, too.

Could be, it's just time to suck it up and rebarrel it :) I mean, geez, 80K!!! :)

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Just out of curiousity, what kind of barrel are you running?? 80K's a lot of rounds :) It's still a 5 MOA pistol after all that - nice :) I'd agree with the others - check out the wear inside the barrel just in front of the chamber - you may only have rifling in the second half of the barrel, at this point, or your chamber may be well worn, at this point. Larger diameter bullets might help, per Mark's suggestion. You could also experiment with a faster powder - but you may have the same pressure issues, there, too.

Could be, it's just time to suck it up and rebarrel it :) I mean, geez, 80K!!! :)

I'm shooting Bob's ProSX. He uses BarSto. Hopefully Bob chimes in here to give his opinion.

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D, 

Take this for what its worth as I personally do not have experience with this, but a local GM was telling me recently that he has experience a chamber giving way over time and round count to the extent that it is time for a new barrel. 

Maybe you could take a micrometer and compare some fired and unfired brass and see if you chamber may have gotten dimensionally larger which would allow more case expansion before driving the bullet free of the case mouth. 

Good luck Craig

That sounds logical. What diameter should a fired piece of 38 SuperComp brass measure?

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Doug,

I always wondered if you were going to wear that barrel out. I may be mistaken, but didn't you like to do lots of practice shooting...high round count sessions? Could be that the barrel got hot enough to erode the throat?

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definately rebarrel, it's probably shot out. you could slug it to check the bore diameter and go to a larger diameter bullet but with 80K on it, just rebarrel it. have your gunsmith look everything over to make sure you aren't throwing money into a worn out gun.

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I'm shooting Bob's ProSX. He uses BarSto. Hopefully Bob chimes in here to give his opinion.

I only ask cause I've never heard of a Schuemann barrel that could shoot any kind of group after 60K rounds, much less 80K. The ones I've seen w/ that lifetime on them seem to print groups like a shotgun at 25 yards... That's one heck of a barrel, to still be shooting 5MOA after that kind of wear!!

Send your gun to Bob with a blank check, and a case of Bob's favorite beverage - and call Sniper to go bat some eyelashes for you :)

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kenneth hicks, A4 director claims over 100K through his dawson 38 super, somehow, i believe it...his comp has an Island of copper built up in it from the montana gold jackets...and the hole in the first baffle in the comp has erroded enough that a 40 caliber bullet can pass through it.

he can still shoot prone at 50 yards and fire 5 shots into three inches.

its a schuemann hybrid barrel with the holes drilled to ken hicks' spec.

I would keep shooting till accuracy falls short.. ;)

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Are you worried that by changing the barrel the gun will no longer run? Does not seem logical to me. New barrel, new comp, go shoot. Just think with less powder to make major the barrel and comp will pay for itself over time.

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harmongreer, you would, even if like dpeters, you keep adding powder and then "What is starting to concern me a little is that I am really starting to flaten my primers." ?

well, if it was in the middle of the ipsc season, and it was my only blaster in that division, i would either keep shooting the load that was flattening primers, or switch to a different load.

the middle of the shooting season would be a foolish time to rebarrel since at the start of the season the barrel was nearly as worn out as it is now. ;)

also part of the problem could be that he was running 10-11 grains of powder down that barrel

:huh:

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I went through the same thing with a 9mm open. I was upping my powder higher and higher to make major, jumping from 7.5 to 8.1 grains of Tru Blue. A few primers started tophating and showing other signs of high pressure. A new Schuemann barrel raised the fps with the same load by 100-125. Unlike Dpeters I didn't have 80k rounds through the barrel (about 25-30k) and am wondering if the Tru Blue may be too hot.

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