Lapping bullets

[BRL]

Veral, I wondered if you had seen the LOADED AMMO from Tubb's with the compound impregnated bullets? I really do not have any work area in the new house nor load for rifle rounds yet (or all handgun calibers that I own). I think I saw them at Midway USA. I thought I might try them for a caliber but wanted to get some feedback first.

Thanks!!

[Veral]

  No I havent' seen them, but suspect they are jacketed bullet rounds.  If so save your money and your rifle barrels.  I've gotten a lot of feed back from customers about these and all say they rip out rifle throats like a wate hose wipes down a sand tower.  Also, I know for a fact that jacketed bullets cannot lap the rifling eges or bottom of the grooves properly.  In fact almost not at all, and this is mandatory to a good lap job.  Better not do it than not do it right.

  If you are only going to shoot jacketed, perhaps they would improove many barrels for jacketed bullet use only, if they are large at the muzzle as many are.   If it didn't register clearly, I said PERHAPS.   Which is to say, I still wouldn't try it.

  To get a stright smooth bore finish by fire lapping I've found lead bullets the only good choice, and that with a hardness of about 12 bhn.  Harder will not make the bore straight or as smooth.  Softer requires a lot more shooting and tends to wear the throat faster than with 12 bhn.

[BRL]

Thanks for the reply. I'll wait until I can do it right. May be a while, but better off in the long run.

[torpedoman]

why dont you just get some patches and fine valve grinding coumpound and hand lap the barrel ?

[BRL]

That's a good question. I just read a post yesterday where someone did something like that. Is that an effective way to lap a barrel? Just use a rod and jag, patch and compound? I'm not familiar with compound. I do know there are varying degrees of grit. Which one exactly should be used?

Thanks!

[torpedoman]

I use a otis pull thru cable and always pull from the breech to the muzzle, works for me. about 50 pulls does it .

[Veral]

  Torpedoman, you are polishing the lumps and humps in the barrel, while not reaching, or doing anything for the most critical area which starts the leading process.  That is the leading edges of the rifling.

  Understand that barrels aren't perfectly straight and uniform inside, so just smoothing the surfaces isn't the same as doing a real lap job.   The first priority is to cut the bore until the rifling leades, and diameter are perfectly straight and uniform for the length of the barrel, with tight spots removed, until a push through slug travels full length of the bore with steady even pressure.  Then polish the barrel like what you describe.  This is all very carefully covered in the lapping instructions.  Also much more about conditioning old pitted, cloudy barrels so they will perform almost as well as a new lapped barre.