On the advice of some of you guys I polished the bore of my 25-06 Handi-rifle with some Flitz compound and added a rubber washer to the barrel hanger bolt to isolate the barrel from the forend . I had fired this rifle the day before with less than satisfactory results;
Unpolished bore 117 grain Hornady Custom ammo, rested under the hinge, no washer in the fore end 100 yards
After stroking the bore with Flitz and throughly cleaning the bore I went back to the range;
Polished bore 117 grain Hornady Custom ammo rested under the fore end. I decided that I would never rest the rifle on the frame or hinge in a field hunting situation so I started resting it on the fore end.
Note the first shot from a clean barrel is higher than the rest of the group from a dirty barrel
Polished bore with my handloads 117 grain Hornady SPBT with H4831
Here the first shot from a clean barrel was wild to the left. I can not swear the wild second shot was not my fault. The barrel has never needed two fouling shots to settle down before.
I have come to the conclusion that the temperature of this barrel makes very little difference in the group size or impact point. However, the condition of the barrel as far as dirty or clean makes a great deal of difference, so does the point you rest the rifle on.
I shot a couple of 4 round groups and settled down to squeeze out the best group I could. I knew it would shoot better rested under the hinge so I took that posistion.
The result was a four shot group of slightly less than MOA.
I think it is clear that this NEF benefited from a good bore polishing. I think it will only continue to improve its accuracy. It may be my imagination but the rifle seemed to group and shoot better as the day went on. I did notice that with either type of ammo used the rifle never threw a group that would have been a liability on a deer's chest at any resonable distance.
I think I will take this Handi hunting tommorrow. One last day left for deer here in NC. Maybe I'll get lucky.
