243 Youth barrel

[rickt300]

I traded for this barrel from Geezer56 and I checked my PO box today it was there.  I cleaned it and it looks pretty good inside.  It also fits my frame perfectly, cool.  I am putting the black silicon pads I bed the barrels with right now, waiting for the silicon to cure.  I should test the barrel first but I think I'll go ahead and clean up the crown which looks a bit rough to me.  Geezer56 says the barrel will put the first two close together and the third out of the group. I am hoping to alleviate this trait.  I am hoping I have some 243 brass laying around.  Better go look.

[mechanic]

Best of luck to ya', and if you can cure the walk away as the barrel heats up, please share.  Mine does that as well.  Since I use it to hunt deer with, and not varmints, it does not really matter that much.

Mine will put two touching, the third will walk about 3/4 to 1 inch.  If I allow sufficient cool down, it will group consistently.

[geezer56]

Yep, that's what it always did for me.  Two touching, then start walking, up and right.  Let it cool, right back to zero.  I bought the barrel for my kid to use, then he grew 7 inches in 9 months.  He is now big enough to shoot the 30-30, so the 243 became an extra.  I didn't worry about the crown, since it shot so well cold.  Hope you can get it better than I did, although I didn't worry about it much.  I just tried it and it shot minute of Bambi, so I deemed it close enough and just shot it.

[rickt300]

It is something to fool with.  Seems a lot of folks here on this board like to fool with thes rifles and I am one of them.  Even if I can't cure it it will still kill deer and coyotes just fine.  I did find some 243 brass and my first load will be 39.0 grs. of H414 under a 100 gr. Nosler solid base.  I also need to get a set of rings.

[rickt300]

I just finished with the bedding and the silicon cured perfectly.  The barrel contour doesn't match that of my 223 Superlite however, it appears to be of standard contour but 20 inches long.  This is good as far as I'm concerned.  Should I change the title to "Youth" barrel?

[MrJames680]

rickt300,
Would you mind posting a photo or two of what you did.
Just curious....
 

[rickt300]

I did take some pictures but I have yet to ever post one.  It is easy to explain.  I put one layer of tape on the barrel where the plastic spacer on the forearm would touch it,  then wrap the barrel at the spot where the front of the forearm is with tape as many times as you think will look right as to spacing the forend.   then I put a thick bead of silicon an inch behind the screw pillar and another an inch in front of it, the bead being an inch long.  Then I put a piece of wax paper  on top of each bead of silicon  about 3 inches long and wide, then lay the forearm in place and last turn the screw in till you barely feel any resistance, not till it's tight.  The wax paper is there to keep the silicon from sticking to the forearm but it will get stuck to the silicon.   Let it sit over night, take the forearm off and trim the paper around the silicon pads and lightly burn the edges with a lighter.  Remove the tape.  What you have now is two pads of silicon that are holding the foream off the barrel.  I also take the spacer off and remove some wood with sandpaper so the spacer doesn't bear against the frame.  This way there is really no pressure from any direction on the barrel and I believe the silicon pads help dampen vibration.  There is also no wood touching metal except the screw.  I like the black automotive silicon.  I do this with the barrel off the frame and laying bottom side up with a scope rail on it.  You could hold it in a padded vise I guess.

[MrJames680]

rickt300
I get it. I like that...
I use the post style method like in the FAQ's myself.
My next Handi I think I will use your method.
Thanks for the detailed explanation. 

[rickt300]

I mounted a scope on it and shot 11 rounds of the cheap Federal 100 grain ammo.  There is some slight wiggle side to side when the barrel is closed with the chamber empty.  The action will close on a .001 feeler gauge but you can't pull it out without opening the action.  With a round in the chamber there is no wiggle at all. There is no real reason to "fix" this right?

[quickdtoo]

Depends on how well it shoots, barrels that are loose usually aren't very accurate.

Tim

[rickt300]

I'll shoot it some with my reloads after I get enough brass emptied and see what gives.  This may require FredM's method since the tolerance is so small.

[rickt300]

Well I shot it some.  I can relate that the barrel does not like the Federal 100 grain blue box stuff.  This particular lot seems to be loaded pretty hot too.  At any rate I loaded some 100 grain Nosler Solid bases with a starting load of 38.0 grs. of H414 and used magnum primers.  This is a mild load giving around 2800fps and it has shot well in a number of 243 rifles I have owned and it did well in this one.  My range is only 50 yards and I had no trouble putting ten rounds in 1/2 inch and I was in a hurry as I was supposed to be working on the lawn tractor so the barrel got pretty warm but maybe due to the short range stringing was not obvious.  The federal load was outrageous giving 2 inch groups.  I bought two boxes of it and I think I'll pull the bullets and load the remaining 25 rounds with my next step up of 40 grs. of H414 and the nosler solid base bullet.  I loaded these bullets to a 2.735 overall length and the factory loads were loaded to 2.560.

[dieselten]

rick

another thing to keep an eye on is the forearm spacer.  You said you removed a little wood behind it to relieve pressure against the barrel - length wise.  Well the forearm provides the tension between the receiver and the under barrel lug, that keeps the barrel in the frame.  If you remove too much wood behind the spacer you will make your lock up a bit looser.  Try putting a thin shim in there to add a little more tension and see if your barrel stops "wiggling".

[rickt300]

The spacer has only  .010 clearance.  I feel any pressure against the barrel is bad and the spacer pressure in particular is what causes a lot of the stringing problems.  I prefer no wiggle with the forearm off but the amount I am getting with this barrel amounts to barely perceptible without the forearm.  I will fix the wiggle today just because it is there using Quicksteel.  I feel using the forearm spacer to hide a slight headspace problem just doesn't make sense because the fix is so easy.

[rickt300]

Well I tightened up the barrel frame engagement by using Quicksteel and a .374 gauge pin.  I used Crisco as a release agent, bolted a piece of 3 inch angle iron to my bench to backstop the C clamp and tightened up on the gauge pin slowly until I started feeling some solid resistance. I let it set for an hour, removed the pin and sanded the Quicksteel to a perfect fit.  Crisco is not the perfect release agent but the pin came loose with a light tap.  It rained today which is good for the garden and as soon as it dries up some I am going out to shoot this barrel some.

[rickt300]

I loaded 26 cases up with 40.5 grs of H414 under the 100gr. Nosler solid base bullets using a Winchester magnum primer.  I had moved the scope a bit to the rear so as to better fit me and had to sight it in again.  This load shows no sign of excessive pressure and appeared to be very accurate.  Muzzle blast seemed a bit more noticable though.  It took 16 shots to get the bullet impact where I wanted it and the last three shots fired could be covered with a nickle.  This at 50 yards.  I think I'll use this load as I don't think a couple more grains of powder will make any difference and my cases will last a lot longer.  I have now 50 cases fireformed to my chamber so the next range trip I'll load half with the 95 gr. Ballistic Tips and the other half with the Solid base bullets.  This next range trip will be a real workout as I have to shoot 3 of my barrels at 100 yards along with another 30-06, a 308 and a 7x57, all of which have been centered at 50 yards.

[rickt300]

I finally got to the 100 yard range.  The 30-06 barrel shot easily into 1 1/2 inches with a mild load using the 170 gr. Remington corelokt.  The 44 mag barrel did 2 inches with 3 shots, I had somehow left the bulk of my ammo for it at home and only had the shells in the buttstock bandolere so I had to use them to get the bullets to strike where I wanted them to. Nice light recoil and I like the slap sound the keith bullets make on the plywood backstop. The 223 shot the 60 grain HP's into a neat little triangle of a bit more than an inch and needed no sight adjustment. Now the 243 barrel flat did not like the 100 grain Nosler Solid base bullets giveing spreads of 3+ inches for 3 shots.  I gave up on the 100 grain bullets.  When I first shot the rifle with factory loads the Federal 100 gr. load shot poorly even at 50 yards so I pulled the bullets and replaced them with 80 gr. Remington PSP bullets.  I shot two shot groups getting sighted in and it took three tries to get them where I wanted, all three two shotters were less than an inch apart.  It was hot and this barrel got warm quickly so I went on to my 7x57 and the other 30-06.