Can you polish a barrel to make it more accurate ?

[Bret GRAVELINE Graveline]

Have you tried swapping barrels with you buddy to see what happens?

 

[HARPERC]

.......Good Morning. I read at a website belonging to one of the Major Barrel makers that,......"No fire lapping kits should be used in our barrels. This can damage the barrel and we will not warranty a barrel in any way."Just sayin'........

Just a couple of post talking fire lapping, mine says last ditch, the other last resort. Certainly worth a call to the barrel maker, but fire lapping has a better chance of success than getting a replacement from manufacture.
Likely biting the bullet and buying a better quality barrel is the best advice. However sometimes educational opportunities, just for education sake, are worthwhile.

 

[NDAR15MAN]

Guys like I said it's a cheap Ar15. Whole gun was $381.00 out the door.
Barrel is a 40.00 barrel. So I was just gambling because Freind bought same gun from same supplier for same price and got a MOA shooter. It's the luck of draw. Not blaming the barrel or the gun. It it what it is.
I was just wondering if I could do something cheap to maybe get it to shoot from 2.5 moa to 1 moa.
I will try the Tubbs fire lap.
If I ruin barrel not that big of deal.
Same barrel is $40.00 if I wanted another one just like it , which I don't. Ha ha ha. Not even worth shipping barrel back to MFG which I never would dream of. For $30.00 i will role the dice one more time on it. Ha ha. Then Go buy a nice 200.00 barrel if fire lapping does not work
. you guys have been a big help.
I never knew about fire lapping before. Never heard of it. One reason I really like this site / forum. always learn something. Thanks MD

 

[Mram10us]

When in doubt about a rifle, I recrown. Super easy and answers a lot of questions for me.

 

[Bret GRAVELINE Graveline]

It was not all that long ago that having a barrel frozen by a cryogenic lab was all rage. Never hear anyone talking about that these days

 

[milo-2]

 

[Old Rooster]

I can speak of the Tubbs Final Finish but not having to it due to accuracy problems and not in one of my AR15's.
After shooting only 10 loads for my bolt action Weatherby Vanguard 300 Weatherby Mag I cleaned it for 4 hours and quit and left Wipe out overnight and scrubbed it for 2 more hours before coming clean.
After years of that I bought Tubbs and it smoothed that barrel out enough for cleaning it took way less time, around 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Now I have found a better copper solvent and it now takes under 30 minutes to clean it the last time I shot it but only 5 rounds.
I have to mention that I have seen Tubbs ruin a barrel but the barrel needed replacement and not Tubbs final finish.
Old Rooster

 

[J E Custom]

Marty barrel polish is not the fix. I know Dan Lilja well and he explained to me that too smooth a barrel will collect copper. My advise is to just bite the bullet and buy a barrel from Lilja. The barrel will cost more than what you paid for the rifle but to get it right it is what is needed. The navy and marines buy from Lilja and they can buy whatever they want. Tell you something?

Very good advice !!!
The finish of the bore is very important. If it is to smooth it will foul like David said.
A good honed surface is best. There was a barrel treatment that got bad reviews for accuracy called Blackstone. It was a chemical polish that ended up looking like bright shiny chrome. It fouled badly also.

If you have a cheep barrel, replacement is probably the only way to get better accuracy.

J E CUSTOM

 

[redneckclimbing]

Did you examine with a borescope prior to the TFF? I am curious how much is the polishing and how much is the deep clean aspect. Just spit-balling here

No, I don't have a bore scope. However, all the barrels I have tried it in were brand new barrels. So I don't know what you mean by "deep cleaning aspect"?

The way I always did things was, I would break in all my barrels. Sometimes only ten shots with AR barrels, but usually 20 or more in bolt guns. One shot and clean it out completely. Then I would see how they shoot. If they shoot well, I don't touch them. If they didn't that is when I went to the TFF kit.

One of the barrels was actually a Benchmark and it didn't shoot for beans after being melonited. So, I threw a TFF kit through it and now it's the .5" gun I spoke about before.

Another was a T-Box AR barrel with matched bolt head, .223 Wylde chamber, melonited straight away. Again, not worth a crap right out of the gate. TFF, kit and it is a very consistent .75" or less gun now.

Another subject, but I'm not sure I'm sold on the melonite. Not sure yet, been using a carbon only cleaner lately and it seems to really be making a difference in accuracy. More time will tell. Anyways, that's been my experience.

 

[gohring3006]

I messed around with barrel nut torque on a colt hbar and got it to group better. The best groups was around 30 ft lbs.

 

[Mram10us]

No, I don't have a bore scope. However, all the barrels I have tried it in were brand new barrels. So I don't know what you mean by "deep cleaning aspect"?

The way I always did things was, I would break in all my barrels. Sometimes only ten shots with AR barrels, but usually 20 or more in bolt guns. One shot and clean it out completely. Then I would see how they shoot. If they shoot well, I don't touch them. If they didn't that is when I went to the TFF kit.

One of the barrels was actually a Benchmark and it didn't shoot for beans after being melonited. So, I threw a TFF kit through it and now it's the .5" gun I spoke about before.

Another was a T-Box AR barrel with matched bolt head, .223 Wylde chamber, melonited straight away. Again, not worth a crap right out of the gate. TFF, kit and it is a very consistent .75" or less gun now.

Another subject, but I'm not sure I'm sold on the melonite. Not sure yet, been using a carbon only cleaner lately and it seems to really be making a difference in accuracy. More time will tell. Anyways, that's been my experience.

I was referring to how much the polishing actually cleaned the barrel v how much it actually polished. I used JB on some barrels and it definitely cleaned out the carbon. Not sure how well it actually polished the bore.

 

[Bart B]

I never "broke in" any Hart, Obermeyer, Kreiger or Springfield arsenal 7.62 barrels. All shot very accurate from the first round fired.

Most interesting were the several arsenal broach rifled barrels. They all were a bit rough but very uniform. 3078" groove diameters air gauged to verify .0001" max spread. All tested about 3 to 4 inches at 600 yards with handloads using new 7.62 M118 primed cases, IMR4320 powder and Sierra 190 HPMK's in 24" 1:12 twist 4-groove Garand barrels.