J E Custom
Well-Known Member
I have had this problem and found out what it was in my case.
The loose place was 2 thirds down the barrel and after lots of different test I found that
it had a bulge in it and after researching with lots of barrel makers the cause was unanimous
from the barrel guys.
This was a 31" 7mm STW with a #4 contour. It had been fluted and this was the problem
because, as shilen said the barrel was to light to be fluted, and Lilja agreed . Also the
fluting was to deep leaving the barrel dangerously thin in the location of the bulge(You
cannot see any bulge on the outside because it is to small ).
After talking to these guys I cut the barrel in disk to do more test and found the bore to be
collapsed where the lands and grooves crossed under the fluting.
Dan Lilja stated that the reason the bulging occurred where it did was because the pressure
exceeded the wall thickness strength because the taper had gotten to small and weak from
bad fluting (To Deep) And that I was lucky it didn't come apart on me.
Shilen stated that he does not warranty his barrels if you flute them and Lilja limits the
Barrel contour size for fluting and the depth of the fluting because of this problem.
This rifle was the cause of my getting into smithing after I saw many other things wrong
with this Custom Rifle built buy a well known "Smith" .
If your rifle is not fluted and/or lightly contoured this may not be the problem but I felt
I needed to share my problem to prevent someone from getting hurt.
I don't have any objections to having a fluted barrel any more as long as the barrel maker
or a competent gun smith does it but I still go with Lilja's minimum size and depth to be
fluted.
I would not shoot it any more !!!!!!!
And have the barrel replaced because it could come apart on you .
J E CUSTOM
