New one bullets cutting perfect sideways profiles at 25 yards

[elkaholic]

They use to shoot some 12 twists with 87 grain bullets but it sounds to me like the smith was trying to get rid of a barrel that could otherwise only be used as a tent stake.......Rich

 

[royinidaho]

The rifle is basically junk with that twist and that chambering. Your friend should be having some words with his smith

Roger that!

 

[Murray]

Maybe the bullet hasn't gone to sleep yet

 

[elkaholic]

Maybe the bullet hasn't gone to sleep yet

I think the gunsmith is the one who was asleep

 

[shortgrass]

Sounds like a squirrely deal to me all the way around. The customer doesn't tell the 'smith what twist he wants and the 'smith doesn't ask. Why would someone commission a build and not specify exactly what they want? Why would a gunsmith take on a job without knowing exactly what the customer wanted, what weight/length bullet the customer expected to shoot? Did they even discuss the make of the barrel, the stock or the trigger? Like I said, squirrely.........

 

[AZShooter]

Gun wasn't commissioned. It was one of the display rifles at the gunsmith's table at the last SCI convention. It was sold as shown.

 

[shortgrass]

Gun wasn't commissioned. It was one of the display rifles at the gunsmith's table at the last SCI convention. It was sold as shown.

Hard to imagine that the questions would arise. Who made the barrel blank?, is that McMillian stock?, how much does it weigh?, what kind of trigger has it got & what's pull weight set at?, what twist does it have?, what contour is that barrel? what kind of finish is that? In the past I'd set up at select gun shows, usually with a few "samples",,, the questions were endless!

 

[royinidaho]

People are people and do what people do.

Shooters are people.

Oh, I'm on too....

 

[Jokostel]

Maybe you can use the rifle to teach whitetails to do the "twist" in the beanfields....

1-12... lol Seriously, I cannot believe a gunsmith would be that bloody ignorant on that chambering.... 1-7.5, 1-8 is a bout right.... Would love to see a Matrix 175-180 in 6.5mm

 

[sambo3006]

It is unlikely but have your friend get it checked to see if it is not a .264 cal barrel. I bought a custom unfired off of gunbroker several years ago in 300 RUM complete with a muzzle brake. Bullets were keyholing at 25 yards. Came to find out that a 338 cal blank had mistakenly been used. Some how the bullets were making their way through the 30 cal hole in the muzzle brake without blowing it off the rifle, thank goodness.

 

[RockyMtnMT]

It is unlikely but have your friend get it checked to see if it is not a .264 cal barrel. I bought a custom unfired off of gunbroker several years ago in 300 RUM complete with a muzzle brake. Bullets were keyholing at 25 yards. Came to find out that a 338 cal blank had mistakenly been used. Some how the bullets were making their way through the 30 cal hole in the muzzle brake without blowing it off the rifle, thank goodness.

I wonder too. 25 is pretty short even very unstable. Not to mention, what were they thinking with a 12 twist. Maybe it's a .375.

Steve

 

[Jokostel]

Thinking about the blank diameter.... ya know, that's prolly the case.
My father bought a Savage 243 a few years ago just for burning up bullets.... **** thing was key holing bullets.... nevermind the fact you could have mistaken the group size that of a blunderbuss.
We did a closer inspection.... the outer case mouth was flush with bore diameter.
25 cal barrel and a .243 projectile...

Sigh. Im afraid your buddys rifle is FUBAR from the start.

 

[AZShooter]

The rifle is being returned for a new barrel with a 1 in 9 twist. If I had it in my possession for a while I would have looked at the bore with a scope and also checked if it was truly a 6.5 cal.

This should end the story on this strange event.

 

[Thebear_78]

if its not too late I would switch to 1-8, 9 twist is still pretty slow for some of the longer 6.5mm bullets. Nosler even speced the 26 nosler with a 1-8 twist. Who's idea was the 9 twist?