Posted: 8/5/2026 3:10:41 AM EDT
[Last Edit: Morning_Wood][Edited]
| Just bought a rifle. It not a new rifle but someone has put some money in this one. It has a Shilen barrel and many other nice parts. It a 220 swift from a sako long action receiver. The problem is that the barrel is somewhat looks a little thin just ahead of the chamber. If any of you knowledgeable dudes might know, is there any way to make it hold a tighter group. It holds currently about a 2-3 inch group with the proper handloads, although I have seen larger groups, but it should hold at least MOA. What I am asking is if anyone knows any way to make a somewhat worn out barrel shoot better as long as i can make it last. Maybe a heavier bullet, longer bullet, lighter bullet, or do you know of anything that might help it shoot a tighter group while it lasts until I have no option but to re-barrel it. Thanks dudes,help me with knowledge if you can. |
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It was common in the old days to set a barrel back a few threads and recutting the chamber to clean up the worn part in the throat. The Swift is a throat burner being such an overbore. It sounds like you may not have all that much meat on the cylinder diameter chamber end. That can break the option of a set back barrel. Anyways I think it’s less common to set barrels back these days unless you do your own work or have a guy that works cheap. The labor is usually as much as a good barrel. Figure $350 for a barrel and $300 or so to pull a barrel cut threads, chamber and crown. I’m probably out of date with those numbers so take that for what it’s worth. Anyways if you’re paying $300-350 for that labor it’s more often seen as the smart money replaces the barrel with a new one instead of buying a lesser amount of time until the alligator erosion gets worse in the reused barrel. I’d certainly decopper the barrel for a start. That can often be the culprit in accuracy going south. I learned that in high school. My shooting buddy bought a used M700 Varmint in .243 and after a couple years of our wood chuck hunting his accuracy nosedived. I was with him when he was at the gun shop inquiring at sending the gun out to Hart and getting a new barrel. The gun counter guy looked at the bore and walked over to the cleaning supplies and picked up a bottle of Shooter’s Choice and told him to plug the muzzle and fill up the bore with the solvent and stand it up in the corner for a day or two. Son of a bitch, my friend said he later poured out a bunch of blue goo and repeated the process. Sure enough the .243 went back to shooting sub moa groups. Of course that may not be the gun’s issue seeing as it’s one of the more famous chamberings of yore that eats throats. Ha! beat while I was getting long winded. |
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As others have said , always start out with a heavy cleaning , the normal cleaning products are weak sauce , you want something that will target the copper , usually stinky . I have had good luck with "Butche's Bore Scrub" you have to wet down the bore and let it soak for a while , repeat as necessary. I will go at it while watching TV. Wet down the barrel and let it soak until the commercial wipe it dry and re wet. repeat at every commercial |
| Good info guys! Do you think I can see bore copper fowling with the naked eye or just try a good cleaner and hope for the best. It pretty hard to tell even if the barrel is getting thinner. But, it's in a barrel burner caliber, but it looks thinner,no way to get a caliper on it |