Anyone fire lapped a barrel?

[billy_56081]

I Have a new barrel and am gonna fire lap it with a Tubbs final finish kit anyone tried this and how did it work?

[Slamfire]

Fire lapping has a place, it is in revolvers with chamber throats or forcing cones that are smaller than the barrel bore. Most of the work is done in the throat/lede area. In a rifle this just serves to accelerate normal wear. If you don't want to go to the trouble of pouring a lead lap, try a tight bore brush with a patch impregnated with the compound. Lead bullets are better for lapping, as the compound impregnates better. Reduced loads can lead to the bullet sticking in the lede and the hot gasses cutting the throat area pretty badly. 

[Mikey]

billy - I have firelapped rifle and pistol/revolver barrels and it helps with accuracy.  I lapped 2 444 Marlin barrels and they shoot under an inch at 100 m with the heaviest loads I can put down the tube. 

Git yourself on down to Veral Smith's forum and see what has been written there about firelapping.  I consider it very helpful.

Also, get on over to the Beartooth Bullets website - they sell materials and instrutions for firelapping and provide you with an incredible amoount of good information and insights on the process and results.  HTH.  Mikey.

[k3yston3]

If I wanted to lap a barrel, I would use some JB paste and lots of elbow grease. 

[Ahab]

billy - I have firelapped rifle and pistol/revolver barrels and it helps with accuracy.  I lapped 2 444 Marlin barrels and they shoot under an inch at 100 m with the heaviest loads I can put down the tube. 

Git yourself on down to Veral Smith's forum and see what has been written there about firelapping.  I consider it very helpful.

Also, get on over to the Beartooth Bullets website - they sell materials and instrutions for firelapping and provide you with an incredible amoount of good information and insights on the process and results.  HTH.  Mikey.

Good advice. I've used the Beartooth stuff on a Savage rifle with a rough bore and on my Ruger cowboy guns. The Savage accuracy was improved considerably and leading was reduced in the cowboy guns.

[stiga]

I have tried to firelap my Marlin Guide Gun. Not to shure if it did any good Used Remington 300 grainers and the shank on these bullets are so short that each bullet does not have a very large surface to do its thing. Have not shot it for accuracy, only for fun . Its a little easyer to clean tho.

Stig

[Mikey]

stiga:  there is a process to firelapping and it does not use factory loaded ammo with jackets.  If you applied some sort of polishing compound to a jacketed bullet and fired it a standard velocities you probably did not do anything good to your barrel.

Firelapping is a process of imparting controlled wear to a barrel so as to eliminate obstructions (albeit minor but having effect) from the barrel.  Most commercial firearms makers first center the hole in the barrel blank, then rifle it, then roll stamp it, drill and tap it and/or cut out small sections for wedges - all these actions have an effect on the bore.  Firelapping actually 'trues' the bore by removing those obstructions. 

Firelapping is accomplished using very soft bullet at very slow velocities - just slow enough to exit the barrel, actually.  The bore is cleaned after every round for as long as the process takes to lap the bore.

Your loads may have 'skidded' down the barrel a bit and I don't think you would have had a good firelapping effect.  If your bore is easier to clean it may have helped somewhat but I doubt it had the full effect the process should have. 

I would also suggest you drop on down to the Veral Smith website to see what he has to say about fireallping a barrel.  Mikey.

[Fast Ed]

I have fire lapped two guns, both out-of-the-box Remington 700's.  One was a 6mm VLS with a chrome-moly heavy barrel, and the other was a .300 WM with a stainless barrel of standard magnum contour.  In both cases, the barrels cleaned a lot easier and did not foul as quickly after the fire-lapping.  In both cases, accuracy was improved to the point where the .300 shot the best 3 shot group I have ever shot, period.  It was 5/8" at 200 yards with a 168 grain A-Max.  Both guns are now accurate and easy to clean.  I will never put enough rounds through either to worry about the "accelerated throat wear", as nebulous as that may be.  My sample is small and is not statistically significant, obviously, but I can only report what I know as fact.
That being said, I would never consider fire-lapping any of my Kriegers or the couple of Obermeyer barrels I have.  I don't think all "factory" barrels would benefit from it, either.  If you have a barrel that looks rough inside or takes forever to clean, this is a quick and relatively easy option to see if it helps.  I wouldn't do it to improve accuracy, no matter what the claims from Tubb are.  It did help in my case, but I have read other's anecdotal reports that claim just the opposite.

Fast Ed