Rifle Shooter – July 2019

86 http://www.rifleshootermagazine.co.uk

ACCURACY AND LOAD PERFORMANCE WITH MATTHEW CAMERON

When we start considering the rifle, the lines start to

become blurred, particularly in relation to the barrel – or,

more importantly, the actual status of the barrel in relation to

the amount of residual combustion; copper build-up and heat

remaining. I suggest that these are critical issues, as is

normal wear. Before we start to shoot, should the barrel be

chemically clean and totally free of all of the above

mentioned items. Or, should there be at least some

contamination? I believe that we should look at what the

benchrest shooters do in relation to barrels. There are

several reasons for this statement. Firstly, the barrels are

cut to very fine tolerances as are the chambers; secondly,

they are nearly always of stainless steel. The only known way

to discover how good an individual barrel may be is very

simple: shoot it with match-grade ammunition and then

make the assessment.

When testing new ammunition, it is a personal decision to

foul the barrel with a least one shot, thereafter the first three

shots are fired at a comfortable pace and the barrel is then

If barrel fouling is the problem, just how many shots are

necessary for the problem to arise? I would suggest that

each barrel is, as always, unique. Perhaps we should start

with the ammunition. Within the normal group of ammunition

used for hunting, case preparation is minimal – new cases

are run through the normal resizing and decapping die,

mainly to ensure that the case necks are perfectly round. All

cases are chamfered to ensure easy projectile entry.

At the other end, a primer pocket uniformer, if it fits,

ensures that the primer pocket bases are perfectly flat;

primer ignition should not be an issue. This may not be

possible with some new cases, as the uniformer simply may

not fit until a number of shots are fired and the primer pocket

has expanded a bit.

Used cases go through a cleaning and trimming routine to

bring them back to as-new condition; hunting cases are

annealed every third cycle or so and varmint cases every

time they cross the bench. These processes are well

known – nothing radical so far.

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Standard factory

Remington in .220 Swift

The Savage Axis in .25-06

produced some surprising results

.243 Ruger 77V is an old friend

Savage LRPV in .22-250 Rem

is very accurate for a factory rifle