Thread: Hardy Custom Rifle Review

Shamelessly stolen from Terminal Ballistics Knowledge base that also is I understand pretty similar to many of the people on this forums knowledge.

In the barrel making industry, the finishing processes are usually performed by the machinist himself. The blank bar stock is bored to the desired caliber after which a rifled button is pulled through the bore with near un-imaginable force. Following this, the bore is lapped to the desired finish which can be done with slugs or simply by hand with abrasive pastes. The goal of this finishing operation is to reduce friction within the bore in order to minimize copper fouling. The bore does not need to be mirror finished although in certain lights, a rifle bore will often appear as though it has been mirror finished (1200-2000 grit).

A smooth, suitably polished bore cannot eliminate copper fouling. Instead, the optimum bore will foul at a very low, very consistent rate. Accurate shooting is all about minimizing variables and a bore that to a greater extent holds a very small layer of copper without any rapid build up/ change of internal conditions, has the potential to provide long term accuracy between de-fouling operations.

The finish applied by the barrel maker/machinist is dependent on two simple factors; time and money. During times of a recession or great competition between manufacturers, a price war will always result in a reduction of high labor content procedures. To this extent, lapping is one of the first operations to suffer. In other instances, where a company is under such demand that it cannot get its rifles out to the consumers fast enough to operate effectively, final finishing operations are once again, reduced to a minimum. Sometimes, a rifle barrel may have a burr on the rifling land edge, seen as long flake. If the burr is thick, hand lapping operations will fail to break it away from the land. Worse still, if the rifle has been fired several times, the burr becomes forged into a lump type anomaly, wedged into a groove. Fire lapping with a harsh abrasive is perhaps the best method of removal for this kind of burr.

Faults also occur within the barrel making process which nobody could have predicted and are sometimes un-measurable, unable to be found until the rifle is at the range. Stresses within the steel can be problem, as are changes of internal dimensions (stress reaction) due to properties of the barrel material which regardless of quality, have individual properties from blank to blank.

A custom barrel maker has more control over all of these processes. If you visit a custom barrel making website such as True-Flite or Lilja, a list of grades is presented, the highest usually termed ‘ultra match’. The difference between the lowest grade barrel and the highest grade barrel is reflective of two basic factors - labor content and grade. The ultra match bore is graded for either consistency or desirable traits of internal dimensions and then lapped to an optimum finish which requires time.

Ultimately, the end user has final control over the finish of the bore. If the bore is of a high finish, the bore will need nothing more than normal cleaning/de-fouling operations. If the bore is rough, it will need final finishing by hand which for want a better term is called ‘breaking in’ the barrel.
@mcche171 My own 7RM was a heavy fouler to begin and now over 2 years later and a few hundred rounds is delivering - low fouling and highly accurate results - yes i almost flicked it but @Happy bedding it an new Stainless lug and a few hundred rounds later and a forum brew fro reloading and its Shmeck!

So don't lose heart ! I also have a friend Darrin who has a barrel that he calls tight -similar issue for accuracy went town following Nathan methods and essentially hand lapping it and its come good...

I wonder how many others out there are failing on the accuracy front for similar reasons...

CD.