Fire-lapping a rifle barrel

bsebast

Would anyone with experience at fire-lapping a rifle barrel tell me why and how they did it and what results they obtained?I have a 2-groove 2-land barrel on my sporterized Springfield 03-A3 that I'm considering lapping to try to improve accuracy. I was going to do it by hand when I noticed an advertisement in the current issue of the American Rifleman (page 18) about fire-lapping bullets. I was intending to lap a slight choke in the barrel if I did it by hand, and I realize fire-lapping can't do that.

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Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. Ephesians 4:29 bsebast@airmail.net

Der Gebirgsjager

Fire lapping involves rolling jacketed bullets over powdered abrasive on a hard, flat surface so that the abrasive becomes imbedded into the jacket material. The bullets are then fired through the barrel using progressively finer grades of abrasive, reducing or removing machining burrs and rounding rough edges and giving an overall polished appearance to the bore. Changes in accuracy can be anywhere from a little better to a great deal better; but usually some improvement is noted. There have been quite a few articles written on the process over the last couple of years. A couple of the more recent are: Barrel Break In & Restoration, Norman E. Johnson, American Rifleman, Feb. 2000 Precision Reloading: Fire Lapping A Rifle's Bore--Can It Hurt? Does It Work?, Rick Jamison, Shooting Times, Aug. 2000

v35

I hand lapped a 36 cal percussion underhammer rifle and lightly choked the muzzle. The gun was very accurate.When you hand lap a barrel you can feel the high or rough spots and work on them until there is an even drag on the lap. You keep away from the front two inches untill you're finished then give it some evening strokes.