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Bulge in 22 rifle barrel
capgun
Member Posts: 1,848 ✭
Is there any danger in shooting a .22 rifle with a small bulge in the barrel? It seems to shoot fine.
Comments
Contact the manufacturer for more info...
Good luck!
So I think its pretty doubtful that a bulged barrel is suddenly going to blow up and cause injury, particularly if the bulge is way down the barrel away from the chamber, where operating pressures should be lower. If it shoots fine, you're probably OK.
Replacing the barrel may or may not be cost-effective, depending on what exactly you have.
.22lr operates at 24,000PSI, which as about as low as you're going to get in a rifle round, plus the limited powder volume generates a relatively low volume of propellant gas.
So I think its pretty doubtful that a bulged barrel is suddenly going to blow up and cause injury, particularly if the bulge is way down the barrel away from the chamber, where operating pressures should be lower. If it shoots fine, you're probably OK.
Replacing the barrel may or may not be cost-effective, depending on what exactly you have.
Actually, that is pretty substantial for what it is. Consider the factory loaded 45-70 loads are only around 18K PSIG. A lot of people do not give this little round the respect it should garner, as it is small.
One must consider that that little 22LR had enough umph to bulge the barrel in the first place, and most bulges are created by a restriction in the barrel, just in front of where the bulge is. Most likely from a squib load, then followed up by a full power load.
I would be cautious about using it, as where th bulge is where the steel has been weakened. Most likely the rifle will be fine, but if another restriction is created in front of the bulge, that barrel will pop.
Best
Kind of made you wonder about the person pulling the trigger that many times when the sound was minimal and nothing was coming out the muzzle, but I'd be interested to hear of any instances where a .22 barrel actually ruptured from a mishaps with a bulged barrel????????
Anyone??[?][?][?]
That reminds me of an Olympic I bought once that had a neat little rectangle of barrel missing adjacent to the extractor cut. No indication of bulging anywhere. I just always assumed the the cut had been made a bit too close to the chamber. Can't recall who I sent the barrel to, but it was someone who, for a very reasonable price, reamed out the chamber and relined just that portion of the barrel and recut the extractor recess. A beautiful job. Almost impossible to detect the work had been done and the pistol performed with all the reliability and accuracy I could expect from a target High Standard.