Hello from Smith Valley NV

[RedDog]

Hello I'm a first time Sako owner,
I go by RedDog, I appreciate all your opinions and advice about Sakos
I just purchased a Sako AV .270 win.
I mounted a new scope on it using the original rings that came with the rifle, took her out and sighted her in without a bench rest, I was just using a tripod to help steady the rifle, I was getting 1 1/2" groups at 100 yards. In my excitement of shooting my new rifle I shot about 40 rounds in an hour, the last twenty in about 5 minutes, then I noticed how hot the barrel was !!
Damn, I didn't mean to get it that hot, it actually burnt my arm where I accidentally touched it.
My question is, do you think I damaged the barrel shooting 20 rounds in 5 minutes? Will it still be as accurate? Please advise me what to do or at least you're opinion of what I may have done.
Thanks,
RedDog

 

[paulsonconstruction]

You probably did a minute amount of throat erosion to your barrel, but not enough to worry about. Continued abuse like that can affect accuracy. Clean your barrel using appropriate cleaning techniques & go shoot again. But if you shot 20 rounds in 5 minutes maybe you should research the various barrel cleaning techniques. Let us know how it does, as how can we determine over the internet whether your rifle is still accurate or not. Barrels are remarkably tough & can take some abuse & still perform well. The key is to learn how to properly clean them & you should be able to maintain first shot accuracy for a lifetime, which is the most important shot from a hunting rifle. Depending on caliber & usage a barrel should last several thousand rounds. Most hunting rifles won't see that many rounds in 5 or 10 lifetimes. What reason did you have to shoot 20 rounds in 5 minutes? Getting a barrel that hot can't be conducive to checking accuracy or comparing groups. Just curious as to your purpose or what you were trying to accomplish.

 

[RedDog]

Actually I was just shooting because I enjoy it, I had a target set up at 100 yards that had four targets on one sheet of paper. I did four five shot group's Without even thinking about heating the barrel, it wasn't till the last group I noticed how hot it was getting and that's when I quit. I cleaned it a couple hours later, it was really dirty but it cleaned up nicely.
Thanks for your advice, I'll be more patient next time I shot and let it cool after each group.

 

[16b410]

RedDog, I did the same thing once in my life. I was at a range that had gongs hanging out a 100 yards and I was having an especially good day hitting things off-hand. Shooting way better than I normally do, I just got caught up in seeing those gongs swinging. Then I ran out of ammo and when I went to pack up I realized the little Browning in .243 was so hot it all but glowed. So not only did I do a very bad thing, but I did it with a rifle with a real skimpy barrel chambered in a solidly over-bore cartridge. There is no question I did some damage that day, but the next trip to the range showed no loss in accuracy, so my guess is you will be fine.

 

[RedDog]

RedDog, I did the same thing once in my life. I was at a range that had gongs hanging out a 100 yards and I was having an especially good day hitting things off-hand. Shooting way better than I normally do, I just got caught up in seeing those gongs swinging. Then I ran out of ammo and when I went to pack up I realized the little Browning in .243 was so hot it all but glowed. So not only did I do a very bad thing, but I did it with a rifle with a real skimpy barrel chambered in a solidly over-bore cartridge. There is no question I did some damage that day, but the next trip to the range showed no loss in accuracy, so my guess is you will be fine.

I'm glad to hear that !! That's how I was feeling, happy to be out shooting. I have found a spot set up where I can shot 100 to 600 yards, it's on BLM land but someone made target stands and left them there for others to use, actually the 100 yard target is a hardened metal plate and yes it fun shooting at it. I have two cans of paint a gray one for the plate and red to make bullseyes. It's especially fun to take my 12 gauge there, I shoot 3"mag. 1 1/4 oz rifled slugs at 100 yards it's a ball hearing them hit the steel target. LOL
However my goal is to put three rounds in each target 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 and the 600 yard target. I've never shot 600 yards before and I'm looking forward to the learning experience.
I'll post how I do afterwards. Have a good day buddy.

 

[RedDog]

I'm glad to hear that !! That's how I was feeling, happy to be out shooting. I have found a spot set up where I can shot 100 to 600 yards, it's on BLM land but someone made target stands and left them there for others to use, actually the 100 yard target is a hardened metal plate and yes it fun shooting at it. I have two cans of paint a gray one for the plate and red to make bullseyes. It's especially fun to take my 12 gauge there, I shoot 3"mag. 1 1/4 oz rifled slugs at 100 yards it's a ball hearing them hit the steel target. LOL
However my goal is to put three rounds in each target 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 and the 600 yard target. I've never shot 600 yards before and I'm looking forward to the learning experience.
I'll post how I do afterwards. Have a good day buddy.

By the way I intend to do that with my Sako .270 win. Shooting federal fusion 150 gr ammo, does anyone have an option on that choice of ammo?

 

[David_S]

I've never shot 600 yards before and I'm looking forward to the learning experience.

If you are going out to 600yds+ then I recommend you have a look at the Terminal Ballistics Research site. There is a lot of excellent information there on different calibres and bullet effectiveness. Nathan is a fellow kiwi and runs a long-range shooting tutorial business up north. He points out that the three components of successful long-range shooting are the rifle, the ammo and the shooter and has written downloadable books on all these topics. He has just published his shooting one and I was trying out his recommendations over the weekend. As he suggested I started from ground zero - sling, position, posture, trigger control, breathing etc. It felt a bit awkward at first but by the end of the day I reckoned my shooting with both the 260 and 270 wsm were greatly improved, and I have been shooting for over 50 years (you can teach an old dog new tricks!). I think he might have nailed a double grouping problem I had with both rifles. I ended the day sighting them in at 200yds and both shot sub-moa, 0.5 for the 260 and 0.75 for the wsm which is not bad for lightweight high recoiling rifles.

Certainly worth a visit, but be warned that he is not a great fan of the recent model Sakos or of European optics which he reckons have poor eye relief. But he is genuinely helpful, once spending nearly an hour on the phone with my son and me discussing causes of double grouping.

And if you are contemplating reloading you could do a lot worse than follow his advice.

Just thought you might find the site of interest as it could save you a lot of wasted ammo, but I agree it is fun to let rip occasionally at gongs etc. - David.