Barrel break-in and Copper on BBR .357 Carbine

[Omegaspeedy]

Hello friends,

I'm just asking some advice about my week old .357 Carbine. I took it to the range last week and fired 50 rounds (see range report). Prior to shooting, I gave the barrel a thorough clean with Hopps to ensure there was no oil or grease left from shipping.

I took the lever off so I could run breach to muzzle and noticed an area of slight resistance in the last 0.5-1" of the barrel. It wasn't enough from me to investigate further but was noted. Boy was the barrel dirty! They must have put a lot of inhibitor down the barrel! (Would like to hear how yours was new out of box). Took many patch and they started black!

When I got back from the range, I carried out another careful clean from breach to muzzle. I use a one piece carbon rod. I still noticed the slight resistance at the muzzle end but still didn't investigate. Thought that the barrel might just need a bit more break-in.

Last night I was putting the carbine back in the safe and as the overhead light shined down the barrel, I noticed COPPER, more than I'd ever seen before on any rifle. When I cleaned the carbine, I didn't use any copper remover as I tend not to use it regularly, a little copper is ok right?

Here's some photos below. Unfortunately I need to go away for a few days but when I get back I'll do an extensive copper removal on it and hope that this is normal 'new rifle' copper build-up until the barrel is broken-in and smoothed out.

My question is have you seen this much of copper build up before? It appears to be only around the area where I felt resistance when running patches.

I'll get it to the range again on Thursday, this time with a scope so will be able to test accuracy properly. I'll report back re copper too.

Any comments or experience you've had would be much appreciated.

Cheers James.

[JEBar]

in a word, yep .... like you, I use copper cleaner when needed .... when properly used, I don't believe it has any type of negative impact on the barrel .... I tend to believe that the more you fire a rifle, the more the rifling smooths out .... as a result, the longer we can go without having to remove it .... that said, the milling marks on the grooves look a bit rough and I believe could be the cause of the copper buildup .... personally, I wouldn't be happy with it .... if you have any concerns, I'd call Henry and email them a picture ... if you do, please post what they say

[Omegaspeedy]

Thanks JEBar, if it comes to needing to talk to Henry (Hope it doesn't and comes right) then I'll share how it goes.

[ESquared]

A good brass brushing should help that, too! Please let us know about what Henry might have to say about the chatter marks.

Also: if you haven't already done so, clean out your mag-tube. They are notoriously dirty from the factory and mine have been no exception.

[JEBar]

based on your rifle's 1" performance at 50 meters in your range report, it sure doesn't seem to be causing any accuracy issues ....

[Omegaspeedy]

Thanks ESquared, so far I've only used cotton and I tend to lean towards nylon brushes but I think this might need some stronger action. Yeah those chatter marks suck, but if they smooth out and the carbine stops collecting copper and accuracy is good, I can live with that. If accuracy suffers then it'll have to go back. Early times yet.

[tx gunrunner]

The bore in that rifle is terrible . It is not smooth and no shine .

[PT7]

I agree with tx-gunrunner, Omegaspeedy. Following are two photos (not as good as your photos taken) of the bore/crown issue I had with my BBS .357 Carbine a year ago. I think your rifle is worse than what I had. A DIY attempt to fix, from my perspective, is not the way to go with what you have.

My resolution was that Henry agreed to take it back and refund me. I later bought another .357 Carbine.

Best as you move forward on resolving this.
PT7

BBS carbine bore_crown damage1.JPG

BBS carbine bore_crown orig2.JPG

Any comments or experience you've had would be much appreciated.

[shootinthecinders]

I have some light chatter marks in my second BBB .357 mag barrel that don’t seem to affect accuracy.

Here’s a link to a past thread with photos showing very bad chatter marks You may find It informative: http://henryrifleforums.com/viewtopic.p ... wn+rifling

5E6B253C-D5CD-41DA-BDB2-06DD57E693EF.jpeg

Hope everything works out for you.

[Omegaspeedy]

Thanks guys for the excellent pictures, i think the best course of action is clean it, and fire it again multipul times cleaning in between and check for accuracy and if the build up declines. if it does, ill be happy. if i have to scrub copper after each shoot, then that wont do and ill contact Henry. fingers crossed it resolves on its own accord.

[North Country Gal]

Omegaspeedy , that crown recess cut looks rough and covered with burrs from what I can see in the pic. A properly cut crown recess should not leave burrs where the rifling ends. It should clearly show the lands and grooves of the rifling so that the bullet leaves the bore smoothly. Those burrs and rough spots could be causing that resistance as the bullet leaves the barrel, hence the heavy copper fouling. Of course, pics can be misleading, but that's what I see in your pics.

[Omegaspeedy]

Thanks for your observations North Country Gal, when I get back to NZ, I’ll inspect the crown with a magnifying glass and toothpick to see if the6 are burred. Boy I hope not. I really like this rifle. As it looks like the off3nding portion of 5he barrel is 5he last 1/2”, I could look into getting that part removed, recrownded with an eleven degree cut and threaded for a suppressor. Problem is I’d loose the foresight unless I can find a confident gunsmith to recut the dove tail.

[Omegaspeedy]

Do any of our international owners know how to contact Henry by e-mail? Their website is designed so only Americans can contact them ie phone number must be US. I would have thought they would have an international e-mail. I just want to ask their advice.

[220]

Gun City are the NZ distributors might pay to give them a call and see what they have to say.

[GFK]

That is interesting. I thought e-mail was not restricted by country. As long as you had Internet access and an e-mail account (I.e. G-mail), all was good. I understand some countries do monitor their Internet traffic. But, I suspect a mobile device would not have an issue. At any rate, below is a link to contacts at Henry:

http://henryrifleforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5127

[Omegaspeedy]

Thanks GFK, yes it’s just those contact forms have mandatory fields which are setup for a US number, so you can’t get past that stage.

I’m not contacting them to moan, but I just want their advise on what the best course of action as I really like the gun and want to keep it.

Thanks for the links.

[CT_Shooter]

Thanks GFK, yes it’s just those contact forms have mandatory fields which are setup for a US number, so you can’t get past that stage.

I’m not contacting them to moan, but I just want their advise on what the best course of action as I really like the gun and want to keep it.

Send them an email. You only need to select one, but they will reply.

Jeff Post - jeff@henryusa.com
Kevin Maguire - Kevin@henryrepeating.com
Patrick Hall - patrick@henryusa.com

Keep us posted. Good luck.

[Omegaspeedy]

Thanks GFK, yes it’s just those contact forms have mandatory fields which are setup for a US number, so you can’t get past that stage.

I’m not contacting them to moan, but I just want their advise on what the best course of action as I really like the gun and want to keep it.

Send them an email. You only need to select one, but they will reply.

Jeff Post - jeff@henryusa.com
Kevin Maguire - Kevin@henryrepeating.com
Patrick Hall - patrick@henryusa.com

Keep us posted. Good luck.

Thanks again GFK, will definitely keep you posted. I’ll send them an e-mail tonight to see what they recommend ie de-copper it and shoot it. I’m also going the the range tomorrow as I have a 4-12x40 Lue on it, so will get an accurate picture of how it shoots. As per my range report, it seemed good with open sights but that probably is not a true reflection of what it can really do. I’ll be devistated if they want it back and there’s no more in the country.

[Omegaspeedy]

Hi guys,

What are your thoughts in accuracy 50m (photo) and 75m (other photo).

The 50m was mostly my 158gr hand loads which are quite slow, 1200 or so FPM. The 75m (82 yards) were mostly faster factory 158's and I don't think my gun liked them. Was expecting a bit better. Still lots of copper building but want to give the carbine more break-in before considering contacting Henry. After giving it much more thought, I think to be far, a good break-in is required so I can see if the copper build up trends down and accuracy trends up. So much fun to shoot though!!

[Omegaspeedy]

BTW, the 50m groups are all 10 shots.