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I received my Howa Miniaction Chassis rifle in 6.5 Grendel last week and I bore scoped the bore before I cleaned it or shot it and found some marks in the barrel. So I then cleaned it to make sure that it wasn't just some junk left over from them building it. The marks were still there about 3-4 inches ahead of the chamber. I can't tell how deep the marks are so I don't have any idea if they are deep enough to affect the accuracy. I have contacted Legacy Sports about this and they said I can send it in but their warranty states that if they shoot the rifle and if it shoots 1 MOA then they charge you $50.00 and shipping to return it without doing any work. I think that they should replace the barrel because to me this is a factory defect. I am not able to get them to say that it needs a new barrel so I have no idea what they will decide to do with it when they get it if I send it in. None of my other guns had any marks in their bores.
I am debating on whether to shoot the rifle first to see if these marks affect the accuracy or not. I included my bore cam pics for you to see. Any opinions welcome.
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I have a Remington 7mm-08 that has similar marks in the barrel. I discovered them after years of use after a full cleaning out of the copper when I also got access to a bore scope. After 5 fouling shots it was right back to half MOA shooter. I have not worried about it since. Tooling marks like those are more common than most of us would think in factory barrels.
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I had bought a new Remington 700,some years back. It had some machining marks like that down the barrel.I sent it back and they replaced the barrel. You are buying a brand new product that was not advertised as a Blem.I would be pretty upset if they wouldnt replace that barrel for me.
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You bought a mass produced item. Shoot it. If it shoots be happy. If not hope Legacy takes care of you.
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Shoot the gun, I own several Howas, all of the barrels look awful.......All of the Howas shoot absolutely fantastic......
It will take a couple of hundred shoots for the barrel to settle down........then its just Xs & 10s.
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Thanks for the comments guys. I decided that I am going to go ahead and shoot it and see how it does. I tend to agree with FLshooter but if it shoots good then I am satisfied.
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To get in the head of your nearest competitor, give them a chronograph and a bore scope
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Highbrow'!!!!!!'!!!!!!
Very sound advice that I took myself years ago.
Chuck
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I would take a pick,or something I could check the scratch with.If its deep it will affect accuracy. The one in my Remington ,I could feel with a picK.And it was deep.I never put a round through it,because I wasnt going to accept paying full price for a blem.
The manufacturer said the same thing to me before I sent it back .If you send it back chances are theyre more than likely not even going to make a fuss ,they will take one look at the scratch and either rebarrel or send you another rifle.
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FLshooter Wrote:I would take a pick,or something I could check the scratch with.If its deep it will affect accuracy. The one in my Remington ,I could feel with a picK.And it was deep.I never put a round through it,because I wasnt going to accept paying full price for a blem.
The manufacturer said the same thing to me before I sent it back .If you send it back chances are theyre more than likely not even going to make a fuss ,they will take one look at the scratch and either rebarrel or send you another rifle.
I have already taken it out and did the barrel break in yesterday. I shot a total of 20 shots for the break-in and 5 extra shots to try to get the best group I could. I put on a cheapo 6x24 CVLife scope I had and shot some groups at 100yds. The first 10 I was getting the scope sighted in and just shot without worrying about a group but the next 15 I decided to see if I could get any kind of group. I took some pics of the 10 shot group which measures about .880" and then I had 5 extra left over so I tried to get the best group I could from those which turned out to be .550". Hopefully once I get my good scope on it and some better reloads that I can get it to shoot a little better.
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I would be very satisfied with a 0.550" group at 100yds on a fresh barrel that soon after a barrel break-in. After a thorough cleaning, it will most likely need some fouling shots to tighten things up but most of my rifles require that. Nice shooting and congrats on a very accurate rifle out of the box!!!
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Rosecrans1 Wrote:I would be very satisfied with a 0.550" group at 100yds on a fresh barrel that soon after a barrel break-in. After a thorough cleaning, it will most likely need some fouling shots to tighten things up but most of my rifles require that. Nice shooting and congrats on a very accurate rifle out of the box!!!
Thanks Rosecrans1 I was pleasantly surprised at how well it shot.
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Looking good so far. Good shooting.
Get a couple hundred rounds down the pipe and I bet it gets a little better.
Now that the break in is done I would shoot it until accuracy starts to drop off a little then scrub and repeat. A rifle will tell you when it Is time for a bore scrub if you listen. The mild velocities of the Grendel do not copper foul nearly as bad as the fast steppers generally speaking.
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I guess that scratch didnt mean anything after all. If youre getting groups like that.
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I'm looking forward to working up loads for it now.
