Weird Scratches In New Barrel

[Lastrites]

Well I guess I'll go look into the barrel of my tikka 7mm-08 I haven't shot yet, just for science.

[Harpoon1]

Harpoon1, you've spent a lot of words chastising posters in your thread.

I have only one question for you:

How did your rifle shoot?

As far as the marks go, I'll bet they were done by a hone when they were finishing the barrel.

It shot great! To be fair, I never said it wouldn’t! This particular Tikka is number 7 Ive purchased in the last 2-3 years. First one with these scratches, that’s why I posted.

What does that have to do with my my original post and question, “what caused these scratches”?

[Harpoon1]

Well I guess I'll go look into the barrel of my tikka 7mm-08 I haven't shot yet, just for science.

FYI, if you shoot it first, the scratches are going to be very faint and hard to see unless you’re really looking for them. IMO. This was number 7, Tikka’s, in the last 2-3 years. And the first one with these scratches, and why I posted.

[jasper2408]

Thank God that wasn't a BCA barrel! Bet the consensus would have been 180 degrees different and the advice would have been to send it back as fast as you can. That it is a piece of crap. My BCA barrel has no scratches and shoots good so how does Tikka get off so easy when they put out a substandard product.

How bad does the barrel have to be scratched before you hold the manufacturer accountable. It may shoot 1 MOA but no one on here knows how much the scratches will affect the group size compared to if there were no scratches. It might have shot a lot better than 1 MOA without those scratches but nobody can predict that. So you are telling the OP to spend his time and money to shoot the barrel in until it either shoots good or it doesn't and just accept this barrel that should have never made it past QC.

Send it back Harpoon1 and make them replace it.

[Klem]

Thank God that wasn't a BCA barrel! Bet the consensus would have been 180 degrees different and the advice would have been to send it back as fast as you can. That it is a piece of crap. My BCA barrel has no scratches and shoots good so how does Tikka get off so easy when they put out a substandard product.

How bad does the barrel have to be scratched before you hold the manufacturer accountable. It may shoot 1 MOA but no one on here knows how much the scratches will affect the group size compared to if there were no scratches. It might have shot a lot better than 1 MOA without those scratches but nobody can predict that. So you are telling the OP to spend his time and money to shoot the barrel in until it either shoots good or it doesn't and just accept this barrel that should have never made it past QC.

Send it back Harpoon1 and make them replace it.

Jasper,

I'm not reading anyone here advising that the OP shoot that barrel until it comes good. We just want him to shoot and see how it goes. I will add that in my experience bad barrels don't come good, they just get worse.

As for Tikka putting out sub-standard barrels, I have never known them to. Which probably explains why they get the benefit of the doubt relative to BCA. If the precision guarantee Tikka advertises is met then you cannot expect it to shoot better. You can hope but you cannot expect. You certainly have no legal or even moral redress returning a barrel that meets specs to a company for no other reason than you don't like the machine marks. They might even tell you it is a proprietary process that enhances accuracy, and maybe it is.

My point is it is no use wondering if the barrel would have shot better if those marks were not there. How about the OP shoots the barrel and then we can take it from there. Anything less than that is just arguing about cosmetics.

[Harpoon1]

Jasper,

I'm not reading anyone here advising that the OP shoot that barrel until it comes good. We just want him to shoot and see how it goes. I will add that in my experience bad barrels don't come good, they just get worse.

As for Tikka putting out sub-standard barrels, I have never known them to. Which probably explains why they get the benefit of the doubt relative to BCA. If the precision guarantee Tikka advertises is met then you cannot expect it to shoot better. You can hope but you cannot expect. You certainly have no legal or even moral redress returning a barrel that meets specs to a company for no other reason than you don't like the machine marks. They might even tell you it is a proprietary process that enhances accuracy, and maybe it is.

My point is it is no use wondering if the barrel would have shot better if those marks were not there. How about the OP shoots the barrel and then we can take it from there. Anything less than that is just arguing about cosmetics.

Respectfully, to the contrary, in fact, I said I was going to shoot it “tomorrow”. The very next day!

[Harpoon1]

Jasper,

I'm not reading anyone here advising that the OP shoot that barrel until it comes good. We just want him to shoot and see how it goes. I will add that in my experience bad barrels don't come good, they just get worse.

As for Tikka putting out sub-standard barrels, I have never known them to. Which probably explains why they get the benefit of the doubt relative to BCA. If the precision guarantee Tikka advertises is met then you cannot expect it to shoot better. You can hope but you cannot expect. You certainly have no legal or even moral redress returning a barrel that meets specs to a company for no other reason than you don't like the machine marks. They might even tell you it is a proprietary process that enhances accuracy, and maybe it is.

My point is it is no use wondering if the barrel would have shot better if those marks were not there. How about the OP shoots the barrel and then we can take it from there. Anything less than that is just arguing about cosmetics.

This is my OP.

“ No one around here has a clue what caused them. Brand new Tikka from the factory, never been shot other than test firing at the factory. I pushed a few patches through there with Kroil first, then a couple of dry patches, just like I have a 100 times before, and was rewarded with this! Then used a little JB Bore Paste for 20-30 strokes to try and clean it up some, nothing. The scratches run the entire length of the barrel. Going to shoot it tomorrow for the first time. We’ll see if it has any effect on accuracy.

Any ideas what could have caused these scratches?”

Where did I say that I wasn’t going to “shoot it first, and see how it goes”?

[jasper2408]

Jasper,

I'm not reading anyone here advising that the OP shoot that barrel until it comes good. We just want him to shoot and see how it goes. I will add that in my experience bad barrels don't come good, they just get worse.

As for Tikka putting out sub-standard barrels, I have never known them to. Which probably explains why they get the benefit of the doubt relative to BCA. If the precision guarantee Tikka advertises is met then you cannot expect it to shoot better. You can hope but you cannot expect. You certainly have no legal or even moral redress returning a barrel that meets specs to a company for no other reason than you don't like the machine marks. They might even tell you it is a proprietary process that enhances accuracy, and maybe it is.

My point is it is no use wondering if the barrel would have shot better if those marks were not there. How about the OP shoots the barrel and then we can take it from there. Anything less than that is just arguing about cosmetics.

As long as the OP is satisfied that is all that matters.

[37L1]

The picture I posted of the same cross hatch marks in mine was from a 223 that probably has close to 1,000 rounds down it. My 22-250 has them as well as my 223 Varmint, all Tikkas.

[Lastrites]

Ahh geez, 7mm-08 has the cross thatch as well. IDK if I care or not, will be shooting it when time allows. Every other tikka I've had or shot has shot so well I doubt if this will be an issue.

[Harpoon1]

Like I said earlier, this 223 makes 7 Tikkas I’ve purchased in the last 2-3 years. 3 have no visible scratches whatsoever. None. Pristine! 1 has a couple of light, inch long scratches. If you weren’t really looking for them, you’d probably miss them. Of the 3 left, there is/was quite a bit scratching, and the 223 falls into the middle. The Creedmoor in the group is scratched from chamber to muzzle but, is only really visible now in the grooves. Gun has 500 rounds through it so maybe they were worn down on the lands, IDK? Didn’t own a borescope when I purchased that and the first one, a 243. And the 243 in the group has 800-1000 rounds through it and has some faint scratches left through out the bore.

So there you go. 7 Tikkas, 3 of them have a lot of scratches, 3 don’t have any and 1 has a couple of “nicks” most everyone would miss if they weren’t really looking for them,

Does Tikka lap or hone their barrels? If they do, I can’t find any references to it in their advertising or catalogue. They do make a big deal out of the “mirror finish” they supposedly get by “Cold Hammer Forging” their barrels.

Im going to email Tikka directly, with those pictures attached and see what they have to say about it.

[Harpoon1]

Found this link while kicking over some more rocks. You can skip ahead to around 8:30 for the barrel manufacturing process of the video if you’re in a hurry. Still no mention or evidence of any “hand lapping or honing” with regard to the “current” Tikka models. Never fully understood or appreciated just how much human oversight is still required in the manufacturing process until watching the video.

https://youtu.be/5GVNo3OVwTE