My Omega wants to be dirty

[dragonfly]

Went to the range again this morning to see if the rifle would repeat the same as last session. I stayed with one load throughout, the load I'm planning to hunt with.

300gr XTP/Harvester short blk
100gr vol BH209
Fed 209A primer

The rifle and breech plug were cold and clean. I popped 3 primers and started shooting 3 round groups. 1st group was a miserable 5in. triangle. Second tightened up a bit and third even more. The groups continued to slowly shrink till this is what happened on shot no. 13,14,and 15.


I'm very happy to have these results but does this mean I've got to shoot 12 rounds before I hunt? :lol:
I'm afraid to clean it and have to start all over.

 

[Idaholewis]

Awesome 100 Yard Group!!

I have a .308 Win like this, after it is THOROUGHLY cleaned it will not shoot to it’s potential til i get about 12 Rounds Through it, After the 12 Rounds it will literally stack bullets inside bullet holes if i do my part.

 

[Steelheader323]

Question.. Is this the first time shooting this gun?


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[dragonfly]

No. I've spent many hours at the range and a lot of cash. I've gone thru 3 jugs of BH209 and all sorts of bullet sabot combos searching for something this gun likes. It was disappointing at first but I've finally got it working for me.

I'm still puzzled as to why it takes 12 rounds thru it till it gets tight. I was hoping one or two foulers would be enough.

 

[sbuff]

Have you tried different sabot with that bullet ?

 

[dragonfly]

Yes, Started with crush ribs. Short black shot better. Also tried some MMP's. Harvester SB's group the best in my Omega

 

[Lee 9]

Off hand it sounds like you have to burn something like grease out of the barrel. What do you clean with and what sort of oil or preservative do you use . Rem oil with Teflon in it for one can give weird results.

 

[Steelheader323]

Lee 9 is onto the same thing I was thinking, that’s the reason I asked if this was the first time shooting the gun, friend of mine got an encore cheap last year in good shape, seller tile him it was only shot a few times, turns out original owner never initially cleaned it n it still has packing grease in the barrel, loaded he’d and wouldn’t shoot good groups, we scrubbed and cleaned it and did a final swabbing with brake cleaner and patches til they were clean, after all that it shot great groups with just about whatever he fed it


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[dragonfly]

Interesting. It is a new barrel although it's probably got 200 rounds through it now. I use Hoppe's and CLP for general cleaning and it's also had a round of JB bore paste a while ago. After cleaning I use Rem oil and don't know about Teflon. That's a new one. Before shooting, I run a patch with alcohol both sides thru then a dry patch both sides to remove the Rem oil. It feels squeaky clean before I load. Is it really possible there's still packing grease in the barrel? Should I ditch the Rem oil?

The gun will shoot a good group it's just that it has to have multiple shots first.

 

[HC]

After 200 shots and multiple cleanings I seriously doubt there is any packing grease left in the bore. It is strange that the rifle has to be shot a dozen times before the groups come together. Just wandering what groups 16,17,18 etc. would do. Would the groups hold true or go to pot? If the rem oil has Teflon, don’t use it in the bore. Good luck.


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[WV Hunter]

That is really odd, to me that it takes that many shots. Curious if you have tried other powders in it. Pyro or T7 may work great right out of the gate. ??
You could certainly leave it fouled and hunt with it...but man that is definitely not convenient. :huh?:

 

[Lee 9]

Rem gun oil has Teflon in it, suggest using synthetic gun oil instead, I use Birchwood Casey. It takes a while to get the Teflon out of the barrel, I do not know any quick easy way to do that. I know about this because I had a similar problem until Sabotloader told me about it.

 

[MrTom]

If it were me I'd plan a day just ahead of opener and go shoot a round of ten shots using some junk bullets and lighter powder charges just to dirty the barrel up to the equivalent of what gave the last group, then I'd load it for the season's first shot and have at it, keeping the gun in a cool place until it gets fired...hopefully at hair. I've shot squib loads of 209 and paper towel plugs to dirty the barrel, like 209 seems to prefer, in three guns used for hunting then have loaded each [not primed] for hunting and not fired one of the guns in ten days of hunting only to knock the charge out of the barrel to clean and found next to zero red stuff in the barrel at the end of the season.