Kreiger barrel questions

W

WallyDog

New member
Ive been out of benchrest shooting for 15 years but have recently decided to get back in. Im retired so I finally have time to learn to dope the wind better and work on my load. I bought a Kreiger 13.5 twist barrel and chambered it in 6ppc x .268nk with .040 freebore x 1.5 leade angle throat. Oddly the barrel lands aren't making any marks on my bullets even if I set them out far enough to push back around .020. I have what Id call a med/light neck tension at .0012 press fit. I figured to start at 28.5 of N133 and set the bullet to just kiss the lands. Its my first Kreiger so Im not sure where to start other than what I used to do years ago. What say ye?
Wally
 
WallyDog said:
Ive been out of benchrest shooting for 15 years but have recently decided to get back in. Im retired so I finally have time to learn to dope the wind better and work on my load. I bought a Kreiger 13.5 twist barrel and chambered it in 6ppc x .268nk with .040 freebore x 1.5 leade angle throat. Oddly the barrel lands aren't making any marks on my bullets even if I set them out far enough to push back around .020. I have what Id call a med/light neck tension at .0012 press fit. I figured to start at 28.5 of N133 and set the bullet to just kiss the lands. Its my first Kreiger so Im not sure where to start other than what I used to do years ago. What say ye?
Wally
Click to expand...

What is left of the lands after your reamer cuts the freebore and lead is what leaves the marks. That will be the same regardless of the brand of barrel.
If it’s the same reamer you used years ago, Just start where you used to.
 
Could it be an ogive thing? My BR rifles and bullets from the '80's and '90's were traditionally 1.5 degree leade and fairly blunt ogives of 5 or 6 diameters. These showed the traditional "square" marks quite readily. A lot of the newer BR bullets exhibit much longer ogives and IME they tend to be marked differently, sometimes with only a ring or scuff.
 
alinwa said:
Could it be an ogive thing? My BR rifles and bullets from the '80's and '90's were traditionally 1.5 degree leade and fairly blunt ogives of 5 or 6 diameters. These showed the traditional "square" marks quite readily. A lot of the newer BR bullets exhibit much longer ogives and IME they tend to be marked differently, sometimes with only a ring or scuff.
Click to expand...

That's pretty much what Im getting is the ring or scuff mark. No little squares. Probably hitting the leade angle before hitting the lands hard?
Thanks for the info.
Wally
 
jackie schmidt said:
What is left of the lands after your reamer cuts the freebore and lead is what leaves the marks. That will be the same regardless of the brand of barrel.
If it’s the same reamer you used years ago, Just start where you used to.
Click to expand...
Different reamer all together. Im hoping the leade angle and diameter is ok. I need to get it to an optical comparator to measure and see the reamer profile closely. Im going to tighten up the neck some more and polish up the bullet to get a better look see. Thanks Jackie.
Wally
 
I shoot an 8.5 ogive 6mm and use 0.0015" neck tension. The marks are hard to see with that light a pull. Color the bullet with a sharpie and you'll see them better. You can go down on the bushing but you want to see the marks with the tension you plan to run (which sounds like 0.0012").

-Lee
www.singleactions.com
 
Marking bullets

One trick you might try is to get a black sharpie and put a coat of ink around the bullet all around where you should be touching, let it dry a few minutes and then start looking for marks. I once had a double radius bullet die that made bullets that would match up at the lead angle of my reamer, it was hard to see any marks on those so another shooter showed me the sharpie trick and it helped a lot.
 
There is a possibility that your freebore, that .040 part just after the neck is a little tight.

My 30BR reamer is like that, I get a ring on a fat bullet before marks show. I just figured out what seating depth it liked and stayed there. Since it shoots great, I don’t worry about it.
 
jackie schmidt said:
There is a possibility that your freebore, that .040 part just after the neck is a little tight.

My 30BR reamer is like that, I get a ring on a fat bullet before marks show. I just figured out what seating depth it liked and stayed there. Since it shoots great, I don’t worry about it.
Click to expand...

That is exactly that jumped to mind for me. I have had the same experience with a couple different reamers. One was a resharp and since I had access to a very good tool setter with comparator I measured it and the freebore area was just a little tight, about .001 undersize. Didn't keep it from shooting.
 
Im thinkin thats probably it.

jackie schmidt said:
There is a possibility that your freebore, that .040 part just after the neck is a little tight.

My 30BR reamer is like that, I get a ring on a fat bullet before marks show. I just figured out what seating depth it liked and stayed there. Since it shoots great, I don’t worry about it.
Click to expand...

I took a look at it on optical comparator. It looks ok but a smidgen on the small side. Hard to measure dead nuts with ancient comparator. Ill shoot it and well see.

Wally
 
Kreiger barrel

You may want to try a set of go/no go gages in the chamber to determine if you have the correct
barrel for the action. What action do you have and how old is the action and barrel? Did you talk with the gun smith
about this issue? Did a gun smith chamber the barrel? May need more neck tension to determine seating depth and bullet marks.
Did you check the amount of shoulder bump with a gage? Did you secure a set of dies to match the brass neck thickness?
 
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