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Greasy ammo over lubing my barrel

3K views 19 replies 12 participants last post by  gcrank1 
#1 ·
Hey guys,

Weird problem I ran into with my Marlin XT-22 bolt action and I am wondering if you guys have run into it too....

Good greasy ammo over-lubing barrels and the groups seriously opening up.

I ran into this with Eley club, Eley tennex, Wolf MT, and SK Pistol match in this microgroove Marlin.

Finally figured out this was what was going on.

The first group would be a little bughole. The 2nd group started opening up and the 3rd group was over 1/2". I kept getting groups where I would get 2 in the same hole and 3 scattered....

The weird solution trick.... Shoot 2 rounds of CCI blazers or Minimags in between the 5 shot groups and the groups would stay nice and small.

Apparently one or two rounds of high velocity ammo strips out the excess lube without drying it out so much that it has to get re-seasoned.

Weird weird weird. I have heard lots of folks talk about the opposite where cheap ammo shot really well for 1 group after shooting fancy greasy ammo. But this is the opposite - you have to shoot one or two rounds of cheap ammo in between to keep the good stuff from over-greasing the barrel.
 
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#2 ·
I primarily shoot Geco and Norma. Both are made by RWS and use a very greasy lube that always seems excessive. I keep a paper towel handy to wipe the excess lube off the tips of the bullets. Not sure if it helps accuracy, but it keeps my hand cleaner.
 
#5 ·
First I've heard of that. I've been shooting those "greasy" lubed ammo for many, many years. Fact is, they have been the most accurate ammo I've ever shot. I won many competitions and set records with that "greasy" stuff and never had a problem with it. During one ten year period I shot somewhere just over 300,000 rounds of it out of several different handguns and rifles. I can't ever think of where the ammo lube caused any problems other than getting my fingers greasy. A paper towel took care of that. I'd be looking at something else going on besides the lube on the ammo. Eley, RWS, Wolf, etc have a pretty good idea on how to make accurate ammo. An awful lot of top shooters have been using this "greasy" stuff for years and it's worked very well for them.
 
#7 ·
I do know that this factory Marlin chamber is very long. It's every bit of 0.800" from the mouth to the start of the rifling.

No doubt that is part of the issue vs a tighter factory chamber like a CZ or a real match chamber....

It makes me really wonder what would happen if I shortened the chamber by around 1/8".

The interesting thing is that high quality ammo does shoot very very well - for one or two groups until the lube builds up in there... Running a HV round seems to take care of whatever it is and the accuracy stays very good.
 
#11 ·
My microgroove 336 30-30 shot cast bullets just fine. Apparently it didn't get the memo that jacketed bullets are required....

I borescoped this one after both a pack of Wolf and a pack of Eley. The bore and leade was clean. No leading at all... The carbon ring was quite small and not really close to the start of the rifling.
 
#12 ·
I’m gonna try again. The greasy goo builds up in the chamber , once enough is accumulated it prevents the next round from being completely seated because of hydrostatic pressure and because the head space is just a little too open the bolt doesn’t force the bullet fully in when crammed. This is a problem on Ruger 77/22 s, which is fixed by disassembling the bolt and sliding on a donught shaped shim and reassembling, so that the head space is just a lirttle bit tighter. Maybe you could do something like that to your bolt. Shortening the chamber will probably exacerbate your problems.
 
#14 ·
Fwiw, Many CF Marlin MicroGroove shooters in The Cast Bullet Assoc. have found cast bullets can shoot just fine.
But not if one tries to use cast bullets the same dia. as the normal for caliber jacketed bullets, they are too small.
And there are no true 22LR jacketed bullets anyway, gotta get to the 22Mag for that.
 
#15 ·
Both of these sets of 4 were shot with the same ammo.
5 shots each group
25 yards.
Eley Tennex

(Click the thumbnails for full size)

The shot with the dime next to it is group #1
No HV shots between groups


The second set of 4 groups - two rounds of HV ammo between each 5 shot group.
 
#16 ·
As an advocate of the KISS Principle Id keep doing what you are doing :bthumb:
Anything else may, or may not, be to your advantage. Unless taking the chance for educational purposes for us is good with you ;).
 
#18 ·
One has to fire quite a few groups at 50 yards from a solid benchrest using good technique before drawing conclusions. Shooting at 25 yards with a rifle will only tell you that even most sorry ammo is accurate.

Many rimfire shooters seem to have an aversion to dirty ammo. All rimfire ammo is dirty, some dirtier than others.

Quite often, centerfire cast bullet rifle and handgun shooters see best accuracy with soft "greasy" lubes as opposed to the stiff, waxy lubes. It seems rimfire ammo works pretty much the same way. There are exceptions, of course, but if I have a choice, I'll usually go with the greasy lubes.

As for barrel seasoning, perhaps there is something to this, but I haven't seen it using a variety of ammos in accurate, but non-target type guns.
 
#19 ·
That's why you shoot almost any crap ammo at 25 yards with a pistol and get good results not great good. Expensive standard velocity ammo is the way to go for tight group at 25 yds with a pistol. Expensive 22 ammo will get you tight groups at 50 and 100 in a rifle

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