Okay guys. I got a Mauser action with an aftermarket Timney trigger that sports a 40 inch bull barrel and a 2 inch muzzle break! The only marking on the barrel is .338. The customer claimed that is was extremely awkward to maneuver around and way to heavy, so he wanted the barrel cut down to 24 inches. I was reluctant because if anything it was an interesting conversation piece. The point is when I did cut it down; I found it was bored off center! The muzzle break was perfectly attached and matched the outer dimensions of the barrel. However there is about a quarter inch more barrel to one side of the bore at the muzzle! This will make re-crowning a bit interesting. My question is how do you think this affected accuracy? I never fired the behemoth before and didn’t get any feedback from the owner (who is not the original owner).
Did the muzzle break really not line up with the bore? Muzzle break bore holes are oversized but if it was off by 1/4 inch as you mention the bullet would have hit the muzzle break and blew it off or bulged the barrel and severely damaged the muzzle break/barrel. Are you sure it was a muzzle break or just a weight to look like a break? Accuracy would not have been affected if the muzzle break had the correct clearance. As long as everything is correct… bedding, barrel installation, headspace, crown, etc. etc. then the only way the accuracy would be affected by a bore that is off center is after multiple shots. As the barrel warms up it would start to warp as there is more metal on one side of the bore that the other.
Reply:
I didn’t express myself clearly. It was a real muzzle break and it DID align with the barrel. The 1/4 inch I mentioned is how much more barrel there is to one side of the bore AFTER I cut it off. That’s what I found strange. The fact that the muzzle break aligned perfectly, I was curious as to how they threaded the barrel to receive the muzzle break. The only thing I came up with is that the reamer “snaked” through the barrel blank and was off-set or off-center at the point of my cut and then re-centered at the muzzle. The accuracy question was my main concern for my client and you have addressed that.
