A Rare Krieger Mistake
by Germán A. Salazar
"Where did that one go, Chuck?"
"Another miss, right over the target."
"The last one was under the target and left of it and I only adjusted a little..."
Disaster
That brief snippet of conversation is representative of the exchange between Chuck Gooding and myself yesterday during a completely futile, 43 shot attempt to zero in my BAT as an F-TR rifle with a new Krieger .308 barrel. It was a long morning...
We were in Mesa, Arizona at the Rio Salado Sportsman's Club for the club's monthly 500 yard match and nothing was going to plan. I often go to a club match with a new, unfired barrel. With a scope on board, as was the case yesterday, zeroing is usually no problem at all; bore-sight, watch the trace, adjust as needed and usually within three shots we're right in the X ring - not this time.
It wasn't just the barrel that was new, the Nightforce scope on top was also new to me; I bought it used, though nearly new, from the estate of another shooter. After the first twenty or so shots - none of which connected with the target - I removed the Nightforce and installed my trusty Leupold BR24. No joy, shots were still scattering all around the point of aim, sometimes as much as 50 feet away. Although I initially thought the scope might be at fault, once I switched to a scope that I know to be good, that possibility was dramatically reduced. After all, what is the probability of two scopes coming apart at the same time? Not zero, but small.
Clearly, it was time to pack it in. I went to the pits and pulled my three strings, mulling over what had just happened. After the pit stint I did my scoring for a couple of strings and then it was time to go. I skipped the usual post match lunch with the group because I was very eager to tear the rifle apart to see if there was a detectable cause for the problem.
Beginnings
Let's back up a bit, just a few weeks to be exact. As I recounted in a series of articles, John Lowther and I put a lot of effort into getting my Borden actioned CSS tubegun ready for F-Class shooting. We eventually solved all of our problems, principally scope and bipod mounting, but at one point, I began to wonder if that would ever happen. Additionally, I had an opportunity to buy the Nightforce and frankly, I was very curious as to whether there was a benefit to be had with it. However, neither the tubegun, nor the Gilkes actioned rifle that I used earlier in the season would meet the 8.25 kg. F-TR weight limit with the Rempel bipod and the Nightforce. The Rempel isn't going anywhere, I consider it a "must-have"; therefore, either the Nightforce would remain an unfulfilled desire, or I would have to put a lighter rifle together.
The BAT 3-lug rifle sitting patiently in the rack seemed to be the ideal candidate. The 6XC barrel it currently wore would have to be replaced, of course, and it needed a scope rail as it had previously only been used with iron sights. I ordered a rail from BAT which they delivered within a few days, and shipped the action to Clark Fay with a request for a medium Palma 1:11" twist Krieger chambered with my long-throat reamer. Clark was aware of the pressing timeline for load development with the Arizona Palma Championship looming in early December and turned the work out quickly with one of the many Krieger blanks that he keeps in inventory.
Post-mortem
After the long drive home from Mesa I took the rifle apart. The first possibility I considered was that the action somehow hadn't seated properly into the bedding, perhaps something was under the recoil lug. Examination revealed no foreign objects and the action was, in fact, properly seated and torqued.
The scope base was also examined (as it had been at the range) and no looseness was detected. The scope base screw holes on a BAT action are blind and don't go through the action, thus eliminating the possibility of a screw bearing on the barrel threads or locking lug. No problems here.I checked the fired brass, no unusual marks and the headspace measurement was exactly the same as my other .308 chambers. Primers had a nice edge radius and there had been no indications of excess pressure while firing. The crown looked fine, no visible damage or burrs.
Just as I was scratching my head over the lack of visible causes, the phone rang; John Lowther was calling to check in the rifle dissection. As our conversation progressed, we began to home in on the barrel's rate of twist as the only remaining possibility. Clark keeps a good supply of barrels on hand, and this one was supposed to have a 1:11" twist.
Slow Twist
As unlikely as it seemed, I decided to check the rate of twist. I put a tight-fitting patch on the jag and pushed it through the barrel, watching the rotation of the rod. It sure didn't seem to be turning like I expected... "The jag must be loosening," I thought. Pull it out, tighten the jag, repeat - still turning slowly. Changed patches, same results, changed jags, same result. In fact, by my measurements, the barrel has a 1:18" rate of twist. Just to confirm, I followed a single groove with the borescope, measuring how far the borescope went down the bore for a full revolution. That procedure confirmed what the jag was telling me, as did a visual comparison to a new 1:11" twist barrel that I had on hand.
Obviously, a .30 caliber 1:18" barrel is a specialty item for Benchrest for Score shooters - and they don't use a medium Palma contour. This barrel was clearly made in error as this contour and this rate of twist just don't go together. I have no doubt that it was mis-marked, because Clark wouldn't miss seeing an 18 where he was expecting to see an 11.
Getting a mis-marked barrel from Krieger is about as rare an occurrence as I can imagine. In fact, in over 25 years of buying barrels from them, I've never had it happen before. The unfortunate part is that all of Clark's work on this blank is down the tubes, there is no earthly use for a 1:18" twist, long-throat .308 medium Palma contour barrel - it is nothing but expensive scrap. Time to start over...
