[Hummer70]

I thread, chamber my own rifles and I get barrels in several grades.

1. Target Grade I am going to shoot long range with or high power competition.

2. Standard grade to use when I am making up a training rifle for new shooters as they will do fine and save them 75 to a hundred bucks.

3.Take off target barrels are recycled to hunting rifles by cutting off threads and cutting new along with chamber and cutting off muzzle a tad to restore the crown integrity.

4. Take off hunting barrels are saved to put on SHTF rifles for friends who don't have the funds to get good stuff.

As several have pointed out above a lapped barrel will not be beneficial unless you are a serious competitor.

One of the best quotes I ever heard was from a top flight gunsmith I know who moved to Alaska and he had a perfect description between a Douglas Air Gage Select barrel and a standard production Douglas which was "very few guys are good enough to shoot inside a standard Douglas barrel" which if you are a serious shooter you can shoot tens all day on a 600 yard target reduced for 100 yards. All a lapped barrel will do is perhaps increase your X count by decreasing your dispersion.

As a rule of thumb until a new shooter can put all shot in the 9 ring at 600 yards a lapped barrel is not going to make any difference save for lowering his savings account.

Bottom line is a lapped barrel is not going to necessarily make you a better shooter so develop your skills to the point you can physically tell the difference between a lapped barrel and a standard barrel.

I was at a match one day and this guy kept complaining his rifle would not shoot worth a crap. After the match I asked him to let me shoot it and I laid down and shot 3 shots (w/ iron sights) in a 1 1/2" group at 200 yards prone with sling while he watched in his scope. I got up and handed him the rifle and asked him if he wanted to sell it since it was not worth a crap. To my disappointment he kept it.

The throat moving forward .016" can be accomplished by firing 200 rounds of 30 cal in normal competition.

As a general rule you can expect forward throat movement of .100" per every thousand rounds fired through it in normal highpower competition. That is why gov't erosion gages (30 cal) have the rings spaced at 100 yards. That spacing was determined in a exhaustive test at Aberdeen Proving Ground in the 50s conducted by Otto Hanel who I shared a office cubicle with.

He took ten new M1s from depot and had the throat location measured as they were unpacked. He also chronographed all barrels for 30 continious shots and recorded the velocity differences each 1000 rounds. Then he fired 1000 rounds each through the ten rifles and had the throats remeasured again.

At 10,000 rounds the barrels were right at rejection and the average throat movement was .100" per 1000 rounds. Now here is the key thing to remember. Acceptance accuracy for a new M1 was 5" at 100 yards. Rejection was 7.5" at 100 yards or until the velocity dropped 200 fps. Obviously the acceptance figures were louzy and the rejection figures were even worse.

Here is what I do:

On new barrels I measure the throat erosion with a erosion gage and record it in my data book I keep with each rifle which also records round history, loads used etc.

At each 500 rounds or there abouts I run the erosion gage in again and record it. Generally about 3000 rounds I remove barrel and set it back say .500", rechamber and recrown and go back to shooting it again. Obviously this is only possible with a bolt gun. That keeps me in somewhat new rifling for many thousands of rounds.

One of the finest bolt gun shooters in the Southeast (Frank Van Cleave) of Tennessee shot a rifle for 10,000 rounds shortening barrel every 2500 rounds and he averaged in the 790s. If you are a highpower shooter you know very few folks shoot consistant 790 range scores (possible 800) from 200, 300 and 600 yards.