.303 British Muzzle Wear Gauge

[Thunderbox]

I shouldn't think anyone ought to be discarding barrels on the basis of a muzzle gauge test these days - that was the luxury of a service environment with stacks of spare barrels available on demand. Nowadays the supply of new(ish) .303 and 7.62mm Enfield barrels is just about exhausted, and we have to make do with what we have.

There is, of course, little correlation anyway between bore size and rifle accuracy - especially in .303 barrels. We all know of "mint" barrels that cannot group, and "smoothbores" that perversely group like match rifles. Those who choose a rifle by inserting a round in the muzzle are deluding themselves if they think they're gaining any sort of reliable indication about the shooting performance of the rifle. The only absolute proof lies in testing by shooting.