.303 British Muzzle Wear Gauge

[Boom-Boom]

Hi EH,

Thank you for the elaborate reply.

About your statement ;

2. It is not a throat erosion gauge and graduated for throat wear.

I know and have used both gauges MWG and TEG) for the .30 cal. barrels and .30-06 and .308 chambers ( with a change of inserts)

The .30 cal. MWG is also graduated 0 or 1 up to 3 which means that it is slightly tapered. The gauge you pictured here, is it tapered or full cylindrical??

tks,

BB

[Edward Horton]

Hi EH,

Thank you for the elaborate reply.

About your statement ;

2. It is not a throat erosion gauge and graduated for throat wear.

I know and have used both gauges MWG and TEG) for the .30 cal. barrels and .30-06 and .308 chambers ( with a change of inserts)

The .30 cal. MWG is also graduated 0 or 1 up to 3 which means that it is slightly tapered. The gauge you pictured here, is it tapered or full cylindrical??

tks,

BB

full cylindrical

[jmoore]

Here's a link to the MSC catalogue showing a plain 0.308" gage pin for about $2. No fancy handle, but it'll work. You can get pretty much any size you want in 0.001" increments.

MSC Item Detail

[Peter Laidler]

Unless it states to the contrary (as in ....WILL be rejected), Armourers always used the gauges as a guide to back up their visuals. But the acid test, especially with the snipers, was always on the range - the accuracy and function test.

We cut up some old and worn Bren barrels some months ago for metallurgy tests and the bores were visually eccentric to the outside diameter. But before cutting, they were taken up to high temperature using burst fire and performed perfectly.

[Brian Dick]

I've got stainless steel throat erosion gauges available for 6.5, 7mm, and .30-.303 caliber bolt action rifles in stock. They're turned out of stainless steel by a retired U.S. Government Armorer, are perfect and very handy. Email me at the shop if interested. I apologize for the shameless plug but these things are available if you know who to ask. They're also posted on the website. I may have some spare, original plug gauges around here too. Just ask and I'll have a look. Brian

[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.

[jmoore]

I have to agree w/ the above, There's some wretched bores on some of my better shooting rifles. Even my L42a1 has a bit of old corrosion at the muzzle, and it groups ridiculously well! Also have a Gew 98 that has a roughish bore and a completely worn muzzle that shoots 3-4 MOA which is still well within acceptance standards for those rifles when new. There's more, but y'all get the idea.

[Peter Laidler]

I forgot to say but we were always pretty fastidious about machine gun barrels used for what we call 'overhad fire' or 'battle innoculation shooting' where you fire over the heads of advancing troops during training or suchlike. Then it was always a 'what the calibrated gauge says' attitude. I just get the feeling that the troops would feel somewhat peeved to find .303 and 7.62mm machine gun bullets dropping short in amongst them when they were out there. Even worse, just think what they'd say if a stray bullet knocked a hole in his tea mug! No tea! That'd get him pretty angry