Criterion No.4 barrel testing

[Frederick303]

Regarding the Bisley targets.

They were 2.5 MOA for a 5, from short to long from 1949 to 1968.

Nothing better, all shot prone slow fire.

[CINDERS]

I seem to recall putting up Percy Pavey's stats a little while ago he was pretty good with the Mk III

[corben1]

Brian,

Don't know what your take is on cleaning the Criterion barrel, but the one I have is a dream to clean. I gave my barrel a good normal cleaning and a dose of Sweet's to look for any copper collection this morning. Saw a very dim trace after 35 rounds. Just finished loading some Hornady 174s for further testing. Shot some of these bullets yesterday in pulled bullet ammo and felt good about the results. Felt pretty good about the 71 year old eyes too. They are one of the few things still working.

[Cold_Zero]

Attachment 62884Attachment 62885

Iron sights, 100 Yrds from a rest(factoring ME out). Rifle is MK V, with good amount of wear. Shooting a freshly cleaned barrel, that looked very rough before a lot of TLC.

Remington UMC 174 Grain, off the shelf ammo.


Sound Action, New Barrel, Good wood. Why not?

[sean6.555]

Green with envy for you guys.
I would like to know what the specs are for major and minor dia.
There are none on their web site for their P14 barrel and I am intrested to know whether they have let you guys know for the new barels?I have emailed the but as yet no reply.
thanks Sean

[Brian Dick]

corben1, I'm truly impressed with the barrel I fitted up too. It cleaned up easily. The bore diameter must be right considering the performance with both Mk.7z and Sierra Matchkings. There was a little bit of copper fouling but I did break it in with 20 rounds cleaning between each shot which should make things stay cleaner. I'll admit to not cleaning the barrel absolutely spotless of copper after every session and I was only using good old Hoppes No.9 on it. I was sort of replicating the use/maintenance an average shooter would give it just so gauge performance. I will give it a good copper cleaning when time permits. Glad to read you're getting in some range time. Good quality domestic mfg. L.E. barrels have been a long time coming!

[Brian Dick]

Another tidbit I forgot to mention to prove a point is that I set the rifle up originally on the loose side with the bolt almost closing on the .074 H.S. gauge. I fitted another bolt head to bring the H.S. on the tight side to try the match hand loads. Guess what, accuracy was exactly the same which dispells much of the back and forth we've been hearing about for years about accuracy vs headspace. Now I DO realize that tighter is better when you want maximum case life but the fact is a lot of shooters worry needlessly about headspace on these rifles. As long as it's in spec with .064 GO and .074 NO GO, these old girls will shoot just fine.

[corben1]

Brian-Got loose for a few more groups this morning. Tried some 75 Greek that I bought this past winter for the grandsons. They can have it! Shot ten rounds of 1951 DA 7z, which shot well with the exception of one shot and the remainder was 174 grain Hornady handloads. The Hornady bullets looked good, but the Illinois prairie winds were howling at the local range. It was so bad that I decided to let the elevations become the group. Nothing new to me, as I used to do it all the time in machine rest testing at extended range in rough conditions. Now I wish to go one step further. I'm now 71, and time has changed my abilities to a degree. I've got a no drill scope base somewhere and intend to use it. I'm having fun and after this experience intend to become more familiar with other Criterion products. I'm not just patting these people on the back either. I really like this barrel.

[Badger]

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Regards,
Doug

[CINDERS]