Barrel Lap My New .45?

[bowbender6]

My new Kodiak nickel .45 should be here today. Should I lap the barrel before the first shot to smooth it out? Will shooting conicals or powerbelts help smooth out the tooling marks. I have some time as the weather is bad here in Mich.


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[bronko22000]

I'd definately shoot it first.

[cayugad]

Clean the rifle real good with solvent and patches to remove any packing grease and then go shoot it. Why fix something that might not be broke. Remember, your first time out might not be all that great. Some rifles do not shoot well for a while, they take time to find the right load, and also some take time to get used to. I have one inline that I put over 100 rounds through. I was about ready to give up on it and all of a sudden it started shooting. Why, I do not know.

So just clean it and go have some fun with it. When you lapp a barrel, you remove metal. You can not put that back once it is taken out.

[oldwun]

I agree that I would shoot it first and if it shoots to your liking I wouldn't touch it. I did JB my Omega but only because everything was just to hard to load. Now it is much easier to load. Some say shoot some big old lead slugs and that will clean the barrel up. That's probably true. I don't think Sabots will clean it up.

[lemoyne]

Lapping is a last resort to cure a problem , doing it will shorten barrel life so do not do it unless necessary. Lee

[Chris W.]

I like putting a full box of 20 lead conicals through a muzzleloader before shooting sabots or shooting for groups. That'll usually smooth out any little rough edges in a barrel fairly well.

[frontier gander]

those big 330 grain conicals i shot in my .45 sure smoothed out that Douglas barrel.

Buy a couple packs of the hornady great plains conicals and shoot them over 80 grains powder.