IME: A burned out breech plug will ruin accuracy. One day earlier this year i fired 20 rounds of 120 grain charges through my Encore. Watched accuracy diminish with each shot.

I have a friend that was having trouble with his Encore grouping and was pretty darn upset. He was shooting the same charge and bullet he'd been shooting for years. I kept telling him to change the BP and his groups would most likely come back. Instead of paying attention, he kept fumbling with it and just goet more frustrated with a rifle he'd always relied on.
Mom (R.I.P.) always used to say, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink."
After his constant threating to sell the rifle, send it to me and/or his constant B&M, this last early fall he finally took my advice and installed a new BP.
LOW AND BEHOLD....... his groups immediately tightened up to normal. Imagine that!

Its not always the case, but a lot of experience tells me when you're shooting tight groups, then the groups start getting larger, especially when using the same charge and bullet, the culprit "can" be an enlarged flash hole.

I went ahead and ordered a new breech plug. Since I'm shooting loose (Real ffg BP) powder with the "pellet" plug that came with the gun I figured that may not be the best combination for optimum accuracy anyway, so I ordered a BH209 plug for it.
The bore cleaner should be here tomorrow, but the breech plug won't be here until Dec 5. I'll probably wait until I have both items on hand to try a bench session to see if accuracy improves.

I have the BH209 BP in my CVA Wolf and have been using it for three years now. I wonder after reading this thread how much longer it will last. I dont shoot alot, just enough to make sure its dialed in. Right now the accuracy is phenomenal so if it starts to change I will keep this in mind. Thanks!

Seems that we're always spending money on our shooting passions. I've been putting off for years the purchase of a new hard rifle case. The one I've been using I've had since the late "70's". I finally got off my butt and ordered one on Black Friday from Midway. Just couldn't pass up the deal of $96 off.
Please report back on any improvements.

would you be willing to do each one separate though? Clean the barrel first and then shoot and see what happens to the accuracy and then install the new bp and shoot and test again? Just for curiosity?

These gages is an easy, and accurate way to measure flash hole size.


















_

Maybe you just can't see it. It leaves only a very thin film in the corners of the rifling. And it adheres strongly to the bore. A bronze brush may or may not remove all of it. Even shotgun shooters use a plastic solvent to remove this film from their barrels.
It is a possibility but I now tend to agree with the other posters on the enlarged flame channel.

Shotgun shooters also have the ability of several shots fired rapidly from a hot barrel.

HUGE difference vs what a ML can do. Then you have the large difference in the temps the powder creates and how fast it creates it. When you really think about it, the comparison is badly flawed.

Modern sabots should not be leaving anything in a barrel unless you get it way too hot and blow a sabot. That is a load of hogwash that CVA still pushes to sell Powerbelts.
https://cva.com/wp-content/uploads/2...2Rev-12-13.pdf

I guess we are all entitled to our own opinion. You may be correct but I see no harm in using a plastic solvent occasionally even if just for my own satisfaction.