As some of you know, I recently purchased a 338 win mag for a fall bear hunt. The rifle is a sako 75. I have fired 362 rounds of factory ammo through it 225gr and 250 gr at first the rifle shot tight groups then a round might fly off outside the normal group. I thought that it was me at first getting kicked around a little to much, so I backed off a couple of days. then back at it again, this time it got worse. Inspecting the rifle, I noticed a small swell in the barrel about 2.5 inches from the muzzle, So my question is what happened?

My guess would be you had some kind of obstruction in the barrel.I would say you have one of two choices now. Either have the barrel cut and recrowned or have a new barrel installed.Cutting it 3" you would lose some velocity.
Ruger Redhawk

Sound like what Ruger said . I have a 22lr that had that happen to it .

I' ve seen this several times, often you cannot see the barrel swell, but can see a disruption in the rifling 2-3" from the muzzle. My best guess on how this happens is that a shooter shots the rifle with anything more than a very fine, thin coating of oil in the barrel and the bullet pushes the thicker layer of oil forward in the barrel like a wiper blade on a windshield until enough builds up at the end of the barrel to cause an overpressure. [] Cut and recrown, and always run a dry patch down the barrel before a shooting session and recheck to make sure the barrrel is clear.

If the swell is in the bore you have some sort of obstruction there that needs to be removed,if the swell is on the outside of the barrel then the damage has already been done-Take the rifle to a gunsmith DONT FIRE IT as you could make matters worse. Either way get it looked at as soon as you can!!!


As stated in the other reply' s the most likely cause was something in the barrel.


The sako should be a great rifle so let us know what happens.

Good luck


Alan

I had that happen on a Remmington Auto shotgun. The bulge wat about 12 inches ahead of the chamber. I don,t know what caused it but it was not an abstruction in the barrel. I just replaced the barrel but that is not quite so easy on a rifle. Or I quess I should say not as cheap on a rifle. I have had E.R. Shaw rebarrel several rifles for me with very good results and I think they are reasonable on the price as well.

I agree with Birman,that is the most likely cause,A liquid cannot be compressed so as the bullet passes over it the liquid either deforms the bullet,is forced into the metal of the barrel or a combination of both.

I have seen a blister like bulge a quarter of an inch high & over half an inch in diameter form on the outside of a friends rifle barrel after he fired it without running a dry patch through it first,he always had it heavily covered with oil.

I always run at least 1 dry patch through the bore before i take a rifle out shooting.

James B, I' ll bet that you had your wad stuck in your barrel, It happens sometimes that the wad will plumb stop on you, while the shot will head on out, sometimes the only noticed difference is the report and crappy velocity, which sometimes isn' t much different at all. Then you chamber a second round, and you bulge your barrel, but the wad isn' t jammed well enough to stay put, so it flys out, and the rest of your second round comes out with it, making you think you didn' t have an obstruction.

Either that or you were shooting loads in your gun that you shouldn' t be, if it were me, I' d be to ashamed to admit to that though too.

LOL, you never shot a reload where there is a " phump" for a report and the shot barely rolls out of the barrel?[&:] Well me neither and that' s the story I' m sticking to.

Thats hilarious Briman!!!!!!!!!!
Hope it never happens to me, though!!




God Bless!