Cold Bore Shift???

Okieman

New member
I have built a custom 22 creedmoor and im gettin a cold bore shift. Custom Bartlien barrel MDT chassis Impact action all the bells and whistles. I have approx 225 rounds threw it. Hand loads hornady 75eldms with hodgdon superformunce powder. Im am consistently gettin a 1 inch shift in the 1st shot versus a tight group after that. I have cleaned the barrel multiple times and have removed the action from the stock and reinstalled. Still same shift.

What should I try to fix this or is the cold bore shift a real thing???
 
I have no idea how to prevent that.

I have a couple dozen rifles and NONE of them do that. I won't own a rifle that has a legitimate and consistent CB shift. I believe not too long ago there was a similar thread on here about the same topic where I posted picture after picture of targets from my issued rifle's data book and pictures of my own rifles shooting nice groups that included the BCS.

IMO, some rifles do, some don't. None of mine do and I'd send any that did down the road.

Best of luck figuring it out.

ETA- this includes mostly AR15 and AR10 platform rifles where the rounds are magazine fed.
 
"cold bore shift a real thing" yes, a real thing but not for all rifles. If hunting, compensate for it. Target shooters usually do a sighter to clear it.
edit; the lockeze may work. The first 'sighter' supposedly carboned the bore.
 
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Clean or 50 rounds threw gettin same shift...
Not sure what to tell you, might just be the nature of the beast.

A long time ago when I shot Benchrest, there was a time when I and others would put a few drops of Lockeze on a patch & push it through the bore after cleaning. The carrier would dry, leaving a film of graphite in the bore, & impact shift was mostly nonexistent.

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Not sure what to tell you, might just be the nature of the beast.

A long time ago when I shot Benchrest, there was a time when I and others would put a few drops of Lockeze on a patch & push it through the bore after cleaning. The carrier would dry, leaving a film of graphite in the bore, & impact shift was mostly nonexistent.

View attachment 31200

For years and years I used Greg Tannel's stuff, which is the same principle. Since I ran out of it a long time ago, I've been using Lock-Ease on every rifle, every cleaning. All I can say for sure is that it doesn't hurt.

- DAA
 
I finish cleaning with one or 2 wet patches of Hornady one shot cleaner/lube( not case lube). It is an excellent rust/corrosion prevention and dries to a film, this will reduce cold bore poi shifts. Wet lube left in the bore will make first shot shift larger, as pressure and/or velocity is different than your tuned load. You probably should do something very simple, run a dry patch though the bore before the cold bore without changing anything else. Stress relieving is what is supposed to reduce/eliminate cold bore shift in premium barrels. I believe load tuning is a bigger issue with a shift and the slight warming of the barrel alters the tune.
 
For years and years I used Greg Tannel's stuff, which is the same principle. Since I ran out of it a long time ago, I've been using Lock-Ease on every rifle, every cleaning. All I can say for sure is that it doesn't hurt.

- DAA
You're right, I never saw a downside. I don't recall what my clean/cold shots were though, which really wasn't an issue anyway as you could play on the sighter all you wanted before going to the record group.

Once I adopted the Neco process for impact plating moly bullets, I abandoned the Lock-Ease ritual. After cleaning, I do put a couple three drops of Kroil on a patch & run it through a couple times, & a clean/cold shot will kill anything I aim at for quite a ways.
 
Once I adopted the Neco process for impact plating moly bullets, I abandoned the Lock-Ease ritual.
Alf, are you still using the Neco process?

I used Neco long enough to wear out one barrel shooting NRA XTC matches and abandoned it as it failed to increase barrel life, which was why I chose to use it. Couldn't see any difference w/or without moly. It did reduce friction as advertised as evidenced by the fact that it took a bit more powder to reach the same velocities of non-moly. Don't doubt the claim that you could shoot more rounds before accuracy loss due to fouling but I always cleaned thoroughly after all matches. Most rounds shot on a weekend of match shooting being 260 rounds or so.
 
I do put a couple three drops of Kroil on a patch & run it through a couple times, & a clean/cold shot will kill anything I aim at for quite a ways.
Kroil is my goto barrel treatment after cleaning and in between groups when testing loads.
I've had builds that I just couldn't eliminate the CB shift and ended up parting out the rifles.
Ok to have CB shift in a target rifle, but not for me in a hunting rifle.
SJC
 
Alf, are you still using the Neco process?

I used Neco long enough to wear out one barrel shooting NRA XTC matches and abandoned it as it failed to increase barrel life, which was why I chose to use it. Couldn't see any difference w/or without moly. It did reduce friction as advertised as evidenced by the fact that it took a bit more powder to reach the same velocities of non-moly. Don't doubt the claim that you could shoot more rounds before accuracy loss due to fouling but I always cleaned thoroughly after all matches. Most rounds shot on a weekend of match shooting being 260 rounds or so.
Yes, I still moly plate virtually everything I shoot.

I remember the 1st claims of moly plating like longer barrel life, accuracy, & BC improvements, among others, but in reality, the only benefit I see is the ability to shoot longer w/o cleaning w/o losing accuracy. And I'm talking Benchrest accuracy with my 600/1000 yard competition rifles.

Imma fan with no downside.
 
Thanks for the reply, Alf. That was my conclusion as well. Since I always cleaned after every match, my main goal was to stretch my barrels out a bit longer and I did not find that moly did that.
 
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