Posted about how my 1895SBL didn't shoot cast well and that I was going to lap my bore with a Beartooth kit. With Oregon Trail 350 grain bullets I was getting hits all over the place, like 12" groups. So I lapped my barrel and brought it back out to the range with the same loading I had trouble with before. Hmmmm... Same thing. BVAC's 400 grain JSP load has always shot well in my rifle, so I tried that, just to see. Same bad groups. Uh-oh I thought, I ruined my barrel by lapping it! Then it occured to me that I had never fired cast bullets without the scope on there because I was doing load testing. You know the feeling when it seems like if anyone were looking at you they'd see the comic book light bulb pop up above your head?
Took the NCStar 2.5X scout scope off and went back to the ghost ring sights and voila, good groups! Go figure! So I guess in the course of shooting those 400 grainers at high velocity I beat my scope to death. It worked for 120 rounds or so, I guess that's all I can expect from a $40 scope. Oh well, I'll be sending it in for replacement.
I guess I'll never know whether or not my rifle would have done fine with cast to start with, but I would think it would have, same as everyone else's seems to. I suppose the rifle is no worse off for having been lapped, it's easier to get clean now anyway. The groups with the known good load shoot the same as before, so I'm happy either way, but could have saved some steps.
One thing to come out of this is that feeling the need to lap my rifle finally got me to get in touch with Marshall Stanton of Beartooth. Great guy to deal with and since I was ordering the kit anyway I ordered the Piledriver Lite 350's, they've been excellent. I'll be ordering from him in the future. In a round about kind of way NCStar's scope failing turned out to be a good thing.
Took the NCStar 2.5X scout scope off and went back to the ghost ring sights and voila, good groups! Go figure! So I guess in the course of shooting those 400 grainers at high velocity I beat my scope to death. It worked for 120 rounds or so, I guess that's all I can expect from a $40 scope. Oh well, I'll be sending it in for replacement.
I guess I'll never know whether or not my rifle would have done fine with cast to start with, but I would think it would have, same as everyone else's seems to. I suppose the rifle is no worse off for having been lapped, it's easier to get clean now anyway. The groups with the known good load shoot the same as before, so I'm happy either way, but could have saved some steps.
One thing to come out of this is that feeling the need to lap my rifle finally got me to get in touch with Marshall Stanton of Beartooth. Great guy to deal with and since I was ordering the kit anyway I ordered the Piledriver Lite 350's, they've been excellent. I'll be ordering from him in the future. In a round about kind of way NCStar's scope failing turned out to be a good thing.