Check Your Crown’s Condition with a Q-Tip
The last half-inch or so of your barrel is absolutely critical. Any damage (or abnormal wear) near the crown will cause a significant drop-off in accuracy. Here are ways you can check the end of your barrel, using a common Q-Tip.
Use Q-Tip for Barrel Inspection
To find out if you have a burr or damage to your crown, you can use an ordinary Q-tip cotton swab. Check the edges of the crown by pulling the Q-tip gently out past the edge of the crown. If you have a burr, it will “grab” the cotton and leave strands behind.
Larry Willis has another way to use a Q-Tip: “Here’s a neat trick that will surprise you with how well it works.” Just insert a Q-Tip into your barrel (like the picture below), and it will reflect enough light so that you can get a real good look at the last half inch of rifling and the crown of your barrel. In most cases you’ll find that this works much better than a flashlight. Larry tells us: “I’ve used this method about a jillion times. Q-Tips are handy to keep in your cleaning supplies anyway. This is a good way to judge approximately how well you are cleaning your barrel when you’re at the range. It’s also the best way to examine your barrel when you’re in the field.”
Larry Willis is the inventor of Innovative Technologies’ Belted Magnum Collet Resizing Die. Larry explains how this die works, and offers other reloading tips on LarryWillis.com.
Similar Posts:
- Use a Q-Tip to Check Muzzle and Crown Condition
- How to Inspect Your Barrel Crown with a Q-Tip
- Inspection Method for Your Barrel Crown
- Handy Small Magnifiers Aid Many Reloading Tasks
- Handy Magnifiers Help Old Eyes with Reloading Tasks
Tags: Barrel, Cotton Swab, Crown, Larry Willis, Muzzle, Q-tip, Reloading
Another thing you can do is push a patch on a jag to within 1-2 inches of the muzzle. Any light shined in then will reflect evenly off the rifling and show copper or other issues.
Used this just a little less than a jillion times, couldn’t help the jag (pun?) Larry and by the way your products are great! Great tip!
While I agree that this is a useful piece of knowledge, I’ll add that we have seen crowns that were bad that would pass the Q Tip test. This has been especially true in barrels with barrels that have had a fair amount of shooting. It seems that the shooting and cleaning might round off burrs (eventually) but there can still be problems from improper crowning.
+1 to what John says. Also over time the crown will wear just from the gas cutting effect of the powder. That’s why I don’t like a basically flat crown right at the edge of the bore. Cut a chamfer at the edge of the bore in addition to what ever style of crown you use (flat style, 11 degree, stepped recess or sporter etc…)