New Crown

[Rifleman]

I decided that it was time to do the crown on the 5.7 HRA. It has a MW of .5 but shoots terrible and will only hold the 7 ring...sometimes. I have tried everything else to make it shoot with no luck so we will see how this works out. The tool I used is the M1 Garand Three-Faceted (1964) Crown Tool from Pacific Tool and Gauge. Here are the before and after. I will post a range report next week.

307before.jpg307crown.jpg

[nf1e]

Looks pretty nice.
Have been using the Dave Manson crowing kit for a few years. Makes a significant difference it the crown was bad.

Semper Fi
Art

[bruce]

Just found this post. Will follow thread with interest. Sincerely. bruce.

[Rifleman]

Art I have looked at the Dave Manson crowning kit and it is on my wish list for sure. Bruce I'll hit the range Wednesday, if not then Thursday for sure.

[leftyo]

with how that original looked, im guessing you made an improvement.

[Sunray]

A pretty crown isn't going to fix an accuracy issue. Far more to accuracy than the crown. And that one doesn't look bad. How's the trigger, sights and bedding?
"...the 7 ring..." On which target?

[Rifleman]

The target is a SR1 @100 yards. The rifle has received the works trying to correct the issue including a parts swap with another rifle to no avail. Well, it has a new crown now so we will know the answer to that for sure tomorrow or Thursday.

[Rifleman]

Ok...Today I was able to make it to the range a test the new crown with one change in the plan. I had a second rifle that was not a very good shooter so I decided to do the crown on it also. I did not think that it would be fair to only do one rifle then give a report if the results where negligible or made it worse.
So the rifle that started this post (HRA 5709150) now shoots a 2-3/4" group. As mentioned above it was wild and as I was re-cutting the crown I could see that the muzzle was not square which explains why it was throwing bullets wildly to the left. It has it's factory SA barrel which was surprising to me, I would not expect that from SA.

HRA 5709307 was next. Before it was re-crowned it would shoot a 5" group with a crazy flyer every few shots, a poor shooter for sure. But it had a MW of 1.5 and a bright bore and original HRA barrel and like 150 I had done everything I could think of to get it to shoot. It now shoots a sub MOA group, shocking. Both where fired using a bench rest @ 100 yards using SR1 targets.

Really what is there to say, I had two terrible shooters, did a re-crown and now they are ready to shoot a match. The results speak for themselves and it is very easy to do. I have been into M1's for 25 years but this is the first time I have done a re-crown and frankly that was a mistake. Only someone with a very keen eye would ever be able to tell it was done. I am planning to do a couple more M1's and I'll take pics along the way and do a post on that so you can see how easy it is to do and that the process is really fool proof.

P.S. Ammo used was PPU.

t4.jpgt3 (1).jpg

[nf1e]

You have learned one of the simplest ways to improve most rifles accuracy. Sometimes, all that it takes is a simple nick in the crown of a barrel to throw things off.
Even the rounded edge that happens in time to all crowns is easily cleaned up to, better than issued condition at times.

Semper Fi
Art

[togor]

Another reason to like flash hiders on the newer models.

[Rifleman]

Art I wish I would have listened a long time ago....

[PA28R200]

On the recrowning I have done, including match grade barrels, I chuck them in a lathe and use a single point tool to cut them.
They are in a four jaw chuck, are indicated to .0005 then cut.
Works great this way.

[leftyo]

You have learned one of the simplest ways to improve most rifles accuracy. Sometimes, all that it takes is a simple nick in the crown of a barrel to throw things off.
Even the rounded edge that happens in time to all crowns is easily cleaned up to, better than issued condition at times.

Semper Fi
Art

agree. i have even seen 1911 barrels recrowned that looked pretty good to the eye, and it made a signifigant difference.

[bruce]

Re: Range Results. Simply outstanding! So very glad the crowning job gave such very good results! Sincerely. bruce.

[snakehunter]

You have learned one of the simplest ways to improve most rifles accuracy. Sometimes, all that it takes is a simple nick in the crown of a barrel to throw things off.
Even the rounded edge that happens in time to all crowns is easily cleaned up to, better than issued condition at times.

Semper Fi
Art

I have a Savage Tactic that shoots .5moa. 2yrs ago the groups opened up to 1.1 so I had it re-crowned and it went back to .5 The problem was an almost invisible nick.