Muzzle & Throat wear using 30-06?

[calnhob]

Hi, this has probably been answered but I did a search and couldn't find anything.

I've seen people comment on muzzle and throat wear using 1+, 2+, etc. I've also seen people put a 30-06 round in the barrel to show muzzle wear. How does it work? Can you do it for throat wear and what's an acceptable number? This is regarding Garands, M1903, 1917 Enfield, etc.



Thanks

[Remus]

I don't have any experience to contribute, but out of curiosity I did stumble on this:

http://www.fulton-armory.com/%5Cfaqs%5CM14-FAQs%5CTEGauge.htm

[Jeff L]

I would think the ME to be more important since thats the last part to touch the bullet as it leaves the barrel. The lower the number, the better. When using a round in the muzzle the more copper you see, the better. If it goes all the way to the brass, the barrel is worn out.
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Another factor is pitting. If you look down the bore and has pitting, chances are it's seen some corrosive ammo.

[Sailormilan2]

Muzzle wear was important, since that is what steers the bullet. Since the Garand was cleaned from the muzzle, they tended to get "worn" more than the others you mentioned. As the numbers get higher, that indicates a more worn barrel, and the possibility that accuracy will suffer. However, I have heard of Garands with 5+ on the muzzle shooting well. I have received Garands with muzzles in the 7+ range, and I didn't even try to shoot them. Besides the simple wear factor, barrels often got worn off center, which also causes problems.
Using an M2 Ball round, stick the bullet into the muzzle. An MW of 1 should have about 1/4" showing between the muzzle and the case neck. I just tested a barrel to confirm this.
Throat Wear is based on actual bullet wear and gas erosion. Anything over about a 5 could cause accuracy issues. New USGI barrels could have TEs in the 1 - 2 range. IIRC, I read once that some wartime made USGI Garand barrels could be as high as 3 when new, but I've slept since then and could be wrong. Commercially made barrels usually have a bit tighter tolerences.
You need an actual gauge to read TE.
Because of the jointed steel cleaning rods that were often used, I have seen barrels with higher MWs than TEs, meaning they were cleaned a lot more than they were shot.
High TEs and MWs does not mean that your rifle will not shoot well, but it was a way for the military to guage how much life was left in a barrel. Figure roughly 1500 for each number on the TE. However, shooting very rapidily, as the military often did with "suppressing fire" would wear out a barrel very quickly as throat erosion increases as the barrel metal heats up. One can burn out a barrel quickly during high volume fire.

[calnhob]

Wow, sailormailan2, that was pretty informative. Thanks.


http://www.fulton-armory.com/%5Cfaqs...%5CTEGauge.htm good read