Did I **** up my barrel rifling?

[Spyder]

Bigger Hammer will just copy OPs post and reply one line at a time.
Won't help OP.

[Notpc]

I am very disappointed that someone in this thread hasn't offered to take OP's destroyed barrel off his hands. OP, I am being overly generous, but I will cover shipping if you want to get rid of your ruined barrel. I know, I know, I'm just a kind person.

[Spyder]

Every hardware store in the country has long brass dowels. I typically use them first, before resorting to shortened pieces and a hammer.

Insert it a few inches in to the barrel of the rifle, set the butt of the rifle on the ground, hold barrel near the muzzle, and spike the rod down the barrel. Use the weight of the rod combined with the velocity of your hand, and they'll almost always pop right out. Sometimes I spray a little penetrating oil and let it sit. Brass won't hurt the gun at all. I've got one for 22 and one for up to 30, and one I've used for 444 Marlin. Works great, no damage, cheap, easier than cutting in to little pieces.

[ar15barrels]

Use a wood or dowl.

Do not ever use a wood dowel.
They break off and get stuck in the bore and then people try to drill them out and the drill bit is what damages the rifling the most.

[that one guy]

Stop shooting steel cased ammo out of that expensive rifle

A 2K+ rifle should be able to shoot Steel case.

[that one guy]

I bought this gun bnib. I put less than 500 rounds of Tula through it so far. This is the 4th time this happened in 2 range trips. The first range trip was 2,this one was 2. I’m also getting terrible accuracy from this gun. It looks like I’m shooting bird shot at a 25 yard target.

[that one guy]

BINGO! I don?t care how expensive the gun cost. If it can?t shoot general run of the mill steel ammo, it?s an expensive piece of junk for me. Fail.

Yes big fail. I?m completely disappointed with this gun.

[Zenderfall]

The first range trip was 2,this one was 2. I?m also getting terrible accuracy from this gun. It looks like I?m shooting bird shot at a 25 yard target.

Can you try shooting standard brass-cased ammunition out of that rifle rather than that Russian steel-cased stuff? Those were never meant to be accurate, or reliable. They were made to be cheap and sell....to folks thinking they're getting a great deal.

A 2K+ rifle should be able to shoot Steel case.

It can, but it won't do it well. You'll get case extraction issues and poor accuracy. Not to mention, there's evidence that stuff will dirty up the chambers pretty bad too.
Case in point: People have placed in competitions using budget Del-Tons and handloaded ammo, vs people using LWRC and Daniel Defense rifles shooting Tula, Brown Bear, and (insert another Russian brand here), who will struggle to score in the black zone. Ammunition quality makes about as much difference as the rifle, although it is a combination of all three-rifle, ammo, and shooter.

[that one guy]

What size rod do you guys recommend? My google foo says 5/16

[pacrat]

What size rod do you guys recommend? My google foo says 5/16

You need a better decimal/fraction conversion chart.

5.56 bore is .224"

5/16 rod is .3125"

Fractional equivalent availabe in hardware stores is 3/16" Which is .1875"

Which is one more reason to use steel, like every military in the world has done for over 100 yrs.. Tapping on the end of a 3/16" brass rod. Would be very flexy, transferring very little force to the case.

[Spyder]

You need a better decimal/fraction conversion chart.

5.56 bore is .224"

5/16 rod is .3125"

Fractional equivalent availabe in hardware stores is 3/16" Which is .1875"

Which is one more reason to use steel, like every military in the world has done for over 100 yrs.. Tapping on the end of a 3/16" brass rod. Would be very flexy, transferring very little force to the case.

Try the weight and velocity method I mentioned above, before any tapping. It works very well, almost every time.

[rds95991]

Are the barrels coated inside? It's been several years since I looked mine up so I don't remember. If so, you may have scratched the coating.

[pacrat]

Try the weight and velocity method I mentioned above, before any tapping. It works very well, almost every time.

^^^ Definitely first step before resorting to hammer.

Steel cases stuck in chamber are especially problematic. It is not the steel of the case that sticks. It is the coating applied to the steel to keep it from rusting.

Which is either lacquer or polymer. AKA plastic. Each round fired leaves a bit of coating behind. After numerous rounds, this coating has transferred enough of itself to the chamber to decrease the ID of the chamber. Until cases start to wedge themselves into the chamber.

A tighter, or rougher, chambered rifle will require more frequent cleaning to keep plastic coated, steel cases, from wedging into chamber until extraction failure occurs.

[BrassCase]

Home Depot sells brass rods and they work very well for this.

[ar15barrels]

I bought this gun bnib. I put less than 500 rounds of Tula through it so far. This is the 4th time this happened in 2 range trips. The first range trip was 2,this one was 2. I?m also getting terrible accuracy from this gun. It looks like I?m shooting bird shot at a 25 yard target.

Steel jacket bullets do wear the barrel faster byt 500 rounds shpuld not wear out the barrel enough to dramatically effect the accuracy.
Most tula ammo is steel bullet jackets with a copper flash coating.
Cut a bullet apart and if the core is lead but the jacket is magnetic, then you have the steel jacketed bullets with the copper plating.
That's the stuff that wears barrels faster than traditional copper jacketed lead bullets.

Also, Tula is just not very accurate so try some ammo with good quality bullets and see if groups improve.