Can A Damaged Rifle Crown Still Shoot Accurately?

If you damaged your barrel crown while hunting, would you be confident taking a shot at an animal? Ryan does the unthinkable and destroys his barrel crown to see how it affects his accuracy and point of impact. We also work with some experts to bring the crown back to life. Check out the test and our results in this video!
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[@vettepilot427]

The effects are even more pronounced with a high velocity centerfire cartridge and jacketed bullets. This is also why removing and cleaning your muzzle brake needs to be part of your cleaning routine. We've had customers who thought the barrel was shot out since they lost accuracy but cleaned the gun regularly. However, the brake was never removed as part of the cleaning process and there was buildup between the brake and the crown.

[@vettepilot427]

@LØNGRANGE My opinion is that the buildup on the face of the muzzle changes the profile and shape of the crown, which causes the exact same issues seen here (but happen more slowly). The carbon buildup is not of sufficient mass to affect the harmonics (compared to the barrel and brake weight) but it most certainly changes the profile. For the competitive shooter who’s shooting 200 rnd matches a couple of times per month plus practice, this buildup can happen quickly. It’s also a good idea to pull the brake and retorque. Although the heat is not as intense as a semi-auto, the muzzle device can loosen due to the number of heat cycles. What makes this tough to detect is the device will only be loose when the barrel is hot and tighten up when the barrel is cold. Not every cleaning, but certainly every 500-750 rounds the brake should be removed, cleaned, and torqued.

[@vettepilot427]

@LØNGRANGE Build up will depend on your caliber and load but you def need to keep an eye on it. Carbon lock is the pro shooter's Loctite, but some brakes (Area 419 comes to mind) don't have wrench flats and are often installed hand-tight which isn't enough. 25 ft lbs is perfect. You just want to make sure you're beyond hand tight. We use a small strap wrench for brakes that don't have flats.

[@Zel_eo]

Huh, haven't noticed a change in accuracy from my Surefire 2 port and that thing gets gunky after some suppressor use. Maybe the suppressor blast and heat combo knock all the crud off from the inside or something. Glad I haven't had this issue so far.

[@vettepilot427]

@@Zel_eo The problem occurs between the muzzle of the rifle and the brake or suppressor adapter. If you have a direct thread suppressor, the suppressor is getting gunked up, but chances are the muzzle is not. You can get a lot of buildup at the muzzle before the first port in the brake (or adapter) that won't be removed during a regular bore cleaning. I'm not saying this is a problem everyone has, but it should be considered and checked as part of a cleaning routine.

[@Zel_eo]

@@vettepilot427 It's a Surefire Socom suppressor so it slips over and ratchets to the brake. Carbon get caked on the brake quite often...many a pant legs have seen a gunky black streak down them on accident lol. I'm not saying it isn't something that happens, just that I am surprised after blowing as many rounds off as I have that my unlucky self hasn't had it happen. Taking it off isn't an option for me though as it's rocksett in place with precision shims.

[@fell9654]

The effect is both less than I expected and more than I expected. I've always heard people talk about the effect damage would have, but this is the first time I've seen a direct test of it.

[@urgamecshk]

How can you think both

[@blantant]

Poi shift was way more than anyone would expect. Spread was bad but better than expected imo

[@brentrasmussen2440]

You my friend have a fun job! Always heard it said that damage could impact grouping, but never been willing to sacrifice a barrel to test it.

[@SixOFord]

Is protecting the crown important ? Yes, I believe so. Is it as fragile as some would have you believe ? I don't think so. I read a good article one time titled "The Imperfect Crown" I can't remember if it was on long range hunting or where it was but they hacksawed a 300winmag from 26" down to 16" an inch at a time and shot it for velocity. What surprised them the most was that it would still group even with the imperfect crown. It was a good read.

[@uzbekistanimale]

I suspect it probably has a much bigger effect on low pressure bullets like .22 than it does on high pressure like 300 win mag or 308

[@SixOFord]

@@uzbekistanimale That would be interesting to see.

[@WayStedYou]

Never thought it would change the impacts that much

[@johnstewart2011]

Another excellent report based on an actual test. Thanks.

[@SaneAsylum]

Something many people miss is the fact that gasses are expelled before and after the bullet leaves the barrel at velocities higher than the bullet's velocity. The flow of those gasses if irregular will most definitely create instability in bullet flight. That is probably the primary factor in normally damaged muzzles rather than the bore being disrupted (which does not occur that much).

[@oldfatcrabxx]

I literally cringed... 😂

[@workhardplayhard801]

Same here🫨😖🫣

[@EpikArms]

Awesome video Ryan!

[@copperkai]

Hah. Was doing a ton of reading about rifle crown last night. Glad to see this video this morning.

[@johnknouse8846]

What the hell is a “C Zed”? Damn Canadians!!😂

[@Sagittariustoo]

I put a Hellfire Match muzzle brake on my Vudoo mostly to protect the crown but it looks cool too. 😎

[@R5308]

I'm curious to see what the bullet looks like after saver crown damage, by shooting the first bullet in water. Then examine to see the effects on the rifled surface.

[@jjsingh3379]

Can you do a swinging recoil test between bolt and semi-auto 308?

[@robertjackson1407]

Thank you 😊

[@magpiemagpie6607]

Cool experiments, keep going it is interesting and useful. Thanks.

[@bigwestreviews4933]

Yall should redo this with a sporter/hunting barrel and a centerfire rifle caliber.

[@sopsitos]

I would like to see a re-do of the test with aggressive cleaning/poor cleaning rod handling.

[@Longshothawk]

Now do centerfire

[@aaronunterseher1627]

Video/testing suggestion Seating depth vs 30 round groups Hornady did a podcast about it, and now im curious... Set up Testing BTO from a known point out 2 thousands at a time and at each adjustment of BTO testing 30 shot groups in a saddle of some sort... Theory is that even a 10k rifle stops being a 1 moa rifle when you fire enough rounds to complete the group and record to overal error

[@jerryzwolen5125]

Would have loved to see they re-chamfer the crown with a hand drill and test prior to the full gunsmith re-crown.

[@ryanmclean3326]

We actually did try but could not get the alignment rod down the barrel because we had roles the edge over so much. I can say they do work pretty good with minimal damage

[@bille5399]

​​@@ryanmclean3326 I'm not sure who but someone makes an at home crowning system. You should try that one. Also, try larger caliber guns please Dave Manson is the name

[@jerryzwolen5125]

@@ryanmclean3326 Awesome thanks!

[@ryanmclean3326]

The Manson crowning tool is what we tried to use and colud not.

[@bille5399]

@@ryanmclean3326 bummer. I've gotten it to work but was always worried that the crown wasn't perfectly square. Could you guys maybe try that on a larger one and see? I'm sure you have more tooling than I do. I'll help if you're around southern Utah.

[@centurionware]

I've a 5.56, very cheaply made. Poor steel in the barrel, metal fatigued after the first 200 rounds. I lost a chip of steel from the crown. Went from 1 MOA to 6 just like that.

[@fattigla]

Oh my gosh dropping that nice rifle was so hard to watch!

[@Bassguy17]

How do it with a center-fire and show the results.

[@2967575]

Man my heart got damaged on every swing that barrel took

[@JohnDoeTheTroll]

So, my take on this is drop your gun crown first to improve your grouping. To be honest my heart skipped a beat every time you released it... 😂

[@InternationalBarrels]

After the punch went in we couldn't even pin it. So we had to trim the muzzle back .25" or so to get back to undamaged bore. :)

[@beverlychmelik5504]

How about simulating a worn muzzle from years of cleaning?

[@adambach2205]

this hurts me physically. I mean, damage the stock CZ barrel but not an IBI.

[@eggbert191]

This level of violence against a loved one will give me life long nightmares

[@sonnyburnett2417]

1:33 - sweet move.

[@workhardplayhard801]

I would have liked to see how much cleaning through the the muzzle end effects the performance. I've always been told to enter through the breach or risk damaging the 👑

[@jasonrad9332]

Painful to watch but useful info. Thanks.

[@shawncoey637]

Seeing this makes me wonder what effect painting a barrel has on accuracy, specifically painting the crown. That would be a cool follow up to this video.

[@randylahey2242]

painting will affect the harmonics of you barrel. It could be negligible, it could make it better, it could make it worse. As the finish wears it will also affect the harmonics

[@urgamecshk]

@@randylahey2242 overthinking it

[@randylahey2242]

@@urgamecshk for hunting and plinking? sure it wont matter, but for fclass and getting the absolute most precision out of your rifle then yes it potentially will make a measurable difference. A rubber band alone will affect how your barrel shoots. That's why barrel tuners work. If you cerakote a tuning fork it's going to affect its operation. A barrel is no different.

[@IDGAF56852]

​@@randylahey2242 exactly. Nothing should be touching the barell from the lands to the crown if you don't want to compromise accuracy over long distances. Every single object of matter has a frequency and harmonics,if the frequency is interupted in anyway the harmonics is affected. I have five firearms,all rifles and the only thing that is touching the barrels on my rifles is the muzzle breaks that i have attatched to the factory threads.

[@aaronwalser438]

That is good information. I watched a video that someone was talking about cleaning with a bore brush can damage the crown of the barrel. Mainly regards, leaving the muzzle and pulling back into the barrel. I am wondering your thoughts on this...

[@MDTTAC]

It took a fair amount of direct damage to the crown, but with any process, you need to do what feels best for you.

[@anotheryoutuber_]

@@MDTTAC or with what the data says.... waiting on a video

[@JusticeFreedomDestin]

Would be interesting to see how much damage and shift occurs during a horrible cleaning, like you draw out a bore snake or brass cleaning rod poorly

[@rodvan-zeller6360]

Even more interesting, ballistic gel at close range with damaged crown.

[@0Asterite0]

those "fliers" are just part of the normal spread

[@briansupermag3918]

That literally hurt me to watch That. 😢

[@leb900]

What action is this ?

[@aaronunterseher1627]

I wanna work for MDT just for this job... Break something and see what happens and record it..... try not to hurt yourself okay bye

[@littlehills739]

re do with hand crown reamer ?

[@rbm6184]

Can A Damaged Rifle Crown Still Shoot Accurately? My Heritage Arms Rough Rider revolver had a marred muzzle crown brand new from the factory and no it did not shoot accurately. The bore rifling edge or lands at the crown was damaged. It shot like a shotgun pattern. It would not shoot a bullet group. How severe the damage of the lands are will dictate how little or how big a shift in its point of impact. I did a crown job on it to remove the damage and level or even the muzzle edge and it groups great now. I essentially ground the muzzle down until the damage was ground away and the crown was even or level. Two ways to do it. A round brass bolt head and valve grinding compound as a drill bit chucked in a drill is one way. I opted for a Dremel with a round stone or cone stone and touched it once or twice. Then I lightly sanded with fine grit sand paper, cleaned it, and reblued the crown.

[@CanadianTexaninLiguria]

Pointing the barrel at your face - genius

[@Yeoman7]

The status of his rifle was confirmed, don’t be THAT guy.

[@slightenigma]

Is there a simple way of cleaning up a crown at home? The trip to the gunsmith normally has a turn around of eternity

[@amorton94]

I've heard of using brass screws and some lapping compound to fix up a crown. I believe Midway and Brownells also have dedicated brass tools available to do the same thing.

[@Baconaughts]

Brownells sells a 79 degree muzzle crowning cutter, for use with a muzzle pilot.

[@urgamecshk]

Brass nipple in a drill with compound. Facing a barrel on a lathe takes like 4 minutes

[@conservativesniperhunter7439]

I have heard some older gentlemen say that you can use your brass case mouth chamfer tool.

[@tamisthewizard3199]

I figured it would make it shoot in the wrong spot but it would be consistent since it's striking incorrectly in the same place but no, you now have a very ineffective shotgun

[@itsthorondil7608]

"It's a C-Zed" Huh. Don't near people say Zed for the letter Z very often

[@pyeitme508]

Wow

[@precisionriflereviews2029]

Am I the only one that wanted the last test to yield I really tight group 😅😂😂

[@MohsenEbrahimian-rx5iq]

Please make a chassis for mauser 98

[@josipcro]

This hurts just looking at you putting damage on your firearms 😳

[@jimjab3631]

Let's try a copper brush and be rough with it, not chisel the crown

[@bilboswaggens2975]

Answering the questions nobody asked 😂

[@patrickgjorven7832]

Everyone's face when he dropped it 😣

[@inrangerimfire20two]

Many cringe moments and near tears watching this video. Next time a warning would be welcomed, lol. Informative as usual guys!

[@martinmcgee9159]

Just zero it. Point of aim to point of impact 😂lol

[@vahag3999]

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

So, one solution it's to have an interchangeable crown :)

[@ImNoBSING]

Test torquing muzzle device too tight

[@jeffledoux5439]

The crown is the last thing the bullet touches...huge impact on accuracy

[@shammym4294]

So what he proved first.... dropping barrels on cement will tighten your group significantly 😂

[@carniv0rous]

Bruh

[@tiputipu777]

You are actually not damaging the crown, you are damaging the bore. Damages to the crown (which protects the bore and rifling) generally does nothing. If I recall speedys most accurate barrel was uncrowned because he forgot to do it before barreled his f-class gun.

[@Theprezzzident]

🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@dieselfrk13]

Whistlendiesel of firearms?

[@PewPewNomNom]

This is so painful to watch

[@BuckFoeJiden]

This video made me angry. 🤣

[@3006USMC]

You guys do all the tests everyone else is afraid to do. Keep the cringe vids coming!

[@BallisticsCanada]

not much makes me cringe....watching this beauty get dropped like that....ouf

[@ARTENSASS]

Fuuuuuuuuck😳

[@fci501]

Nothing unexpected

[@cecilandrews7479]

Testing a 22?🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 why didn't you go ahead and test the Daisy Red Ryder as well.

[@johnl5974]

made me cringe to watch.