4065

[BangPop]

After 4065 rounds and 12 years, I pulled the barrel on my .17 Mach IV and tossed her in the trash can. Shilen did themselves proud on the day they made that one with stellar accuracy and never a hint of copper fouling. I've known for a couple of years it was on it's way down the drain so I ordered another blank just like it and chambered it up 18 months ago and put it back in the tube to wait it's turn. I was able to get out and shoot the new barrel yesterday and it is most definitely a winner. Only time will tell if it has that killer accuracy that the first barrel had. It has some big shoes to fill. Rifle specs are, early 1960's 40-x action that I trued and a McMillan Classic stock with a Shilen match 10 twist.

[ChrisA]

Rest in peace old Shilen barrel; thou shall not be forgotten.

[trotterlg]

Probably wasted a good barrel, just cut a 17-204 in it and start over. Larry

[BangPop]

Sorry, my bore scope says not in a million years. It was a smooth bore for about an inch and a half. I would have had to rechamber to .17-06 or something of that length to get back to some rifling. She was truly good and gone. I noticed the first "blue streak" of a failing jacket about 400 rounds ago. About 1 in 10 shots would do that at that time. The last day I shot it in a dog town every shot was damaging the jacket and leaving a trail all the way to the target. Surprisingly the accuracy was still good enough to hit P-dogs at about 200 yards. It was a #4 taper barrel so there was not enough shank length to set it back far enough to make any difference. I set back my .223 AI last year 2 inches but it's a 7 taper with 5 inches of shank length. Shilen is still in business and making good .17 barrels, so a new one was the only way to go. I actually didn't toss it, but gave it to a friend of mine to use. He has an AR platform .22 RF that he plans to cut the center out of my old barrel and make a .17 M2. He only needs a .625 shank diameter to make it work. There is lots of good rifling left that far forward in that barrel.

[Kevin Gullette]

Sounds about right.

At about 4000 rounds, my old 40XBR Shilen 17 Javelina barrel had lost 7" of rifling.......throwing/streaking shots.

In the re-build I went back with a stainless Pac-Nor SuperMatch 3 groove, 9" twist, 27" long(very heavy)barrel.

Then there was.....the new stock, new scope, new trigger, "bushed-down" boltface/firing pin............

Kevin

[nvreloader]

Bang Pop

If you still have the shot out bbl, and want to sell it, drop me a pm,

I use OLD shot out bbl's to make gages for all my 17's etc.

Tia,
Don

[montdoug]

Keep us posted how it goes for ya and here's hoping it out shoots the last one! The .17 MachIV doesn't get talked about here much any more but it was my favorite sub .22 caliber round for a long time and still as good as they get IMO.

[BangPop]

Don, You would have been welcome to the barrel but I donated it to a friend to use on another project. He has some kind of a .22 on an AR platform that he wanted to chamber up a .17 M2 barrel for. I've not seen the thing but he tells me it has a .625 thread and only needs 16 inches of barrel so he will do something with it (in about 10 years if I know him). I have lots of shot out barrels but nothing smaller than .22 rimfire. I use the steel for pillars, gauges and other sorted small parts.

Doug, I share your thoughts on the MachIV. It is a splendid cartridge. I have never posted some of the groups the old barrel shot when it was fresh for fear of being called a fraud. That rifle barrel was literally off the chart accuracy wise. Berger offered their 22 grain bullet then and it would shoot those into groups <.100. I never dreamed a .17 could shoot like that. Picky as hello with the seating depth, but when you got it right it was magic. I like what I see so far with the new barrel but have to do a bit of tuning to really see what it has to offer.