Skout .30 Skout EVO SubMOA

[Odin]

Nate,

Did yours have a choke?

Yes, multiple Not in the traditional sense, though.

 

[EDventure]

I hope you get a good one!
what cal did you order?
Mike

30 cal

 

[EDventure]

I tried some additional groups tonight with a dwell of 14ms (the lowest that it would fire). I set the LP at 170-ish, the HP around 1500. I could see the pellets spiraling to the target, some even doing a "left turn" at the target. I had two groups that were decent at about 1", a really good 0.75" group at 845 fps, then a lot of random hits all over the paper, 2" to 3" off at 91 yards. To me, I think @Ballisticboy has it right, all pellets spiral in the real world, just some guns the spiral doesn't get too big due to lack of other "effects".

On the Evo, I believe that it is "blowing" too much air - that is there is a lot of air after the shot. You can tell this from the noise level. My impact, shooting similar speeds is relatively quiet and very accurate (most well tuned impacts are pretty accurate and efficient, just they break too often). Anyway, I believe that this excess air from the Evo disrupts the pellet as it is leaving the muzzle/moderator and gives the skirt a kick in the butt, exacerbating the wobble, which turns into a spiral at 90 yards. It was so bad that one pellet busted out the side of my rubber mulch bucket. So, I am not sure if the barrel is bad or if it is a function of an overly powerful gun. My RAWs also seem to blow a lot of air too and I have accuracy issues with them as well.

On the barrel, most of the central portion of the barrel/rifling was smooth on pushing a pellet through, no tight or restriction spots until I reached the tight choke. However, when skout cut the lead/throat, there was quite a bit of damage/scoring that could be felt with a probe. I really need a bore camera to properly see it, but most of that damage is gone now.

I gauge how good a barrel is by the scoring on pellets pushed through the barrel. On the SubMOA, it looked like 80-grit sandpaper hit the pellet pushed through the choke. After a bit of polishing, the main part of the barrel is smooth, with little damage to the pellet, more of polished surfaces where it ran through the barrel. My cleaning rod stopped short of the choke, so I couldn't polish it yet. However, pushing a pellet through this area out the end of the barrel, there seemed to be quite a bit of scratching. The crown looks good, so I am not sure why there is so much damage in this last section.

I need to pull the barrel and see how the leading looks, but I need to get ready for the World WFTF Championship coming up next week so things are on hold for now.

Dan

This is inexperienced question. Can I use my Dewey cleaning rod to push a pellet through?

 

[Aunsell]

I did, brass brushed, ran patches, ran swabs with JB, ran patches, barrel super clean and smooth. No improvement even after 200 rounds.

Lucky to get 2-to-3-inch groups at 100 yards with AEA 45 grain pellets. Pushed a pellet through with a wooden dowel, has five different areas where I had to push a little harder to get it through. Hard - -light- hard- light, etc... Talked to the Skout guys and am returning the barrel since its obvious (to me) that it's a lemon.

MOST of the SubMOA barrels have been excellent from stories I hear from others. A SubMOA came in 1st and 4th at EBR this year, in an AAA Evol and a Red Wolf. Skout is sending me a .22 SubMOA that they had recently finished machining, hopefully its good with pellets since I already have a few very good sluggers and don't need another. I'm wondering how the .22 SubMOA compares to the optional .22 LW bull barrel that is also available. If you look at the 50Y BR results at EBR, 3 out of the top 12 were Skout airguns, not sure if they were SubMOA or LW...

Well that makes me nervous .
Just got my EVO in this week and have been tinkering with it and getting it dialed in for .177 but I have the 30cal Sub Moa
Hope it’s perfect. Also did the modification of the O-ring in the HP regulator like you did to, so hopefully I’m all set

 

[Motorhead]

This is inexperienced question. Can I use my Dewey cleaning rod to push a pellet through?

Yes, tho make sure the jag tip on end of rod IS NOT wedged into the pellets tail skirt making the feel & push inconsistent ... jags with a patch pin on end that bottoms out in skirt do best.

 

[Aunsell]

What about going over the .30cal barrel with a barrel hone for a 30-06, they have a 400 and an 800 then finish it off with a polishing compound ?

Since it’s a heavy duty steel barrel, it’s probably gonna have to be treated like a rifle barrel as far as keeping it rest free on the inside.

 

[Motorhead]

What about going over the .30cal barrel with a barrel hone for a 30-06, they have a 400 and an 800 then finish it off with a polishing compound ?

Since it’s a heavy duty steel barrel, it’s probably gonna have to be treated like a rifle barrel as far as keeping it rest free on the inside.

Don't know & never heard of a barrel hone ???
Wrong caliber either way as AIR GUNS are .300" and Powder guns such as a .308 are larger at .308"

 

[Aunsell]

Don't know & never heard of a barrel hone ???
Wrong caliber either way as AIR GUNS are .300" and Powder guns such as a .308 are larger at .308"

Well, I ordered a hone just to see if it even fits.
I can always return it Amazon .
In any case I could be a lucky one and my barrel is perfect .
I’m just planning ahead…. Maybe a little too much lol.

Here’s the link

https://a.co/d/2UN0K63

 

[Davec107]

Well, I ordered a hone just to see if it even fits.
I can always return it Amazon .
In any case I could be a lucky one and my barrel is perfect .
I’m just planning ahead…. Maybe a little too much lol.

Here’s the link

https://a.co/d/2UN0K63

Don't use that in the barrel, they are made for cleaning up firearm chambers(the area where the casing goes) not for barrels. I see they use them in shotgun barrels, but those are smooth bore.

Dave

 

[Aunsell]

Don't use that in the barrel, they are made for cleaning up firearm chambers(the area where the casing goes) not for barrels. I see they use them in shotgun barrels, but those are smooth bore.

Dave

Yeah the more I think about it the more it sounds to aggressive…. Returning !

 

[Aunsell]

Here’s an interesting read. I just found on sub the Sub MOA barrels.
Looks like they have only been making them since May of 2024. So I’m sure they will have some learning and refining to do as the company grows and improves on their process and learns their machines. I’m sure as their experience grows their stuff will get better and better.
I also saw that they do not choke their barrels.

Sub-MOA Barrels - Exclusive First Report - Hard Air Magazine

Sub-MOA Barrels is a new phenomenon in the airgun world. It’s a company established to create barrels for the highest quality air rifles.

hardairmagazine.com

 

[Chuck26287]

The HAM article indicates that consumers will be able to buy barrels directly from Sub-MOA. Did anyone do that? Until reading that I assumed everyone indicating they had purchased or were waiting for their delivery of a Sub-MOA barrel had purchased it from Skout. I assumed that would be the only way to get one, as I assumed Skout bought the rifled barrels, then did final assembly, adding the Skout platform-specific hardware to the final barrel configuration to operate on a Skout rifle.

I also found it interesting that the HAM article stated:

"In Sub-MOA’s impressive machine shop, all the major machines are computer-controlled. A critical machine is a deep hole drill and reamer. Then there’s a hone, a rifling machine, a finish machine and, finally, a lapping machine to produce a superb mirror surface in the bore."

In my opinion, that definitely indicates this is a top-tier barrel that should require ZERO bore finishing work once received by the end user. This is worth every penny spent, provided it actually arrives as this article describes it. However, it seems there is some discrepancy in their QC to go out the door.

 

[Aunsell]

The HAM article indicates that consumers will be able to buy barrels directly from Sub-MOA. Did anyone do that? Until reading that I assumed everyone indicating they had purchased or were waiting for their delivery of a Sub-MOA barrel had purchased it from Skout. I assumed that would be the only way to get one, as I assumed Skout bought the rifled barrels, then did final assembly, adding the Skout platform-specific hardware to the final barrel configuration to operate on a Skout rifle.

I also found it interesting that the HAM article stated:

"In Sub-MOA’s impressive machine shop, all the major machines are computer-controlled. A critical machine is a deep hole drill and reamer. Then there’s a hone, a rifling machine, a finish machine and, finally, a lapping machine to produce a superb mirror surface in the bore."

In my opinion, that definitely indicates this is a top-tier barrel that should require ZERO bore finishing work once received by the end user. This is worth every penny spent, provided it actually arrives as this article describes it. However, it seems there is some discrepancy in their QC to go out the door.

Which also means if it’s not a mirror polish that’s grounds to send it back and get it swapped out

 

[CanMike]

The HAM article indicates that consumers will be able to buy barrels directly from Sub-MOA. Did anyone do that? Until reading that I assumed everyone indicating they had purchased or were waiting for their delivery of a Sub-MOA barrel had purchased it from Skout. I assumed that would be the only way to get one, as I assumed Skout bought the rifled barrels, then did final assembly, adding the Skout platform-specific hardware to the final barrel configuration to operate on a Skout rifle.

I also found it interesting that the HAM article stated:

"In Sub-MOA’s impressive machine shop, all the major machines are computer-controlled. A critical machine is a deep hole drill and reamer. Then there’s a hone, a rifling machine, a finish machine and, finally, a lapping machine to produce a superb mirror surface in the bore."

In my opinion, that definitely indicates this is a top-tier barrel that should require ZERO bore finishing work once received by the end user. This is worth every penny spent, provided it actually arrives as this article describes it. However, it seems there is some discrepancy in their QC to go out the door.

This is basically the marketing and in this thread we have reality. In this case there seems to be a rather large disparity between what marketing says you get and what is actually sent.

If any of that article is true they would have never sent the barrels this way.

What’s more surprising is that Skout sent these out. You would think they would test fire these at range.

This is very bizarre.

 

[Aunsell]

This is basically the marketing and in this thread we have reality. In this case there seems to be a rather large disparity between what marketing says you get and what is actually sent.

If any of that article is true they would have never sent the barrels this way.

What’s more surprising is that Skout sent these out. You would think they would test fire these at range.

This is very bizarre.

I know they do test fire this stuff … or at least most of the time if you order it at the time you get the gun. I wonder if the one that he won on that orange gun was from one of their first batches.
I’m just trying to convince myself that when I get mine, it’s going to be perfect.

 

[manabeknives]

I have polished steels from 60 grit to a 1500 grit to get a fine polish on knives that i have made
The picture that Odin showed of the bore are a machining scratches ..no refined polishing was done there
and no way would i call that a mirror polish
Mike

 

[DrPutz]

So, curosity got the better of me. I pulled the barrel off my Skout to see how the SubMOA .30 was doing from a cleaning standpoint. There was not too much leading in most of the bore. I re-ran some polishing patches through with a longer cleaning rod. I could not feel the choke area with the polishing patches, which I really should based on other barrels I have polished. When I pushed the pellet through, I could still feel what appeared to be a choke. In pushing a pellet from the muzzle end, after the tightness section, the pellet had an even push - not loose like it should with a choke. Anyway, I think this "choke" section is just a rough patch in the barrel. I have a borescope on the way to look at it better.

Dan

 

[Motorhead]

So, curosity got the better of me. I pulled the barrel off my Skout to see how the SubMOA .30 was doing from a cleaning standpoint. There was not too much leading in most of the bore. I re-ran some polishing patches through with a longer cleaning rod. I could not feel the choke area with the polishing patches, which I really should based on other barrels I have polished. When I pushed the pellet through, I could still feel what appeared to be a choke. In pushing a pellet from the muzzle end, after the tightness section, the pellet had an even push - not loose like it should with a choke. Anyway, I think this "choke" section is just a rough patch in the barrel. I have a borescope on the way to look at it better.

Dan

Pushing a pellet is more telling as to a choke & degree of how much present as well how smooth / consistent bore end to end actually is.

 

[Aunsell]

So, curosity got the better of me. I pulled the barrel off my Skout to see how the SubMOA .30 was doing from a cleaning standpoint. There was not too much leading in most of the bore. I re-ran some polishing patches through with a longer cleaning rod. I could not feel the choke area with the polishing patches, which I really should based on other barrels I have polished. When I pushed the pellet through, I could still feel what appeared to be a choke. In pushing a pellet from the muzzle end, after the tightness section, the pellet had an even push - not loose like it should with a choke. Anyway, I think this "choke" section is just a rough patch in the barrel. I have a borescope on the way to look at it better.

Dan

So SubMoa said they don’t use a choke

 

[Odin]

Why don't the Submoa have an indexing system like the LW?
Looking forward to seeing a comparison of the Submoa and the LW bull barrels

@Odin Yikes!!..that looks like an unfinished barrel
and the gouges on the pellets have no consistency ..what a lemon!
The inside of the barrel looks like crap...wanted to find a technical term,,,but no..it's crap
Send it back and ask if they could shoot a submoa with that barrel
Mike

Mike, I may send it back.. I'm just conflicted. Skout has been absolutely fantastic in terms of customer service and support, so I'd really hate to see them have to eat the cost. I will try and get a hold of them next week to see what we can work out.

I messaged Sub-moa a couple weeks ago, and no response as of yet.