Skout .30 Skout EVO SubMOA

[Odin]

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

Not only are there tooling "scratches", there are also, what I would call, secondary lands. This is supposed to be a 5-groove barrel, but if you look closely in the pictures, there are additional lands in between the main lands. Very odd. Also, the pellet chamber isn't concentric with the barrel.

 

[DrPutz]

Here's mine with the borescope (just got the borescope today, so working on figuring out the focus).:

Ring gouges in throat/leade that I polished quite a bit already.

Polished bore in rear. Note the highly polished is the land, the groves are pretty rough even after polishing.

Crown - yes it looks off center and uneven.

Some cross-scratches on the lands.

Fortunately, there did not seem to be any scratches or rough patches near the front end that would account for the "tight" area. That would suggest a choke was added.

View down the bore:

 

[DrPutz]

For comparison, here is the 22 L-W Skout barrel - I only ran a dry patch after shooting 2-3 tins. Sorry for the focus issues - the borescope has a learning process.

Throat/leade

Polished rear end (the roughness on the bottom/right is the borescope mirror setup).

Starting to see some leading

More leading

Look down the barrel with quite a bit of lead.

 

[MSR Workshop]

For comparison, here is the 22 L-W Skout barrel - I only ran a dry patch after shooting 2-3 tins. Sorry for the focus issues - the borescope has a learning process.

Throat/leade
View attachment 511932

Polished rear end (the roughness on the bottom/right is the borescope mirror setup).
View attachment 511933

Starting to see some leading
View attachment 511934

More leading
View attachment 511931

Look down the barrel with quite a bit of lead.
View attachment 511930

How often are you cleaning yours ?

 

[MSR Workshop]

Here's mine with the borescope (just got the borescope today, so working on figuring out the focus).:

Ring gouges in throat/leade that I polished quite a bit already.View attachment 511923



Polished bore in rear. Note the highly polished is the land, the groves are pretty rough even after polishing.
View attachment 511924

Crown - yes it looks off center and uneven.
View attachment 511925



Some cross-scratches on the lands.
View attachment 511927

Fortunately, there did not seem to be any scratches or rough patches near the front end that would account for the "tight" area. That would suggest a choke was added.

View down the bore:
View attachment 511928View attachment 511929

What has been your process for polishing ?

 

[Odin]

For comparison, here is the 22 L-W Skout barrel - I only ran a dry patch after shooting 2-3 tins. Sorry for the focus issues - the borescope has a learning process.

Throat/leade
View attachment 511932

Polished rear end (the roughness on the bottom/right is the borescope mirror setup).
View attachment 511933

Starting to see some leading
View attachment 511934

More leading
View attachment 511931

Look down the barrel with quite a bit of lead.
View attachment 511930

Damn, those cross scratches look pretty deep. Have you tried pushing a pellet through after polishing?

 

[Motorhead]

Thats ugly for sure !!

 

[DrPutz]

How often are you cleaning yours ?

I typically don't clean, but clearly there is embedded lead, even after polishing. I will have to rethink the cleaning routine. This was after a few tins of AEA pellets.

 

[DrPutz]

Damn, those cross scratches look pretty deep. Have you tried pushing a pellet through after polishing?

You probably won't see the cross scratches with a pellet push. The longitudinal ones show up as scoring lines on the pellets. I don't think that it's going to get any better. I will have to relook at the crown to see if anything can be done for it. The ring gouges are pretty smooth now, so the pellet pushes in ok.

 

[DrPutz]

What has been your process for polishing ?

Polishing is done with a nylon bore brush with a heavy duty paper towel and MOTHERS Mag & Aluminum Polish. Does a great job smoothing, but won't take out deeper scratches or the gouges.

 

[Chuck26287]

After a very deep cleaning with patches wet with Ballistol, followed by dry patches, I had very good results polishing with JB Bore cleaning compound, wet with Kroil penetrating oil. I used the felt cleaning pellets on the 3-pellet threaded adapter for a Dewey rod from Browning (even though the pellets deform and thin on the threads and the adapter only holds two pellets). After that cleaning/polishing, I repeated the same process using JB Bore Bright. This did not totally remove all tooling marks like a professional lead lapping or the like probably would have, but it really smoothed the bore out and polished it to a very good finish.

I don't think anything is going to fix the accuracy of that barrel with the terrible crown until it's re-crowned. They say the crown is the single most important contributor to accuracy as it has the final effect on the pellet as it leaves the barrel, and that crown has to be applying some wonky influence.

 

[Centercut]

With AEA pellets, I’ve found that pull throughs and nylon brushes don’t do the trick. I found a brass brush was necessary to get out all the impacted lead. Contrary to semi-popular belief, using a brass brush on an air rifle barrel is not harmful.

 

[Skout-airguns]

Hi everyone, after reviewing this thread we would like to address a few things. We started offering SubMOA barrels to customers after competing with these barrels in competition and realizing how well they perform. A couple of weeks before RMAC we received a small amount of barrels and machined them to mount onto our skouts and they performed flawlessly. No polishing, lapping, or other processes were completed. At RMAC, we had Bill Gardner shoot the highest card of day 1 in competition, and Luke Sowinski finished 8th with these barrels. This is when we determined we needed to offer this barrel to customers. Every barrel that we receive from sub moa gets tested at 100 yards. If the barrel does not perform at sub-MOA or better, it does not leave the factory. All barrels are shot in by either Keith Short, Bill Gardner, or Luke Sowinski. The scratches on the lands are from the honing process, and sub-MOA says this does not harm the pellets. In regards to the feeling where there is a choke - this is not okay. The sub-MOA barrels do not have a choke and if you are experiencing this, please email us at [email protected] with [email protected] CC'd. We will be happy to help sort any issues out.

 

[Chuck26287]

Hi everyone, after reviewing this thread we would like to address a few things. We started offering SubMOA barrels to customers after competing with these barrels in competition and realizing how well they perform. A couple of weeks before RMAC we received a small amount of barrels and machined them to mount onto our skouts and they performed flawlessly. No polishing, lapping, or other processes were completed. At RMAC, we had Bill Gardner shoot the highest card of day 1 in competition, and Luke Sowinski finished 8th with these barrels. This is when we determined we needed to offer this barrel to customers. Every barrel that we receive from sub moa gets tested at 100 yards. If the barrel does not perform at sub-MOA or better, it does not leave the factory. All barrels are shot in by either Keith Short, Bill Gardner, or Luke Sowinski. The scratches on the lands are from the honing process, and sub-MOA says this does not harm the pellets. In regards to the feeling where there is a choke - this is not okay. The sub-MOA barrels do not have a choke and if you are experiencing this, please email us at [email protected] with [email protected] CC'd. We will be happy to help sort any issues out.

This is very comforting for me to see. I have full faith in Skout based on the service I've personally received, and what I've heard others have received. What I would like to see is the conditions under which the particular barrel I receive achieved sub-moa results before leaving the factory. If Skout says it achieved sub-moa results before leaving the factory, I will trust that. I would just like to have the specifics to get me to the closest starting point to duplicate the conditions so I can shoot it at sub-moa as well. The HPR, LPR, Dwell, and pellet used would be a great start to duplicating sub-moa results on my range.

Thanks for chiming-in, Skout!

 

[manabeknives]

Hi Darryl @Skout-airguns
Is there a video coming out soon to highlight the additional barrel choices and their potentials?
Will there be an indexing system added to the submoa barrels?
will there be any new long barrels in the future?
didn't see the info on social media
Mike

 

[Motorhead]

I had spoke with DARRYL just last week asking about Long 35 inch in .22 cal that was slug capable, reply was nothing as of yet.

Just some FYI.

 

[CanMike]

Thanks for responding as I am following this thread closely.

What I don't understand is if these were test fired to sub MOA accuracy at 100 then why are there multiple reports of 2-3 MOA with these? What ammo are you using? What FPS? etc.. May help to figure out what is going on.

Obviously the barrel quality is on SUB-MOA but the QC thats performed on these rifles doesn't seem to match what the customers are seeing.

Thanks
Mike

 

[Trucker3573]

Hi everyone, after reviewing this thread we would like to address a few things. We started offering SubMOA barrels to customers after competing with these barrels in competition and realizing how well they perform. A couple of weeks before RMAC we received a small amount of barrels and machined them to mount onto our skouts and they performed flawlessly. No polishing, lapping, or other processes were completed. At RMAC, we had Bill Gardner shoot the highest card of day 1 in competition, and Luke Sowinski finished 8th with these barrels. This is when we determined we needed to offer this barrel to customers. Every barrel that we receive from sub moa gets tested at 100 yards. If the barrel does not perform at sub-MOA or better, it does not leave the factory. All barrels are shot in by either Keith Short, Bill Gardner, or Luke Sowinski. The scratches on the lands are from the honing process, and sub-MOA says this does not harm the pellets. In regards to the feeling where there is a choke - this is not okay. The sub-MOA barrels do not have a choke and if you are experiencing this, please email us at [email protected] with [email protected] CC'd. We will be happy to help sort any issues out.

Any chance I could send you a liner for testing ? It’s an older - 30 liner for an epoch. My epoch is lights out in .25 but can’t get it to shoot for in 30 cal. Trying to figure where the problem is.

 

[sb327]

“The scratches on the lands are from the honing process, and sub-MOA says this does not harm the pellets”

Does this seem acceptable?

I’ve viewed the bores of many premium barrels and have not seen machine marks (honing marks) such as these. I am talking about krieger, Shilen, etc.

I was skeptical when these barrels came out that they could be better than the likes of those listed above by a new manufacturer. Better because they are actually priced higher than what the public can get those listed above.

My opinion of the bore condition shown is unacceptable for a premium barrel. To say that the scratches are ‘ok’ does not seem right in my experience of why you pay more for a premium barrel. The scratched area IS the most significant contact area between the bore and the projectile.

I was excited, at first, hearing about a premium barrel maker focusing on the air side of the game. Maybe in time qc will get to a point that only premium barrels make it out the door. Premium priced barrels will get premium scrutiny.

Dave

 

[MSR Workshop]

Hi everyone.
Got my SubMoa barrel delivered yesterday evening, and so far I’ve been very impressed with a fit and finish. I was not expecting it to be in a black finish, which was a nice surprise. It seems like all the Sub-MOA barrels I have seen have been in the natural bare metal finish. Initially, I was worried I was going to have to worry about rust and fingerprints because it’s not stainless steel., so I was going to wrap the barrel. But this black finish they put on. It is fantastic.
As far as how it shoots, I have no idea yet because I’m waiting for the moderator to show up so I don’t get a visit from the cops.
I pushed a couple pellets through with a cleaning rod that I could find, and they seemed fine to me. I didn’t notice any excessive “chew” marks from the rifling. So next is to see how it shoots.
I don’t have a borescope, but looking down the barrel with the flashlight in my iPhone zoomed in as much as possible the finish looks like a beautifully mirrored rifle barrel should.
Here a couple pictures I of the pellets that I pushed through.
So far, I think it looks pretty great to my eyes. But accuracy is the most important part. All report back as soon as I get everything installed and get about 100 rounds through it.