Comments on: How to Wear Out a Barrel in One Afternoon…

By: Art

Art — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 14:01:27 +0000

If a barrel can be worn out in one afternoon, it wasn’t much of a barrel to begin with. Invest in a reputable [Krieger, Shilen, Bartlein, etc;] stainless steel barrel.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 12:19:53 +0000

Interesting article, but as usual I cannot understand how to translate this to useable information. I am a varmint hunter and shoot thousands of rounds per year through my rifles. Two questions often occupy our down time. How hot is too hot, and how much do you want to clean? I started using temp tape on my barrels, but without some temp guidelines, it is pretty much for looks. One thing I have found is that it makes no difference on a quality barrel if I clean at 50 or 500 rounds, but I know BR shooters would never accept that.

By: Ed

Ed — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 06:55:58 +0000

I hear what ya’ll are saying, and I appreciate the article, but the bottom line is barrels are wear parts. One shouldn’t be afraid to replace it when it doesn’t do what you need it to do anymore.

By: Joe

Joe — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 23:52:28 +0000

Agreed, a rainbow .308 is much different on barrels than a laser .243.

By: Theron

Theron — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 20:25:28 +0000

Barrel life depends on more than one factor. Caliber, land configuration, powder used, pressure of the load, distance fired, etc. If you shoot a 308 Win. slow fire, with moderate loads and only shoot at 100 yds, you might get 20K rounds through the barrel before you start to see groups bigger than 1 MOA. If you shoot that same rifle at 600 yds you may start to see fliers at 3K to 4K rounds. In general most target shooters I know retire a barrel well before it gets to the point where it only shoots 1 MOA. The testing described in this article is similar to high power rifle competition, but with more shots fired in one day than at a typical high power match. It is not uncommon to shoot 120+ rounds in one day at a high power match, but only 40 of them are rapid fire. In addition, the 243 Win. is considered to be very hard on barrels. If this test was done using a 260 Rem., 708 Rem. or 6 Rem BR, the results would be different. I would suspect that with a 6 BR, the barrel would not show nearly the same amount of fire-cracking after only 300 rounds. I have had several 708 barrels that went 5,500+ rounds including rapid fire while still shooting well below 1 MOA at 600 yards. I know of one friend who won the collegiate agg at Camp Perry with a 708 that had a know history of over 8K rounds. One test like this does not define how often you need to change barrels. YMMV.

By: MikeD

MikeD — Thu, 31 May 2012 00:55:13 +0000

I have been shooting the same rifle and barrel for 12 years. I did a very detailed, slow-fire, 75 round barrel break-in, ensuring I never let the barrel get hot. I religiously clean my barrel every ten to fifteen rounds. My primary round is the Federal Gold Match, 168 Sierra BTHP. The barrel is a twenty inch tapered and fluted stainless Pac-Nor. Like every other shooter on my team, I am pretty OCD about taking care of my rifle, especially the barrel. I am convinced that proper cleaning extends the life of the barrel and I am amazed when I hear of others in my profession having to get re-barreled after 3-4,000 rounds. As of today I have 12,597 rounds through my barrel and I am still shooting sub-MOA.

By: chrisj

chrisj — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 21:42:41 +0000

I am not doubting the results of this test, but I have performed the same test a number of times and found that there was NO noticeable difference in accuracy or wear when a bbl wasn’t broken in or cleaned. I do however know for sure that firing round after round and heating up the bbl rapidly does wear out a bbl much faster. IF I fired many rounds (slow fire), and didn’t clean often vs slow fire with cleaning every 5-10 rounds///there was NO difference to the bbl when borescoped. IMO…it’s the heating of the bbl that does the vast majority of the damage.

By: SPClark

SPClark — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 14:22:07 +0000

If you DO invest in a borescope, please keep in mind it’s a precision optical device that should be handled with appropriate care. For what you pay to add one to your tool box, you should be aware that they’re fragile items indeed despite the outside appearance.

I’ve had mine for about five years & thought I was treating it right until a few weeks ago when I went to use it & found it no longer worked. What I expected to see wasn’t what I got – the view in the eyepiece was completely black. $275 later – for shipping and the cost to repair – I have it back now & it works as good as when new but that new barrel I want is gonna be a bit longer in coming….