Barrel burn-out

[P7M13]

Bought a 6.5x55 from a WA member here that was rubbish. Putting lipstick on a pig, had @Velzey Ackley-ize the sucker. Its now my "donor" for fire forming cases.
Yes, a tub of 50 cartridges fired inside of two minutes will trash a bolt gun.

 

[tac]

220 Swifts I have been told start going south around 5000's rounds when running full rpm rounds.

I'd go along with that, backed up by historical evidence that started appearing in the HSF press not long after it appeared in the 30's.

Back then, the problem was that the metallurgy of the day wasn't up to that screaming little bullet and its ~4250 fps, and barrels wore out between starting to shoot in the morning and finishing off a the day - looking at woodchuck shooting here, of course.

An acquaintance of mine in ID has his dad's pre-war Winchester that was shot out and unloved for almost thirty years until he put a new barrel on it in 1971, made by Mr Shilen, I bleeve.

Well, it's now about fifty years old, and still plotzing them pesky aminals, but with more gentle velocities. After all, Frank notes, 'frankly', they really don't know the difference between getting hit at 3000 fps or 2950 fps.

I tend to agree with him.

 

[tac]

That gentleman does know a great deal about firearms, no doubt. But, he is prone to exaggeration on certain issues, and to be flat out wrong on others, but he will die on the hill of his thinking. I've head what he has to say about mag dumps and it's a bit overblown.

As another example. Just last week, watching one of his videos regarding working on S&W revolvers, he makes statements such as "there is never any reason to polish the inside of a S&W revolver, there is nothing to be gained by it" and "never use anything other that the factory main spring or you will damage your gun".

Well, I don't know about you, but I know quiet a few folks who have seen benefit with a proper smooth and polish job in their Smiths. And while a non-factory main spring might result in light primer strikes I highly doubt any damage will occur in using one.

There were other statements that caused me to raise my eyebrows a bit ...

So, the point ... he can push ideas that are really not based in observable fact.

My S&W Model 686 Target Trophy revolver was sent away for a Wilson trigger job. It went away so-so, and came back with a trigger that made my Colt Python feel like a Howdy-doodie water pistol.

 

[SUPER X]

My first AR was a Colt H-Bar. After about 5K rounds it was no longer used for competition. I used it for
plinking and 30 round mag dumps. I fired thousands of that dirty steel case Russian ammo through it. Sometimes
dumping 500 rounds in one outing. If you chambered a steel case round on a hot barrel and leave it there a couple
minutes it would stick in the chamber. Had to use a cleaning rod to get the stuck fired case out. I abused the
hell out of that barrel. Use to poor cold water on the barrel to cool it down while loading more mags! Before I sold it
at a gun show I cleaned the barrel and test fired it with good ammo. To my surprise it would shoot about 1.5 inch
groups at 100 yards. This was not a chromed lined barrel.

The round sticking was probably do to the old lacquer coating used on the case's melting in a hot chamber .not seen much anymore with the exception of golden tiger .

 

[Ura-Ki]

Barrel metallurgy has sure changed in the last several years to benefit shooters. When I got into the Wild Cats throat erosion was pretty serious, and muzzle end lands would dissapear pretty quickly. My 6.5/06 would need a barrel every 1200 rounds or so back then. These were Hart barrels, the best you could get, so to get so few rounds before the accuracy dropped was part of the price of that game. Today, that rifle has a very slick custom barrel from a well known maker made of the latest and greatest alloys and treatments and it now has close to 2300 rounds through it and shows no signs of wear!
I have heard of 7 mm Mag being a real barrel scorcher, and had this avoided that caliber until now having seen a buddies hunting rifle with over a thousand rounds fired and still as accurate as the day he first installed it! My .300 win mag needs a barrel, so will likely have one made for it soon, likely the last one it will ever need thanks to all the advancements we have seen!
I have also been fortunate in rescuing a few old varmint rifles that need barrels, Including a stunning little .222 that just needed a little barrel lovin', now it shoots bug holes all day long!

 

[CLT65]

This is a great thread - I've learned something here!

I admit I was fairly convinced of the old stories about barrel burnout. It's good to know that that's exaggerated. I'll still be careful with my very accurate rifles to not get them too hot, but I won't stress so much about other guns.

For example, I went shooting with some friends a while back and we all brought a bunch of guns. We were shooting from a tall hill down into a small pond and various targets by the pond, on private property way out in the boonies. We were going through a lot of ammo. Everyone liked my old M1 Garand, clip after clip after clip and it was really heating up. I know it caused barrel wear, but maybe not so bad as I was worrying about.

 

[jbett98]

Don't forget the overzealous barrel cleaning with a steel rod from the muzzle end.

 

[kbf64]

"It will take as about 3k rounds of rapid fire to damage the barrel. If it gets smoking hot then the damage will occur faster. I would recommend keeping an extra barrel. Tim"

From out fav, oregon gunsmith

 

[Bruce Jolly]

I was watching something on youtube (gunblue490?) about how mag dumps and rapid fire can burn out a barrel quickly. Has anyone actually burned out a barrel to the point they noticed an issue with accuracy?

If so what caliber, est round count?

For the average hobbyist and recreational shooter, it would take years, if not generations. Burnt out barrels, and other signs of heavy use come from the places one would expect, ie the Military, and Law Enforcement. There are always exceptions, like the quality of the firearm, types of barrels, and ammo. Cleaning, and maintenance of the firearm. And any number of other things.

 

[ron]

Back in the day me and a buddy would split a case of 762X39. I remember getting 1400 round case of Russian
for $100. We would blast it up in one day! Surprisingly the chromed lined AK's and SKS's barrels never really
showed any signs of wear. Not what I expected for a $89 SKS rifle.

 

[No_Regerts]

"For sale: Weatherby Ultralight in 257 Weatherby Magnum. Low round count!"

Looked down the barrel and it looks like a scorched sewer pipe.

"over bore capacity" cartridges have shorter barrel lives. A long-range competitor I know used a 7mm Rem Mag. Smaller bore, bigger case. He said the barrels were competitive for about 750 rounds. His version of "competitive" would probably be fine in a hunting rifle.

As Tac already said, a good varmint hunt can ruin a barrel. A friend from Montana does a prairie dog safari every year. He's used a couple 222s, but wanted a little more range and "splash". Went to a 22-250 with 45gr bullets and got all the splash he was looking for. He says they shot about 500 rounds a day for 3 days and the barrel was cooked. Same thing after a re-barrel to 243 and 58gr bullets. So, he'd hunt prairie dogs in the spring and early summer, then use the rifle on coyotes for the rest of the year, re-barrel in late winter, repeat.

When the 204 Ruger came out, the loads using 32 and 40gr bullets got the same splat with a lot better barrel life.

 

[tac]

6.5 -.284 is a barrel killer. A shooting friend of mine, well into his 80's, and his son both shoot this calibre competitively, and have a new barrel each every year. They come to a session to sort out the up and down bit, and that's it. No practice, just the sighters and the comps - take up 960 shots.

Then it's getting spotty - by their standards. Here in UK that's around a thousand $ to replace - both shoot Lilja barrels.

 

[Dr Prepper]

Most these online guntubers have generous donations of ammunition from vendors to allow such tests as linked above.

Tell me.. How do i "dislike" a comment?
Lol. Personally its time for ALL the guntubers to retire in this time of need. I will be fairly pissed if any of them are still out there blasting away for free while were out here walking around lopsided missing apendages and organs. I think we all need to write our politicians and then write a letter to the ammo makers firstly thanking them for all the extra time they've been logging and secondly asking them to reconsider their sponsorships for a "while"