barrel life questions...

T

travis0127

New member
What concerns (if any) should I have about barrel life in a remington 700 pss in .300 ultra mag.

I have heard I will be lucky to get 1000 full house loads through it and then the accuracy will turn to $hit and I will need a new barrel.

What is "normal" barrel life anyway, I thought you could shoot tens of thousands of rounds in any cartridge before worrying about "opening up" the barrel?

What contributes to this barrel wear thing? Is it just the speed of the bullet (ie more speed = quicker wear), or does caliber also enter the equation?
 
Travis, I have no idea how many rounds you'll get, but it'll be under 3K, and I would not be surprised if it were close to 1K.

Barrels for some calibers can last a long, long time. As an example, the .22 LR can shoot probably well over 100,000 rds before a new barrel is in order.

What contributes? Someone will no doubt give a better explanation of what happens to the barrel, but basically it's erosion. The erosion is caused by extreme pressures and expanding gasses, coupled with very high temperatures. (similar to what happens to hot rods driven by maniacs vs. light duty economy cars that are driven by grannies)

Generally, rifles like your new 700 are not meant to be "practiced" with so much as used for specific duties. You "practice" with somethin that you can operate cheaper and with less wear, then shoot the big gun just enough to familiarize yourself with it.

The good thing is, is that the heavier recoiling the round, the slower people shoot them. People routinely shoot .22 LR's at 10 rds per minute if not faster. Many folks will take 1-5 minutes per shot in a larger caliber. Making them count takes longer, and saves your barrel as a side benefit. (temps will be lower as a whole, too.)

P.S. Are you coming to the Tampa gun show with us? I got a room for $40 a night (two double beds, and two air mattresses). There's room in the car for one more person.
 
Travis,

while it is true your 700PSS in .300 UltraMag will wear out it's barrel throat somewhat sooner than my 700PSS in .308, there are things you can do to extend it's life. Space firing your rounds out such that you keep your barrel temperature down, run moly-coated ammo, handload with cooler powders, and as the throat wears, seat the bullets out further to get closer to the lands and grooves vs. the greater jump.

Barrel life is somewhat subjective, but it's a known fact, the "hotter" the cartridge, the shorter the barrel life. Hence, a .308 Winchester will last longer than a .300 Win Mag, which will last longer than a .30-.378 Weatherby Mag.

The .220 Swift, as well as the .264 Winchester Magnum, were well-known for chewing up their barrels fairly quickly. I run a 6.5-06, it's hotter than a 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser, so it's barrel life will suffer accordingly.

There's an old adage about barrel life being directly proportional to how many pounds of powder you send through it. In other words, a barrel will withstand only so many pounds of powder being burned in it, regardless of caliber. A big magnum like your .300 UltraMag burns closer to 100 grains of powder, compared to around 42 grains for a .308 Winchester. You're gonna hit that barrel life cap with fewer rounds of the bigger magnum cartridge than you would with the .308 Winchester.

Some folks theorize it's the flame temperature and pressure that chews up barrel throats, while others state the powder itself, as it exits the cartridge and continues to burn down the barrel, sandblasts the throat. The bigger the case (and subsequent greater powder capacity) behind a given bullet diameter, the worse the effect. If it's really badly overbore, the barrel life drastically shortens. I have an article where a .22-.379 Weatherby Magnum wildcat's barrel lasted less than 100 rounds!

Hope this helps!
 
Thanks for the info guys.

It seems that the "better performing" or hotter cartridges are giving up barrel life for the added speed. I guess I should have figured that.
 
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