# of rnds thru a barrel question

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model18

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Approx. how many .30-06 rnds. can a Savage 110 take before it needs to be rebarreled ?

Have a bet with a buddy it's at least 5,000.................he says less than 1000
 
The serious benchrest shooters will probably chime in and give you some better info, but I'll start by saying that there is far more to it than just round count. Barrels "wear out" in two different ways. The first is that the lands get worn down. Friction from the bullet traveling down the barrel takes off the lands molecules at a time.

The second is throat erosion caused by burning gas. For some calibers, killing a barrel from throat erosion happens far sooner than land wear. Two common calibers for this are the .220 Swift and the .264 Win Mag.

The deciding factor in whether or not you need to replace the barrel is accuracy. If your grouping is starting to suffer as a result of wear, then only you can decide how much variation you can tolerate. For a serious benchrest shooter, increasing group size by even half an inch means they are going barrel shopping. For a hunter - the tolerance becomes much larger.
 
I bought my Weatherby Mark V in .30-'06 back around 1971. I've put somewhere around 4,000 rounds through it. The last three-shot group I shot was 0.4 MOA. Not long before, I shot two four-shot groups at 500 yards at 0.8 MOA.

I figure it likely will be a while before a new barrel is needed. :)
 
I think Art is pretty much on the mark. I've seen barrels go 8-12000 before being changed. Not many people ever hit those numbers. As in another answer, powders and caliber can cause faster wear due to errosion.
 
The above link does a good job of describing barrel life for target shooting. For most of us who are hunters I'd say that you could probably shoot a good bit more than those numbers before accuracy suffers enough to make the rifle unusable for hunting.
 
An old report said Springfield Armory changed 1903 test barrels at 6000 to avoid unpredictable results with ammo lots, but considered that most would go 8000. That with service rifle accuracy, not match quality.

On the other hand, I watched a .308 target rifle fail to make it from 4600 to 4700. The owner said it shot fine the previous week but it would not hold the target frame when I saw it as he tried to get another 60-70 rounds out of it at 1000 yards.
 
It depends on what you call "life". Barrel composition has a lot to do with it (steel, stainless steel, chromium steel etc). Bullet speed and powder blast will effect it. Barrel temp. will also effect wear. Barrel care is also another one (badly rusted and pitted). I would expect that the average hunting rifle chambered in 30-06 would last between 10K-20K if properly taken care of.
 
And after all of this, the general concensus would seem to be... Over 1000 rounds. Tell him to pay up! ;)

Seriously, I've never heard of the '06 being a barrel burner by any stretch. The only cartridge I've heard of "reliably" killing barrels around the 1000-rd mark is the 6.5x284 (and I don't know of any personally to tell if that's true or not). For position shooting accuracy, is seems a good .223, .308 or '06 are good through 4-5k rounds, depending on factors. Hunting rifle accuracy should last longer than that even.
 
Frankford Arsenal did tests on this. I don't remember the numbers, but at hundreds of thousands of rounds the accuracy was still IMPROVING. The barrels used had cut rifling and a better grade of steel than some barrel makers use now, so there are variables. The test results are in the old " NRA Handloaders Guide ".
 
4k minimum before you start to see any detriment as far as match accuracy at 600yds. For short range work (300yds and less), probably 10k before you start to see fliers.
 
I agree .308-.30-06 ought to last you around 5000-8000 rounds. Now there are calibers that wear out around a 1000rds most of em are magnums or barrel burners.
 
sc928porsche said:
It depends on what you call "life". Barrel composition has a lot to do with it (steel, stainless steel, chromium steel etc). Bullet speed and powder blast will effect it. Barrel temp. will also effect wear. Barrel care is also another one (badly rusted and pitted). I would expect that the average hunting rifle chambered in 30-06 would last between 10K-20K if properly taken care of.
Click to expand...

This.

To many variables to put a exact number on barrel life.
 
Some mags might wear a barrel out quicker, say 7mm Remington Mag, but that 30.06 will certainly outlast your 5,000 round mark.
 
My father once told me; "son you'll never feed that rifle enough ammunition to wear it out", and so far he's been right.

Now personally I don't have any particular rifle with more than maybe 500 rnds shot through it,, but by the time I get my "load developement" quenched on my 7mm Rem mag, I'll be hitting 1000,(hopefully not):rolleyes::o
 
cant say about the 30-06, But I have the brother rounds 25-06 & 270win the 25-06 @ 4000 is ready for a barrel in MO. 2.5 moa @ 100 at best but still plenty good for deer hunting. The 270win is close to the same round count with no sign of ware or accuracy lose. So I guess alot of things come into play with barrel ware.
 
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