Barrell life

PointBlank

Well-Known Member
All this talk on here about rebarelling has me thinking, what is the expected life of a deer calibre barrel?
Assume it is someone with a stainless/synthetic 6.5x55 sako 85 who hardly never takes the mod off and cleans it only every 20 rounds or so :rolleyes:

Just interested what the general consensus is, are we talking tens of thousands or less?
 
your barrel will last a liftime for hunting use but if you leave the mod on and store probably not long at all.
 
If he doesn't take the moderator off then it could be a very short barrel life possibly measured in months rather than years. :confused:
 
If he doesn't take the moderator off then it could be a very short barrel life possibly measured in months rather than years. :confused:

I am actually talking about me of course :) I do take it off normally but sometimes it is thrown back in the safe as it is.

I am more interested in what the trigger is for people getting a new barrel?
 
Last edited:
Leave the mod on and you not only run the risk of it getting stuck but also dissimilar metal corrosion on the crown. But saying that my .22 seems fine mod on... I left the mod on my .222 and was pretty slack about cleaning it. The crown was ****ed within a year and the inside of the barrel at the muzzle wasn't looking to hot either - ended up scrapping it. That was a pretty old Bruno that was in good nick before it was threaded for a moderator.
 
your barrel will last a liftime for hunting use...

But surely there must be wear on the rifling? I know the serious boys with the smallbore shooting talk about a new barrel every 30 thousand rounds and that is shooting soft lead at a lot slower speeds.
 
yes there will be wear and im no 6.5 expert but its all a muchness that 6.5x55 barrel will last 3000-4000 rounds before accuracy begins to degrade (depending on usage and maintainance) so if he shoots 200 rounds a year that will make 20 years of barrel life. if he looks after it he may well exeed that amount by a great deal it all depends on what is the acceptable accuracy to him. But you right it will start wearing from the first round. muir and brithunter shoot some pretty old rifles im sure have clocked thousands and shoot great. we killed a 338 barrel and mod in 400 rounds so if you dont look after it and hammer rounds at a rapid rate it will die. i reckon if you can afford the ammo to shoot out a barrel you probably can afford to get it swapped as awell.

regards
kris
 
yes there will be wear and im no 6.5 expert but its all a muchness that 6.5x55 barrel will last 3000-4000 rounds before accuracy begins to degrade (depending on usage and maintainance) so if he shoots 200 rounds a year that will make 20 years of barrel life. if he looks after it he may well exeed that amount by a great deal it all depends on what is the acceptable accuracy to him. But you right it will start wearing from the first round. muir and brithunter shoot some pretty old riflecraft im sure have clocked thousands and shoot great. we killed a 338 barrel and mod in 400 rounds so if you dont look after it and hammer rounds at a rapid rate it will die. i reckon if you can afford the ammo to shoot out a barrel you probably can afford to get it swapped as awell.

regards
kris

Good answer thanks,
 
It's the powder burning that causes the wear not usually the bullet itself.

As for the .22LR the Americans conducted experiments on this and found it was a ring of erosion just after the chamber that caused the problem. Cutting off the chamber re-threading and re-chambering restored and some time improved the grouping of these target rifles. I am afraid the shooters especially those here in the UK have been brain washed about re-barrelling.

Different cartridges and choice of powders used plus the rate of fire will determine barrel erosion. I really don't know how these solid bronze, copper or gilding metal bullets effect wear but by increasing pressures I would expect wear to be increased.
 
As one who does shoot old rifles some of which have seen god only knows how many rounds through the bore the choice of bullet can make a huge difference in grouping.

Plus the way in which a rifle is cleaned also can have a huge effect on it's accurate life.
 
All this talk on here about rebarelling has me thinking, what is the expected life of a deer calibre barrel?
Assume it is someone with a stainless/synthetic 6.5x55 sako 85 who hardly never takes the mod off and cleans it only every 20 rounds or so :rolleyes:

Just interested what the general consensus is, are we talking tens of thousands or less?

for me its a no brainer because im a left hander and i wanted a second deer calibre rifle , but also the world is your oyster , by re-barreling you can have just about any calibre that tickles your fancy provided you have a siutable action and then you not stuck with the factory options.

a normal barrel im quessing will last 10,000 rounds with sensible hand loads , leave that mod on and you'll be talking under 5yrs
 
It was actually Nathan Foster in his book, "long range hunting cartridges" , who said that an easy going calibre

would actually last a maximum of about 2 second of real time.:eek:

that at was using the actual time taken at high throat temperatures per round, in nano seconds, times by rounds used.

Scary thought though. He actually says, you should think of your barrel as a consumable, just like brass.
 
I have a 6mm Remington that had the barrel set back and re-chambered after 3000 rounds, I have fired another 500+
through is since it still shoots 1/2" groups,
Also my fullbore rifle is a .223 and has fired 6800 rounds and is starting to lose acceptable accuracy, still ok as a varmint rifle,
The 6.5x55 is a lowish pressure cartridge if you keep reloads moderate it should last many thousand of rounds,
take care of it and your grand kids will be shooting it. Robert.
 
your barrel will last a liftime for hunting use but if you leave the mod on and store probably not long at all.

erm, not sure i'd agree with that. i leave the mods on my rifles, stored mod down in the cabinet. i also have a borescope so know what the insides of my barrels look like. it's not a problem!
 
Priming compounds contain silica, and other powder residues can be quite acidic. After a shot this crap in the barrel is loose and on the next shot will be blown out ahead of the bullet.

But leave such crap in the barrel for a few days and goes hard and sticky. Next time a bullet goes down it picks up all this silica and effectively becomes a lap -silica is what is used in abrasives etc. and will abrade the barrel, hence if you are going to store a rifle for a few days just run a patch down the bore to clear out this rubbish.

Velocity and and powder required to obtain such velocity is the key - 3,500 + fps velocity - 1,000 rounds, 3,000fps -2 to 4,000, 2,600 fps - 10,000 plus rounds.

You need to be clear on what is meant by accuracy. My 243 used to put three rounds in a clover leaf at 100yds. But haven't managed to do that for a while, but it still puts three rounds into an inch. Not an issue for me, but if I was a competition shooter especially shooting over longer ranges it may well be.
 
erm, not sure i'd agree with that. i leave the mods on my rifles, stored mod down in the cabinet. i also have a borescope so know what the insides of my barrels look like. it's not a problem!

I have seen the result of never taking a mod off a rifle,the last couple of inches of the barrel were knackered. One was over the course of a year the other one I don't know for sure. If I was you I would take the mod off and have a good visual look, you won't see the condition of the crown with a borescope

Al
 
erm, not sure i'd agree with that. i leave the mods on my rifles, stored mod down in the cabinet. i also have a borescope so know what the insides of my barrels look like. it's not a problem!

Callum Ferguson spoke at the Deerstalking Fair at great length about this, and you should never leave a mod on a rifle beyond the actual time it is required for. The corrosive gases are retaind within the barrel as well by it's use and I have actually taken to removing the mod when shooting at targets between groups, blowing the smoke out the barrel as well. I'm not saying that's necessary but it cannot do any harm.

Damp and moisture cannot evaporate the same way when a mod is fitted which as has been said also causes an issue. I noticed a few weeks ago after having the rifle out all day and no shot fired that the thread on the barrel showed signs of being exposed to damp. That was after one day.

For the few seconds it takes to remove why would anyone leave them on and risk damage????

I was speaking to a RFD a few months ago about a Sako 85 he had for sale and he checked it on his borescope. The rifle had hardly been used, as in under 100 shots. The last few inches were so badly damaged through the use of a mod and not removing he said he couldn't sell it now for his customer and it was only worth having as a donor action.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top