How many rounds can a .243 barrel take?

mikeakc

Well-Known Member
I'm (hopefully) about to get my FAC granted and am looking to get a .243. As I'll be spending as little as I can get away with, I'm finding many of the rifles in my price bracket have had up to 500 shots through them. Bear in mind I may well be buying rfd without being able to test accuracy. My question is - roughly how many shots can a 243 barrel take? I realise maintenance plays a large part in the question, but let's assume a caring but not OCD owner. I have no idea - 1000? 5000?

Apologies if this question has been answered before, I couldn't find a straight answer! Cheers.
 
Depends on whether 'hot' loads of just standard factory ammo has been used. Also (as you have clearly grasped) what cleaning, if any, has been done.

If treated well I'd guess a figure of 5000 or greater might be achieve able?

ps I've got a lovely Tikka with only a couple of hundred thru it for sale (been very well looked after, I can guarantee as I've had it from new)
 
Cheers Mike,
Good, that's a lot more rounds than I expected. My FAC isn't through yet (should come in the next 4-6 weeks I hope) so wouldn't want to waste your time. I'm also on a serious budget, trying to get a setup for sub £400 if possible, but if that applies to your tikka then I'd certainly be interested.
Thanks,
Mike

Depends on whether 'hot' loads of just standard factory ammo has been used. Also (as you have clearly grasped) what cleaning, if any, has been done.

If treated well I'd guess a figure of 5000 or greater might be achieve able?

ps I've got a lovely Tikka with only a couple of hundred thru it for sale (been very well looked after, I can guarantee as I've had it from new)
 
Conventional wisdom would say something like 1000-1500 rounds before peak accuracy starts to fall off.

Please take into account, that this would mean firing extended strings like 20 shots in few minutes and then letting the barrel cool. And "peak accuracy" means you have a rig capable of, say 1/4 MOA and "falling off" means you first get only 3/8 MOA and then gradually worse.

From real life experience I can tell my LW chromo barrel in 260 Rem started to seriously erode the throat and throw flyers around 2000-2500 rds mark. It's been somewhat abused regarding extended strings and such.

I don't believe maintenance plays a big role, other than it's easy to ruin the barrel by over-maintaining with wrong methods. As long as there's no visible pitting etc. you may have to "restore" a neglected barrel, but afterwards it shouldn't matter. So in fact I'd rather take a neglected barrel than overmaintained one, if I wasn't sure of previous owner's competence.
 
Only four or five rounds before it needs to be rebarreled to 7mm-08. :lol: ~Muir
muir there must be somthing wrong with your computer as your post has read that your suggesting that this chap may want to take a perfectly gentlmanly calibered rifle and then barstewardize it into some sort of half brick launcher i mean what ever next fly fishing with a boat rod? :lol:
 
lets be honest for £4-500 your not going to get a hair spliting sniper rifle but to be honest your not going to need it if youve got your variation in and you definatly want a .243 then fine i shot .243 and i love it but to make your cash go a little further .308 and .270 rifles always seem to come in quite cheap on the secondhand market and both will do the job just as fine what i would say tho is with your budget dont worrie about a moderator infact i would be looking for a rifle which hasnt even been screw cut as they will be even cheaper
 
My last estate rifle in .243 had well over 3000 rnds through it (all factory 75grn) with minimal maintenance and it was shooting as well when I gave it back as when I got it new out of the box. That was a Sako 85 stainless fluted laminate. Kicking myself for not trying to get it included in my redundancy package.
 
if the action and magazine is long enough to house the cartridge, and of course, the bolt face unless it can be opened up slightly.

Best way to test is simply to see how a 7x57 round sits in your magazine box and if it can sit on the bolt face with the extraction mechanism in question. Any good modern action should not have issues with pressure/proof, but the limitation will be the length.

The standard overall length is 78mm so if you measure your magazine box it should be a bit longer than this, also, the bolt face should be able to house a rim of 12.10mm in diameter.

The feedrails might need some work, or if it's a magazine, the lips some minor re-shaping if it's possible (metal).
 
Thank you for that very concise & precise answer; just checked & my sako won't stretch to it, unfortunately
 
My Sako 75 is just having a new barrel fitted, the old one had about 6,000 rounds through it before it started to lose accuracy!
 
Thanks all - question answered and some! I will no longer worry about a round count of 500 which opens up a lot of rifles I was previously wary of. With regard to re-barreling until I can physically crawl dow
n the barrel I think I'll leave it, my ticket will only allow for the 243 if and when it finally comes through. Cheers again!
 
This is a photograph I took on the throat of my Winchester model 70 in 243 after 1600 rounds. I don't load particularly hot, for example, my standard deer load chucked the Nosler 95g Ballistic Tip at 2925fps using N160 (relatively slow burning powder). When I bought the rifle new, it would shoot three rounds into a comfortable 3/4 inch group ctc. With the throat in the condition shown in the photograph, it would shoot the 70g BalTip sufficiently accurately to head shoot rabbits (I mean in the brain) out to 200 yards but not beyond. It remained accurate for a further 1000 rounds or so (I don't have the precise number because a friend bought it from me and he doesn't keep the precise records I do). At that point, accuracy deteriorated noticeably - he was using it to shoot 90g Scenars at 1000 yards. It was still more than good enough for deer and fox out to 300 yards but not for the target shooting he was using it for. Here is the throat at 1600 rounds.

Win 243 04 crazed land.jpg

-JMS
 
I bought a Winchester M70 Varmint .243 just for the action the price was right I was going to build an F class 6.5x55 which I did, the barrel was pretty bad worse than that photo I loaded up some 90 grain Scenars fairly hot
and took it to the range to see what it would do to everyones surprise it was shooting high 90's scores at 900 yards so don't worry about round count most hunting rifles never shoot enough rounds to wear a barrel out. over zealous barrel scrubbing has worn out more barrels than hunting, if you buy a European rifle like Sako Tikka CZ with hammer forged barrels you will get a long run out of them, I have a 6mm Remington Parker Hale action Shaw
Barrel with 3500 round count had the barrel set back and rechambered should be good for another 1500 rounds still shoots 1" groups at 200 metres
 
Back
Top