Barrel life.

old keeper

Well-Known Member
I wonder if any of you technical guys can explain to an old timer if there is any rule of thumb on accelerated barrel wear caused by some of the high velocity rounds. This was something that years ago we never even thought of. One of my rifles is a H-S Precision 243 WSSM. I know this is not the most popular calibre but it shoots amazingly well, I believe that the anticipated barrel life is about 1500 rounds. why is this when other rounds with equally high velocity potential dont seem to cause the same wear problems? Incidentally Old Keeper is exactly that, and as I have more rifles than any sane person should have, the chances are that Old Keeper will wear out long before his barrels! Cheers.
 
Barrel life

Hi Old Keeper,
I am probably not qualified to answer this one, but a few of my target shooting friends tell me that it is usually the rate of fire that causes barrel wear rather than a particular calibre. After all they are all burning powder.
When powder burns the temperature is several times the melting point of the steel barrel.
If this doesn't cool between shots then the barrel will burn out quicker that if it can cool. What happens when barrels wear out is that the throat and Leade are erroded which then causes the bullet to skew or wobble as it enters the rifling causing wear on the bullet and it doesn't fly true.
By the way I am approaching retirement age (not that I will) and have also built up a number of rifles over the years. May You live long enough to burn out at least one of yours.
 
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