What is average barrel life?

[Moman]

I have a Remington 700 in 280 Rem. Over the last year accuracy has been starting to fall off. This gun used to do 3 shots in one hole at 100 yds religously and now it's pretty close to the inch mark. I ordered some Wipeout after reading another post, should be here this week so that may help, but I'm pretty anal about keeping bores clean. I can't say for sure how many rounds through it but probably somewhere between 2,000-3,000, mostly 154 Hornady SP's at about 2850 fps. How many rounds do you expect out of a factory barrel?

[MagnumManiac]

You can get any number of shots out of a barrel,but like everything else in life,you may get more,or you may get less!
It doesn't sound like you have loaded 'em hot,so it just might be a case of that barrel coming to the end of it's useful life.Have you thought about getting the throat extended .020"-.025" ,to see if that changes anything,it can be inexpensive to try this before getting a new barrel fitted.To determine how much to extend it by, get a chamber cast done.
A good rule of thumb is about 3000 shots before throat erosion gets bad enough to open groups.It looks like you have reached that point if your groups are opening,but you may get another 2000 rounds at that level before they open again.An old way to bring groups back was to increase powder charges (safely) until your groups tightened again.
The theory behind this is that the throat being eroded ,the chamber is essentially 'freebored' and charges can be increased because there is usually a drop in pressure,and therefore velocity ,when the throat has elongated.
I don't know if this is true or not,I have always re-barreled when I have reached this point in barrel life.
MagnumManiac

[Tyler Kemp]

You can seat the bullets longer to reach the worn away rifling.

[wildcat]

If you got between 2000 and 3000 rounds out of your barrel, I would say that's good with the 280 Rem. Most of the calibers I like and shoot all have short barrel lives. When I say short barrel lives, I am talking about 1200 to 1500 rounds out of a custom barrel.

I am thinking the 280 Rem, with a factory barrel, will probably get about 2500 rounds out of it. I bet with a custom barrel, your round count will go up before you see an accuracy decline.

Anyhow, it sounds like your ready for a new barrel. If your going to stay with the 280 Rem, I would look at 1-9 twist Lilja barrel. Let us know what you decide.

W.