WSM Barrel life

[sodbuster]

I was talking to a smith, he said the WSM's Will probably wear out barrels faster than the regular mags. He makes and sells both. Is he right as far as you can tell?

[trader388]

wsm usually burn about 7% less powder than regular mags...but operate under higher pressure. I'd guess wsm life would last longer.

Higher pressure equates to higher temperatures, this and the combination of time ( and possible some corrosive material in the burn residue) is what erodes barrel throats. The temperatures are higher than the melting point of the metal in the barrel, but for a very short period of time. Never-the-less some of the throat melts away.

JK

[ 04-01-2004: Message edited by: Jay Kyle ]

[RiverRat]

I just had my 300 WSM rebarreled after 1459 rounds. The rifle was built for F class competition and was used as such and shot good enough to win the last F class match that I shot with it before rebarreling. After a little over a 1100 rounds I was constantly chasing the lands as they erroded to ensure the proper seating depth of the bullet off the lands. A fellow shooter that shot the 300 Win Mag. when he was shooting with the A.M.U. said the A.M.U. would rebarrel the the 300 Win. Mags. after 900 to 1100 rounds. I probably should have rebarreled my 300 WSM in about the same 900 to 1100 round window. It was just in the middle of the match season and I wanted to wait till the season was over. So from my experience with the 300 WSM and his experience with the 300 Win Mag, I would conclude that useable barrel life is approximately the same. The origianl barrel on the 300 WSM was a Lilja 1-11 twist 6 groove barrel, the new one is a Lilja 1 in 11 twist 3 groove barrel. Will be interesting to see how the 3 groove lasts as compared to the 6 groove. The loads are virtually identical using the same powder (N550) bullet (Sierra 175 MK) and primer (210M). So it is an apples for apples test. The new barrel just won the first match I shot it last Sunday so it is off to a good start. Will be interesting to see what happens.

RiverRat

[sodbuster]

Thanks guys, I couldn't see how it could be harder on the barrel with less powder and the same caliber.