I have what used to be a Sendero w/ a laminated stock. I had it worked on by a friend of mine and am getting great groups. Its a chrome moly barrel and am wondering how many rounds would the barrel be good for? The load that I will be shooting will be a 180 gr. Accubond at around 3440 fps. The caliber is a .300 RUM. Its definitely a hot load but am getting around 1/2 moa out of it.
Barrel Life
- Thread starter bigmo101
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johnnyk
Well-Known Member
bigmo101,
Each caliber and barrel will vary, so I think about all you'll really get is a guestimate. I had a 7mm RemMag Sendero with a chrome-moly barrel and got close to 1500 rds through it before I decided to let the rifle go. Accuracy was still 1/2" with it's heat cracked throat. I lost confidence in it after a couple of unexplainable "wild" shots and traded it. It was terrible to clean and almost made me not want to shoot it! I don't remember feeling any noticeable heat cracks until it was like 9" from the chamber. I tried quiet a few bullets in that rifle, but mostly shot the 150gn Ballistic Tip with 67gn of RL22 and CCI BR2. Hope this helps, JohnnyK.
Each caliber and barrel will vary, so I think about all you'll really get is a guestimate. I had a 7mm RemMag Sendero with a chrome-moly barrel and got close to 1500 rds through it before I decided to let the rifle go. Accuracy was still 1/2" with it's heat cracked throat. I lost confidence in it after a couple of unexplainable "wild" shots and traded it. It was terrible to clean and almost made me not want to shoot it! I don't remember feeling any noticeable heat cracks until it was like 9" from the chamber. I tried quiet a few bullets in that rifle, but mostly shot the 150gn Ballistic Tip with 67gn of RL22 and CCI BR2. Hope this helps, JohnnyK.
johnnyk
Well-Known Member
I found them while cleaning the barrel. It's easy to discern from the heat cracked area (rough) and good barrel (smooth). As you're pushing the cleaning rod through, you can feel resistance and hear it (kinda' "static-ie") as the patch moves through the rough area. You'll know immediately when you leave this area as the patch glides smooth.
I first heard/read about heat cracks on a Benchrest forum. Never thought much about it and had never experienced it until that particular Sendero developed them. I guess it's really nothing but heat damage inside your barrel from the hot gases.
I would think with as many hot rods cartridges as there are out there, that someone else would have first hand knowledge of this and be willing to expound on it. I'm not the only one that shoots this much!! JohnnyK.
I first heard/read about heat cracks on a Benchrest forum. Never thought much about it and had never experienced it until that particular Sendero developed them. I guess it's really nothing but heat damage inside your barrel from the hot gases.
I would think with as many hot rods cartridges as there are out there, that someone else would have first hand knowledge of this and be willing to expound on it. I'm not the only one that shoots this much!! JohnnyK.
ol mike
Well-Known Member
Barrel life is something talked about alot in competition shooting and spills heavily over onto hunting forums.Shooting 15 shots back to back is pretty much unheard of w/a hunting rifle -as long as you leave out praire dogs and ground squirrels .
As long as you shoot a 300rum slow -never letting it feel hot to the touch it should go 1500 rounds i would think -a guess of coarse-..
Also keeping the barrel clean will help -i use wipe-out bore foam w/ the accelerator so my rifles rarely see a brush and when they do it's a nylon brush -that cuts out more metal to metal friction -not much but some.
With a hunting rifle i couldn't give a rats-*** about a five shot group - i don't remember ever shooting more than three times .
My usual way of testing longrange groups is shooting two back to back shots -the first shot is the absolute most important the second is to see if i can back it up.If i were to miss an animal on the first and second shot -i wouldn't consider taking a third shot so a third -fourth and fifth shot doesn't mean much to me.
Practicing using this mentality saves many rounds down a barrel and you'll basically never worry about a shot out barrel in a hunting rifle.
As long as you shoot a 300rum slow -never letting it feel hot to the touch it should go 1500 rounds i would think -a guess of coarse-..
Also keeping the barrel clean will help -i use wipe-out bore foam w/ the accelerator so my rifles rarely see a brush and when they do it's a nylon brush -that cuts out more metal to metal friction -not much but some.
With a hunting rifle i couldn't give a rats-*** about a five shot group - i don't remember ever shooting more than three times .
My usual way of testing longrange groups is shooting two back to back shots -the first shot is the absolute most important the second is to see if i can back it up.If i were to miss an animal on the first and second shot -i wouldn't consider taking a third shot so a third -fourth and fifth shot doesn't mean much to me.
Practicing using this mentality saves many rounds down a barrel and you'll basically never worry about a shot out barrel in a hunting rifle.
I don't do a whole lot of shooting with the 300 RUM, but I've got a couple of hundred rounds through the barrel and found a good load. Just looking to see what top end would be as far as the round count.
I agree whole heartedly about shooting a couple of shots. The most I shoot is three shots, and I usually clean between groups just to get a clean first shot out of the barrel. That was when I was trying new loads. I think now I will probably clean every ten or so rounds.
As far as cleaning goes, I use the Boretech Eliminator which works very well for me. It gets all the copper and fouling out pretty quick. I also use nylon brushes. Plus I just push patches on direction. I try and take care of my barrel as much as possible.
I agree whole heartedly about shooting a couple of shots. The most I shoot is three shots, and I usually clean between groups just to get a clean first shot out of the barrel. That was when I was trying new loads. I think now I will probably clean every ten or so rounds.
As far as cleaning goes, I use the Boretech Eliminator which works very well for me. It gets all the copper and fouling out pretty quick. I also use nylon brushes. Plus I just push patches on direction. I try and take care of my barrel as much as possible.
Michael Eichele
Well-Known Member
"Its definatly a hot load" is a gross understatment.
As far as barrel life, expect 700-1000 for a chrome moly barrel. SS would be a wee bit more by maybe 100-200 at best.
That's what I kinda figured. I probably won't shoot that many rounds out of it in my lifetime. But the main reason I was asking is because I am about to load up about 550 rounds. Now considering the fact that I have a couple of hundred rounds through it I should be good for a while.
ol mike
Well-Known Member
Bigmo -another opinion -loading up 550 rounds seems like a good idea -get it out of the way type of thing.BUT -i've had loads that shot great just fall apart as the barrel goes through the changes of wear.Sometimes you have to chase the lands as the throat gets burned out -you have to seat your ammo out a little closer to the rifling.
If this happened after a few hundred rounds you might end up having to pull a lot of loaded ammo and retune the load.Just a thought.-Mike
If this happened after a few hundred rounds you might end up having to pull a lot of loaded ammo and retune the load.Just a thought.-Mike
