.338 Edge bbl life

[Hicks]

I'm interested in building one with a really long Hart bbl, but coming off a 7mm RUM I'm a little concerned about usable bbl life. My 7RUM turned over at about 500 rounds, just guessing on that but I only had use of it for 3 seasons. For those of you who have one, how many rounds do you expect to get out of it? I'm assuming that I would load it to Carlock's specs and probably would never push a 300 gr. SMK faster than 2900fps. I'm more interested in accuracy than speed.

Hicks

 

[B23]

Well, since you said you wanted to put a "Really" long barrel on it you could always set it back when you thought the accuracy deminished but my best guess is you had other issues with your 7RUM if it "turned over at 500 rounds".

 

[highridge1]

I think 1500 rounds is very reasonable

 

[Hicks]

Well, since you said you wanted to put a "Really" long barrel on it you could always set it back when you thought the accuracy deminished but my best guess is you had other issues with your 7RUM if it "turned over at 500 rounds".

I think the issue I had was that I tried to make it do something it was not designed to do, which is shoot the 180 Bergers accurately. I tried 3 or 4 different powders, and did several ladder tests. One afternoon the 2" groups I was getting ballooned into 5-6" groups. You could have had that rifle for a song from me that day.

 

[Booney]

I think it is over 2000.Shawn would know.

 

[B23]

Sounds like maybe the barrel got really carbon fouled. Did you give it a good scrubbing? I used to think I was getting my barrels really clean before someone showed me how much I was missing. Also, it's been my experience that factory barrels are MUCH harder to get clean than are custom barrels.

If you still have that 7RUM I would scrubb the heck out of it with a good carbon cleaner. I've never owned a 7RUM but they shoot a hat full of powder in a small bore so they could carbon foul a little easier than the bigger bore RUM stuff.

Just a thought

 

[Long Time Long Ranger]

I quit doing the 7mm-300 RUM in 1999 because it ate up barrels worse than a 30-378 wby. 500 rounds is about right. But then it depends on how you shoot it, clean it, etc.

I doubt you need to worry about barrel life with the 338-300 RUM. To my knowledge all the ones I did for guys all over the country from 1998-2001 are still going strong. I still have two of those original rifles from 1998-1999 time frame and they still shoot great after who knows how many rounds on the range at my old shop. I am sure guys have more than 1500 rounds on a few of those rifles. That is one of the great plusses of doing a long range rifle in 338. Barrels will last you a lifetime. High performance 300's not as long and 7mm's not long at all by comparison.

Your choice is a great cartridge with long barrel life, thus their popularity. Do not plan on seeing 2900 fps out of it though. You may, and it is possible with a real fast barrel but expect your best accuracy to come in from 2750-2850 fps.

 

[Michael Eichele]

About 350 rounds through my edge and there is no visible errosion or major heat checking when looking through the bore scope. Then again, I dont hot rod her or even run top loads. I dont shoot too many rounds in a string either. After burning out 2 300 RUM barrels, I find the 338 Edge to be a welcome round. Hits harder at LR to boot. I dont care what others say, the 7 RUM boasts a very short life even if it is glorious. 500 rounds is a pretty good life for it.

M

 

[Hicks]

I think I spent more time cleaning the 7RUM than I did shooting it! I found that the best accuracy with the accubonds was round two through about maybe 6-7. After that the accuracy opened up. I used the Barns copper cleaner and scrubbed religiously until there was no more color to be had on the patch. And it seemed like it fouled REALLY quickly. By comparison I have a M1917 Eddystone which I inherited from my grandpa. That think hates being clean. It seems to get more accurate that dirtier it is, in fact the first 5 rounds or so out of it really suck, but after that it like to shoot nice little groups. Go figure.

Hicks