6.5x284 barrel life

[rscott5028]

The 2 biggest drawbacks to 6.5x284 that I often hear vs other 6.5's are (1) lack of off the shelf ammo, and (2) barrel life.

Neither really bothers me. But, I am curious as to the effects of barrel life if you load it down to 260 Rem velocities.

i.e. one load for 500yd plinking and another for 1k

That would certainly seem easier than trying to push 260 Rem to 6.5x284 top speeds.

Thanks!
Richard

 

[Mikecr]

If you can load it down with slower/cooler powder and get good accuracy, it would improve barrel life some. You might stretch it to 1500rds with that. If it were used soley for hunting(not a lot of group shooting), you might get 1800.
Add a cutoff of >1/2moa, & you might call it toast at 2000.

But if you compete with it, you might as well keep barrels coming every 800-1200. Otherwise you can't expect to stay with those who do. Nothing is free.

There is alot of hot air out there from the mighty mouse crowd claiming 6.5x284 performance with less(6.5x47). Total BS, and time will resolve this as evident.
They are accurate up close(600yd purpose), and in the calm, if running extreme pressures with lighter bullets(like 6PPCs). But I don't expect to see any of that going on at tougher condition 1kyd courses. The 6x47 will prove better there(basically a dasher).
And at extreme pressures, their barrel life might not end up an advantage either(again, like 6PPCs).
As seen with wildcats, whenever you go to ANY extreme, either way, you can expect high costs in one performance or another, good and bad.

 

[rscott5028]

Mikecr,

I was thinking in general terms.

But, you made some great points.

thanks!
Richard

 

[Bart B]

I've been using a barrel life formula for years that's based on 1 grain of powder for each square millimeter of the bore's cross sectional area. With a charge weight as such, barrel life in a top quality, 1/4th MOA barrel, you'll get about 3000 rounds of decent accuracy. 1500 rounds of the very best and 1500 rounds of very, very good performance. After that many shots, accuracy seems to noticably drop off. This applies to shooters who are very good marksmen, though. If one's a klutz as far as shooting accurate, a barrel may well last forever.

Double the charge weight for a given bore size and barrel life shortens to 1/4th as many rounds.

With most factory sporting barrels typical 1 MOA accuracy or thereabouts, the numbers above double. For service rifle barrels and their 2 MOA starting accuracy level, the numbers are near four times as many. Top quality .308 Win. competition rifles got 3000 rounds of decent accuracy, factory sporters about 6000 but M14's would go 10,000 to 12,000 rounds when the military bore erosion gage read 10 indicating time to rebarrel those semiautos.

Interesting that .22 rimfire match barrels used to last 50,000 rounds or more before their best ammo's priming compound changed in the 1980's. Nowadays, they usually get rebarreled at about 30,000 rounds.