Anyone burned out a custom barrel?

[Broz]

Jeff, What type of velocity are you guys getting If you dont mind me asking.... oh ya and barrel legth.

Both rifles have 28" Broughton 5C's 1 in 10 twist.

My rifle shoots the 215 at 3035.

Young_Gun's shoots the 230's at 2775

Jeff

 

[deathwobble]

deathwobble,

yes, I've shot out several hundred over the years. You're asking a question that's far too broad here. I've had many that went up to 3-4 thousand rounds. I've had others that were gone in less than four or five hundred rounds. The chambering, intensity of the load and bullet weights involved all go into this equation. Perhaps most importantly, what is "shot out"? That's a question that only the shooter can answer, and it'll vary wildly from one shooter to the next. What a Marksman Long Range shooter considers perfectly acceptable, a High Master would have pulled long before. In my case, when using these barrels for testing, I HAD to have ten-round 1/2 MOA groups, consistently, without fail. As soon as they lost that edge, I pulled them, since they weren't worth my time to mess with anymore. I always had several guys who would be waiting for my take off barrels, to be redone as hunting rifles. Many of them went on to very long and happy hunting careers after they were and the guys were always happy to get them.




Like I said, there's several questions more that need to be answered here, before you can really get any kind of definitive answer to this one.

First of all Im not benchrest shooting this will be a weekend shooter out to a mile, and everything in between but all that said I would like to have a healthy accurate 2000 round barrel life. I also intend to push the loads as heavy as I can without sacrificing accuracy so untill I know how hot they are theres no way of probably telling how much life I can expect. All Ive gathered so far is that the RUM will probably wear quiker and I kinda think the added wear is probably not worth the small perfomance gain.................. Unless someone can change my mind?

 

[deathwobble]

Both rifles have 28" Broughton 5C's 1 in 10 twist.

My rifle shoots the 215 at 3035.

Young_Gun's shoots the 230's at 2775

Jeff

Nice sounds like some heathly loads... I gonna have my gunsmith finish my barrel out a 30" . Really curious to see what kind of velocity I can accurately produce

 

[Kevin Thomas]

deathwobble,

From what you're describing here, you're looking at a worst case scenario, regardless of which one you go with. Large capacity cases are harder on barrels than smaller ones (pressures being equal), higher pressure cartridges are harder on barrels than lower, and heavy bullet loads are harder on barrels than lighter bullets. Throw varying flame temps between various (double or single base) powders, and you begin to see how many variables are at work here. On top of this, you need to consider "how" barrels go bad. I've never seen one just suddenly stop shooting. A good quality barrel will continue to shoot outstanding groups, but you see in increase in flyers, first very slightly out of the group. As the round count climbs, those flyers become both more frequent, and will tend to move further away from the centroid of the group. At some point, you just have to admit that it's time to pull the plug, because that barrel is dead. In my work, I simply didn't have the time to waste it messing with a questionable barrel. I also kept logs on each barrel, and when they approached the point where similarly chambered barrels had died, I began looking for signs that the bore was gone. With a standard 308 Win, that was usually around 3,500 rounds, give or take a few hundred. With the 300 WM, 1,200 was usually about as far as they went.

Barrels are expendable, and if you're going to play certain games, you need to wrap your mind around that fact. They're "perishable tooling," and nothing more. From what you're saying you want to do here, I'd say somewhere around 1,000 rounds is a pretty safe bet, and wouldn't count on a barrel going much beyond that, if that far. Cost of doing business.

 

[deathwobble]

deathwobble,

From what you're describing here, you're looking at a worst case scenario, regardless of which one you go with. Large capacity cases are harder on barrels than smaller ones (pressures being equal), higher pressure cartridges are harder on barrels than lower, and heavy bullet loads are harder on barrels than lighter bullets. Throw varying flame temps between various (double or single base) powders, and you begin to see how many variables are at work here. On top of this, you need to consider "how" barrels go bad. I've never seen one just suddenly stop shooting. A good quality barrel will continue to shoot outstanding groups, but you see in increase in flyers, first very slightly out of the group. As the round count climbs, those flyers become both more frequent, and will tend to move further away from the centroid of the group. At some point, you just have to admit that it's time to pull the plug, because that barrel is dead. In my work, I simply didn't have the time to waste it messing with a questionable barrel. I also kept logs on each barrel, and when they approached the point where similarly chambered barrels had died, I began looking for signs that the bore was gone. With a standard 308 Win, that was usually around 3,500 rounds, give or take a few hundred. With the 300 WM, 1,200 was usually about as far as they went.

Barrels are expendable, and if you're going to play certain games, you need to wrap your mind around that fact. They're "perishable tooling," and nothing more. From what you're saying you want to do here, I'd say somewhere around 1,000 rounds is a pretty safe bet, and wouldn't count on a barrel going much beyond that, if that far. Cost of doing business.

thanks for the incite. Like I said before I just want to make sure im not missing something

 

[J E Custom]

This is more than just a bit of a stretch

I,m Sorry you don,t believe that a rifle can have over 20,000 rounds through it and still shoot.

When I tried out for the rifle team at Paris Iland I was given an armory rifle that had over
75,000 rounds through it and managed to qualified anyway. It wouldn't shoot 1/2 Mao groups
but was a consistent 1 MOA shooter.

As I said earlier, there are a lot of reasons that a barrel gets shot out and one poster stated shot out means different things to different shooters.

My match rifle is in 308 win and has a heavy hart barrel and the loads that were the most accurate were under 2700 ft/sec. this was the only match rifle that I could afford and it was taken very good
care of.

I used it to compete in 200, 300, 600,1,000 and on occasion 2,000 yard Creedmore matches and to be completive it had to shoot sub 1/2 Mao.

I still have this rifle in its original condition and would be happy to show you the match book (It has all the matches it was use in and the round count of those matches)and the accuracy of the rifle if you would like to see it, I would be happy to demonstrate it for you.

Is This unusual ?Yes . is it common ? No but it does and has happened Before.

J E CUSTOM

 

[BountyHunter]

JE

bolt gun or M1A?

1k M1As are totally different setup than 600 yd across the course (200-600 yd matches)
guns which would have to have been M1A if 308.

So obviously you are talking multiple guns and calibers for all those matches. Maybe that was causing the confusion.

BH

 

[Trickymissfit]

Tony Boyer once said that he went thru four to six barrels a year on his bench guns (each one). He once said that he had had them that were only good for 200 rounds and others that went 600 rounds.
gary

 

[J E Custom]

JE

bolt gun or MA?

1k M1As are totally different setup than 600 yd across the course (200-600 yd matches)
guns which would have to have been M1A if 308.

So obviously you are talking multiple guns and calibers for all those matches. Maybe that was causing the confusion.

BH

Yes; the rifle I qualified on was a M1 in 3006 that had over 75,000 rounds.

My personal rifle that I shot High Power with was a Remington 40 x range master in the beginning
and later I restocked it for a better fit for all positions. I fitted the hand made stock with an adjustable but plate for standing , siting and prone. For the Creedmore shoot we rested the barrel
on our foot laying backwards (Feet first to the targets) and holding our heads up with our free hand
(Very uncomfortable).

The 308 was not ideal for this match but it was surprising how well it did.

I realize it is no longer bench rest quality but it will still shoot 1/2 MOA groups.

The point to this was that some rifles shoot out barrels very fast others will last a lifetime
with good to reasonable accuracy.

J E CUSTOM

 

[Tumbleweed]

Remington 700 with 27" lilja barrel. Used mostly 210VLD's. First 750 rounds through it were in a 300Wby chambering. Re chambered to 300 RUM and it was gone by about 1300 rounds total. It was never babied, I always ran max loads but it sure was accurate up to about 1100 rounds.

 

[ekaphoto]

First of all Im not benchrest shooting this will be a weekend shooter out to a mile, and everything in between but all that said I would like to have a healthy accurate 2000 round barrel life. I also intend to push the loads as heavy as I can without sacrificing accuracy so untill I know how hot they are theres no way of probably telling how much life I can expect. All Ive gathered so far is that the RUM will probably wear quiker and I kinda think the added wear is probably not worth the small perfomance gain.................. Unless someone can change my mind?

I know it is not sexy or exotic but what about a 30-06 with a long barrel. You should get long life from the barrel and it will go out a long ways. Not sure it will make it a full mile out but then again you may have to go to someting like a 338 Laupia or a 6.5-284 for that. I have an 06 I had built in 1989 and shot the barrel out but it took years and was a very accurate rifle. The 06 is good well past a 1000 yards. Here is an article about a guy using a 30-06 out to a 1000 yards in competition.

Eliseo RT10 30-06 Long Range Rifle

 

[deathwobble]

I know it is not sexy or exotic but what about a 30-06 with a long barrel. You should get long life from the barrel and it will go out a long ways. Not sure it will make it a full mile out but then again you may have to go to someting like a 338 Laupia or a 6.5-284 for that. I have an 06 I had built in 1989 and shot the barrel out but it took years and was a very accurate rifle. The 06 is good well past a 1000 yards. Here is an article about a guy using a 30-06 out to a 1000 yards in competition.

Eliseo RT10 30-06 Long Range Rifle

the rifle that I ordered the new .30cal barrel for Is currently chambered in 30-06 specs are
Action:R700LA lapped
Trigger: older stlye factory
Barrel: 24" sporter
Stock: pillar bedded walnut
Caliber:30-06
Current load: 185berger vld 56.5gr-IMR4350-2850fps sub MOA
dont get me wrong I love this rifle the way it is but it can only get better.. kinda loses the umph after1400yards as for the other calibers you mentioned Im not quite interested in the lapua not enough .338 bullet selection for my taste. but very capable round. and as for the 6.5X284 total barrel scorcher with full power loads also does not have the down range energy at a mile Im looking for... Not to mention I just built a rediculously accurate 6.5-06 (Pretty much the twin of the 6.5x284) this past december. which pretty much dominates the old 30-06 in almost every way flatter shooting more down range energy and less recoil.