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and chuck up a carbon rod in a drill with a bore brush, and go to town on stripping that thing down to the barest of metal. Run a set of Tubbs Final Finish through it, and see what it does.Oh yeah, 100%. This is why I have a 223 AI, the barrel life on that thing is measured by my attention span more than anything else. I'll get bored of it, or decide to not buy another lot of brass for it before it burns out. Gives me something to shoot while the boomer is cooling down. 22LR and 300 BLK are also great high-volume shooters, they're the most fun I have on some trips. When nothing is going right with the 6BR and life sucks I can pull out my 22LR and go 'ding-ding-ding' at 300 to remind myself I'm not a total idiot
This is a really good reason for people who think they can't afford to "build" a rifle to stop buying off the shelf to change calibers. Get a good action, and get it bedded into a good stock, then you can change out barrels whenever you need to. Impact Precision and Defiance both have shouldered prefits available, and both companies sell replacement bolts so you can even change the bolt face size with a new barrel just as easy. There are so many actions with 0.001" headspace guarantees now that shouldered prefits not only are common but work great, you don't have to mess with the Savage/Remage anymore if you don't want to. If you don't mind a Remage, there's no reason to not bed even a factory action into a good stock and have a life-time hunting rifle that is multi-caliber capable.
They aren't exactly running mass produced prefits, but essentially they're running custom pre-fits based on the measurements of their last barrel. Some smiths are good enough to not even need the rifle in-hand to fit a barrel, they take good notes and trust their work.
I shoot High Power and a .260 rem probably 2500 rnds before setting back the barrel an inch or so then another 1500 rnds after that. This meant every year I would put another barrel on the rifle which I do myself, chambering is not the most difficult machining job to do thankfully or it might be beyond my abilities. I shot a 600 yd match at Camp Perry years ago and a shooter came over to me after the 20 shot string, his name was Peter LaBerge, and asked me if I knew what he was doing during the string and I replied I had no idea as I was concentrating as much as I could to keep them in the middle, every shot at 600 yds you have to check the wind and guess your correction. He said he could tell I was shooting fairly well and would wait untill I shot then use my shot to see what the wind was doing then make his own correction using partially my shots for dope. That string I happened to shoot a 200 with 13X which is very good for me he won with a 200 15X. The next match I dropped 1 point and after that match he came over and told me my mistake with that shot which was as he told me I was shooting at the left side of the 10 ring thinking the wind would push me farther into the middle when it changed but like he explained it is more likely for ot to let off than increase so that happened,it let off and I shot a 9 my strategy was not correct. He knew what I was thinking and was still wind doping off my target while shooting next to me, He was a very good and smart shooter. The reason for this long winded story is showing that he was very experianced and undoubtably had shot out dozens of barrels and I respect what he said and he claimed that when his barrels got long in the tooth he got some medium grit grinding compound with diamond dust in it and would polish the throat area and greatly prolong the barrel life. Like you said if your barrel is getting close to being done what do you have to loose. By the way that perticular barrel I was shooting was on of the best shooters I ever had and was a douglas lapped and installed by the great Jim Cloward, at the time we were using Iron sights and with that barrel you could click you sights back and forth inside the X ring at 600 and it would keep the shots insise the Xring back and forth that always fascinated me that your eye could see well enough to do thatOne thing I'll throw out - if a barrel is "burned out" (end of total life or accurate life for a use) and you're committed to getting a new barrel: you have absolutely nothing to lose by trying new and aggressive cleaning methods. That's a great time to try out one of the abrasives or harsh chemicals that would just absolutely destroy a barrel in it's prime
So pull out the JB or Iosso, grab your felt pellets and have a go at it. Go full-on
It's a loss anyways right? All you have to lose is some time and a little bit of effort, but you stand to gain challenging common preconceptions. And if Iosso and a nylon brush really does carve canyons through your rifling, you can forever lord it over the rest of the peasants that have never sacrificed a barrel for winning an internet argument.
Oh yeah, 100%. This is why I have a 223 AI, the barrel life on that thing is measured by my attention span more than anything else. I'll get bored of it, or decide to not buy another lot of brass for it before it burns out. Gives me something to shoot while the boomer is cooling down. 22LR and 300 BLK are also great high-volume shooters, they're the most fun I have on some trips. When nothing is going right with the 6BR and life sucks I can pull out my 22LR and go 'ding-ding-ding' at 300 to remind myself I'm not a total idiot
This is a really good reason for people who think they can't afford to "build" a rifle to stop buying off the shelf to change calibers. Get a good action, and get it bedded into a good stock, then you can change out barrels whenever you need to. Impact Precision and Defiance both have shouldered prefits available, and both companies sell replacement bolts so you can even change the bolt face size with a new barrel just as easy. There are so many actions with 0.001" headspace guarantees now that shouldered prefits not only are common but work great, you don't have to mess with the Savage/Remage anymore if you don't want to. If you don't mind a Remage, there's no reason to not bed even a factory action into a good stock and have a life-time hunting rifle that is multi-caliber capable.
I could really wreck some minds by pointing out that some benchrest guys epoxy their actions into their stocks, and change barrels without taking the action out ever again.
It was my intention to not quote anyone, merely expressing my opinion on the cost(s) associated with rebarreling a rifle.
FWIW - I've shot out several barrels in less time than I replaced my last set of brakes. And new brakes don't require a new work up to achieve maximum effectiveness.
