I too have shot the 160 accubonds out of several guns and will swear on a stack of bibles that the rated bc of .531 is not really what it is. Out of 4 guns at 1000 yards, it has hit low by several minutes each time compared to what Exbal and INfinity said it should. The .507 bc of the 180 accubond in thirty caliber is in my experience somewhat under rated. It usually shoots high in the dozens of guns that I have seen, shot myself, or heard about. They are supposedly the same bc as the 180 Ballistic tip when in reality, the two bullets have totally different bearing surfaces and lenghts.
Even if the two bullets (7 and 30) are the same bc or close to the same, I can get 3200 fps out of a 300 winny and still maintain good accuracy. I have yet to see a 7mm mag shoot well at anything over 3050. Run those numbers. I am not saying that the .284 bore is useless. In fact, I believe it to be one of the best "unused" calibers going. I say unused because up until the last few years, the 7's were nowhere to be found at the 1k benchrest matches. Thirties were and still are everywhere!
As for being a throat burner, you are right. Anything that gets hot will burn. But you make it sound like my friend abused his barrel. He did not. He never and I mean never got it hot, and he cleaned it religiously every 20 rounds. If he didn't, it wouldn't hit a Ford at 100 yards!
Have you ever borescoped your gun? He did his and it was ugly.
I have no doubt that if the bc is truly 1.00, and you can really get 3000 fps, it will be flatter and better in the wind than any .338. I can plainly see that without running it through one of my seven ballistic programs. The questions are:
Can you really get that velocity?
Is it really going to have a bc of 1.?
Can we compare an equally radical bullet for the .338 to yours?
Will it kick up enough dirt to see the impact at 2k?
What if you throat your gun for that one bullet and that one bullet doesn't agree with your barrel? Then what?
What if you really can get 3000 fps, will this super radical barrel shoot better at 2700, or even perhaps 2600?
These are things I would check on before I dumped thousands into a specialty 2k yard rig. THat is all I am saying. You might have the coolest lazer guided lead flinger on the planet, but if it won't last longer than a few hundred rounds, if ain't going to play with the .338 for long.
As for barrel life between the two, I would just like to know how you can say that the 7 stw loaded with 200 grain bullets will be easier on barrels. YOu are loading probably 70-80% as much powder as our .338, only you are trying to stuff it down a hole that is several calibers smaller, and is loaded to a higher psi. I would strongly suggest you read Oehler's interior ballistic examinations with regards to thrust, pressure curves, momentum of unburned powder, powder to bore ratios, and so on. It is not necessarily and only the amount of powder being propelled down the barrel that determines barrel life. It is many factors including bore size in relation to powder quantity, and others. A .45-120 burns a bunch of black powder, but it is easier on a barrel than a 7mm-08 because it is not channeling all that gas down a smaller hole, and it is not loaded to near the pressure. Therein lies the key.
