6.5 Creedmoor Barrel Life
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Barrelnut
Well-Known Member
I've got one that has a little over 2300 rounds through it and I'm wanting to replace the barrel. I'm having issues reaching the lands now with 140 VLDs. I did shoot it in a 600 yard F-Class comp for 2 years though and that was kinda ruff on it.
gohring3006
Well-Known Member
I was going to say 2500 rounds and that's not babying it. If you shoot a group and let it cool, it probably has a 1000 more.
Barrelnut
Well-Known Member
Yea. I would think so too.
Litehiker
Well-Known Member
Generally cold hammer forged barrels will last longer due to being work hardened in their manufacture.
Heat is the enemy far more than wear and that is why the use of HBN (Hexagonal Boron Nitride) powder tumbled bullets is a good idea for barrel life. HBN reduces friction and heat will greatly help bore life. Also carbon fiber wrapped barrels run cooler and last longer.
Eric B.
Heat is the enemy far more than wear and that is why the use of HBN (Hexagonal Boron Nitride) powder tumbled bullets is a good idea for barrel life. HBN reduces friction and heat will greatly help bore life. Also carbon fiber wrapped barrels run cooler and last longer.
Eric B.
WildRose
Well-Known Member
Don't shoot the hottest loads you can shoot and keep your groups to 3 shots letting it cool down between and you should easily see between 2500-3000 Rounds.
If I were building one custom/semi custom I'd nitride it after breakin which should increase it's lifespan by as much as a third.
If I were building one custom/semi custom I'd nitride it after breakin which should increase it's lifespan by as much as a third.
Rich Coyle
Well-Known Member
Some of us have discovered that nitriding is a 50/50 shot at getting a good Barrel or bad Barrel. I won't do it anymore.
BallisticsGuy
Well-Known Member
You can actually calculate this (well estimate at least within a fairly small margin of error). Precisely enough in any event to give you a really good idea of when to plan for a barrel replacement. I make a little ballistics app that comes with a barrel life calculator (if you're interested in this, PM me).
To calculate you really need to know powder charge weight, powder heat (I provide powder heat ratings for several dozen powders in a handy table), bore diameter and your approximate peak pressure. In any event, it estimates 2140 with H4350 on an uncoated bullet. With Moly or HBN it estimates 2620. So far it's been very very accurate in bore sizes from .17 to .33 cal. What is meant by "barrel life" is match grade barrel life.
To calculate you really need to know powder charge weight, powder heat (I provide powder heat ratings for several dozen powders in a handy table), bore diameter and your approximate peak pressure. In any event, it estimates 2140 with H4350 on an uncoated bullet. With Moly or HBN it estimates 2620. So far it's been very very accurate in bore sizes from .17 to .33 cal. What is meant by "barrel life" is match grade barrel life.
Rich Coyle
Well-Known Member
BallisticsGuy,
Most folks fire three or five shots and then let the barrel cool. I fire one and wait until the barrel is cool according to an infrared thermometer before firing the next one.
Does your app take into account if one fires five shot groups or three shot groups without cooling between shots number one, shot number two, shot number three, etc.?
Most folks fire three or five shots and then let the barrel cool. I fire one and wait until the barrel is cool according to an infrared thermometer before firing the next one.
Does your app take into account if one fires five shot groups or three shot groups without cooling between shots number one, shot number two, shot number three, etc.?
BallisticsGuy
Well-Known Member
No, no, no. You're talking about something more like a shot logger with a feedback loop into the barrel life estimator. That's a whole different animal of tremendous complexity requiring either sensors built into the gun or the use of even more wild approximations and rules of thumb than I'm already using. I'm working on something of that sort and have an alpha version in testing right now but testing could easily take a couple years since I'm funding it and developing it myself.
My calculator does deduce an optimal shot interval and provides that to you... A sort of "shoot this fast or slower" suggestion. Normal shot intervals it returns are in the 20-55 second range so they're totally in line with how one "would" do things in the real world on a bolt gun under target shooting conditions. The more overbore the case, the longer the interval.
Occasional ignoring of the generated interval recommendation won't be a big deal but consistent breaches will and the more consistent and the greater the typical departure from the recommendation, the more it'll be off on shot-life estimation.
Sets of groups are subsumed into that interval suggestion. 3 shot or 5 shot groups wouldn't much matter across the life of the barrel so long as the total time from start to finish for a session with a set of groups averaged out to obey or nearly obey the interval suggestion. 1 shot, cool, 1 shot, etc... will lead to longer life but by how much? Meh... probably not as much as one would hope or think.
FWIW, I shoot matches where we do one shot every several minutes, and matches where we do strings of 5 shots in 2.5mins and other matches with strings of 10 shots in 2.5mins. Barrel life hasn't really been affected one way or the other by shooting 5 shots or 10 shots. What the calculator says has pretty much been right, within a small margin of error that I expect. One-shot, cool, one-shot stuff I only do with extremely overbore magnums with super short barrel lives anyway so there's no good statistically interesting data there.
LMK if that's not super clear.
EDIT: What my app does do is track shot number within groups and then does the statistics across groups and across shot number within groups and across the barrels life. So you get to see what's happening with shot 3 of 5 in every group you keep data for.
My calculator does deduce an optimal shot interval and provides that to you... A sort of "shoot this fast or slower" suggestion. Normal shot intervals it returns are in the 20-55 second range so they're totally in line with how one "would" do things in the real world on a bolt gun under target shooting conditions. The more overbore the case, the longer the interval.
Occasional ignoring of the generated interval recommendation won't be a big deal but consistent breaches will and the more consistent and the greater the typical departure from the recommendation, the more it'll be off on shot-life estimation.
Sets of groups are subsumed into that interval suggestion. 3 shot or 5 shot groups wouldn't much matter across the life of the barrel so long as the total time from start to finish for a session with a set of groups averaged out to obey or nearly obey the interval suggestion. 1 shot, cool, 1 shot, etc... will lead to longer life but by how much? Meh... probably not as much as one would hope or think.
FWIW, I shoot matches where we do one shot every several minutes, and matches where we do strings of 5 shots in 2.5mins and other matches with strings of 10 shots in 2.5mins. Barrel life hasn't really been affected one way or the other by shooting 5 shots or 10 shots. What the calculator says has pretty much been right, within a small margin of error that I expect. One-shot, cool, one-shot stuff I only do with extremely overbore magnums with super short barrel lives anyway so there's no good statistically interesting data there.
LMK if that's not super clear.
EDIT: What my app does do is track shot number within groups and then does the statistics across groups and across shot number within groups and across the barrels life. So you get to see what's happening with shot 3 of 5 in every group you keep data for.
Under PRS match conditions, mostly conducted in the warmer months, I've seen several 6.5CM barrels replaced in the 2200-2400 count range, indicated by approximately a .5MOA loss in accuracy. This number was also confirmed by the team from Ruger(all using the 6.5xCM} that had participated in one of our matches. The conditions are typically 8-10 stages of rapid ten shot strings, with cooling time between stages. iInterestingly, my 308's and 260 Remingtons used in competition have all needed rebarreling in the 2000-2500 shot range as well under these conditions. As mentioned in previous posts, I suppose one might get another 500+ rounds of barrel life with more moderated shooting conditions.
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MudRunner2005
Well-Known Member
If you coat your barrel with baby seal oil & unicorn tears blessed by an indian medicine man, it will gain 500 FPS and the barrel will last 10,000 rounds. That's what I heard from the high school dropout at the local big box store...
Seriously though, I have no idea, just wanted to make a joke.
Seriously though, I have no idea, just wanted to make a joke.
Rich Coyle
Well-Known Member
Schnyd112
Well-Known Member
It's not going to just go bad at a certain round count. The barrel has no idea how many times it has been shot. It is all dependent on how you run it and what you deem acceptable. As the barrel wears out it may get more picky about loads, cleanliness and conditions. On the same note, if you stay on top of it and constantly tweak and change to keep it shooting it will last a long time past what anybody would expect.
I had a .220 swift that lived on 50g v max at 3950 and it was still a 5 shot, .75 moa rifle when I took the barrel off. It had over 3000 rounds but still had no problem killing coyotes.
If you have a match gun and you shoot xxxx rounds a year, and don't want to get stuck with a barrel that is running away mid season, chances are it will be replaced early due to convienence, not necessarily because it is shot out.
I had a .220 swift that lived on 50g v max at 3950 and it was still a 5 shot, .75 moa rifle when I took the barrel off. It had over 3000 rounds but still had no problem killing coyotes.
If you have a match gun and you shoot xxxx rounds a year, and don't want to get stuck with a barrel that is running away mid season, chances are it will be replaced early due to convienence, not necessarily because it is shot out.
