Anyone burned out a custom barrel?

[deathwobble]

Just wondering if anyone has burned out a custom 30cal barrel before if so what round and how many before accuracy went. just wondering if expected life round counts for overbore cartrigdes like 300 rum are accurate when talk about an after market barrel. just ordered a 30 cal brux standard palma and although I was gonna go with .300WM now Im thinking maybe the RUM would be the way to go.... any experience with this would be helpful thanks

 

[J E Custom]

Just wondering if anyone has burned out a custom 30cal barrel before if so what round and how many before accuracy went. just wondering if expected life round counts for overbore cartrigdes like 300 rum are accurate when talk about an after market barrel. just ordered a 30 cal brux standard palma and although I was gonna go with .300WM now I'm thinking maybe the RUM would be the way to go.... any experience with this would be helpful thanks

I am sure that some have washed out custom barrels but I have only lost two over the years.

Interestingly the really big cartridges don't get shot as much as the small cartridges that don,t seem
to be hard on barrels do.

Mine were the 30/338 close to 2,000 rounds and a 7 STW with about the same round count.

Both were loaded 3400 to 3600 ft/sec with heavy bullets.

It appears that if you stay at or below 3,000 ft/sec with any caliber barrel life is extended.

I have a 308 match rifle that I competed for 15 years with that has well over 20,000 rounds down
the tube and will still hold 1/2 MOA (Iron Sites) if I do my part. The lead and throat show some
signs of wear and If accuracy ever falls off I will set the chamber back one thread because the
rest of the barrel still looks good.

So what I,m trying to tell you is that there is no magic number that when reached the barrel
must go. If you take care of a quality custom barrel and don't over heat it with lots of rapid firing
it should last long enough to pay for it,s self many times over.

Build what you want, shoot what you want and enjoy your rifle. Don,t worry about barrel life,
you would be surprised how long they last with care and non abuse.

This is just My opinion on barrel life, Others may feel differently.

J E CUSTOM

 

[Broz]

Had a 300 RUM several years back with a 1 in 10 Krieger, started chasing the throat at 500 rounds and got accuracy back. By 700 rounds it looked pretty ugly inside and accuracy was ok but failing. At 1000 it was a 1 1/2 moa rifle , I re-barreled it to 300 win.

Jeff

 

[Tikkamike]

Had a 300 RUM several years back with a 1 in 10 Krieger, started chasing the throat at 500 rounds and got accuracy back. By 700 rounds it looked pretty ugly inside and accuracy was ok but failing. At 1000 it was a 1 1/2 moa rifle , I re-barreled it to 300 win.

Jeff

I have only ever shot one barrel out and it was a 25-06, I shot that thing ALL the time. I dont know this for a fact but I would imagine a nicer factory barrel what is pretty smooth like my tikka 25-06 was it would probably wear similar to a custom barrel.

 

[RTK]

Have a 22-250AI that has had the barrel set back once and now will be re-barreled. I pushed them pretty hard in that gun though and made the mistake of letting my brother borrow it once.

 

[Michael Eichele]

I have had bad luck with custom 300rum barrels. One made it to 1100 rounds but with lots of headaches. The other was gone in 500 with even more headaches. A good custom barrel has only one way to go unlike factory barrels. That is down hill. Factory barrels usually improve before starting down. When you subject the kind of heat and flame to a pristine barrel, it doesn't take long for things to head south. You can go longer if you keep loads mild. Just because you can get 3300+ FPS running 180's doesn't mean it's good for it. Keep it to 3100 and they'll go a lot further. With that I'm mind, you may as well go with the 300WM. Save the powder, shoulder and barrel. If you run too many hit loads, cook the first inch or two, you will be reducing your loads anyway from increased friction and subsequent pressure. You'll be down to 3100-3200 anyway.

 

[Tikkamike]

+1 on 300 win. to me the rum is a waste of powder and time

 

[deathwobble]

thanks for the for the advise guys... leaning towards the the WinMag just making sure i didnt miss something about the RUM before ordering the whole set up dies, bullets etc.

 

[Broz]

thanks for the for the advise guys... leaning towards the the WinMag just making sure i didnt miss something about the RUM before ordering the whole set up dies, bullets etc.

The 300 win with a 215 Berger Hybrid is one nice set up. We took a little gal out the other evening to see if she could deal with the recoil and sound from the brake on my 300 win. She is deciding what she wants for a new rifle. She left with a big smile and her mind made up after she put 2 into a spot the size of a paper plate on a rock wall at 933 yards. That was the farthest she had ever attempted to shoot.

Jeff

 

[deathwobble]

Nice, ever run 230 bergers through your WinMag? pretty sure Im gonna try a box see how they work out.

 

[Kevin Thomas]

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.

 

[Broz]

Nice, ever run 230 bergers through your WinMag? pretty sure Im gonna try a box see how they work out.

Yes, My son "Young_Gun" shoots the 230's in his 300 win. He is very happy with them as well.

Jeff

 

[deathwobble]

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

 

[brian b]

I have a 308 match rifle that I competed for 15 years with that has well over 20,000 rounds down
the tube and will still hold 1/2 MOA (Iron Sites) if I do my part. The lead and throat show some
signs of wear and If accuracy ever falls off I will set the chamber back one thread because the
rest of the barrel still looks good.

J E CUSTOM

This is more than just a bit of a stretch