Barrel Temp When Shooting

[Sendero10]

Guys,

I have a Remington Sendero 300 win mag mostly stock with an aftermarket muzzle break. I am new into the long range shooting world and have cought the fever. When I am shooting I shoot 3-4 times in about 5 minues and my barrel is really hot. Does this hurt the short or longterm accuracy of the barrel? Can you ruin a gun by shooting it when the barrel is hot?

How long should you wait between shots?

I have a similar setup in a 220 swift would it be the same for that gun?

Thanks for your advice!

gun)

 

[rscott5028]

I've had rifles that get scaulding hot after 2 or 3 shots.

I've also had several customs including a factory Sendero 7RM that reach a constant temp when shooting 20 shot strings in mild weather.

Either way, you can abuse the barrel and shorten the life.

I've read that it's the rapid heating of the inside of the throat area in opposition to the cold outer portion of the barrel that begins to cause stratification and flaking within the throat. I don't know if that's true or an accurate depiction. If so, then getting to an even temperature would promote consistency as well as barrel life.

I'm keen to hear what others have to say.

-- richard

 

[royinidaho]

I shoot 3 shots for load development space only by less than a minute.

Subsequent groups are started with an ambient temp barrel for the day. I keep the rifle in shade in the summer.

LRH is all about cold bore shots. Thus later on, after all tuning and drop charts are finalized it's one shot a day for several days to confirm things.

My barrels are heavy and heat slowly but stay that way a long time.......

 

[trebark]

Heat is the enemy of barrel life. Often you will hear discussions of one cartridge providing more barrel life than another. For instance, a 6.5x284 is a known barrel burner whereas a 308win is not. This is because the 6.5 burns a bunch of powder at a high temp and pressure. This erodes the throat.

Even with a barrel burner cartridge, you can still get decent barrel life out of the cartridge by not 'abusing' the barrel - which is to say, not shooting long continuous strings. The guys that burn barrels out fast are competition shoots that shoot 15 or 20 shot strings in a short amount of time and do it on a regular and almost continuous basis.

If you just shoot a couple of rounds and let the barrel cool down, it should not have a terrible affect on your barrel's life.

Then of course, you have to determine what does 'shot out' really mean. For a benchrest shooter, the loss of .25moa is shot-out. I have a friend that has a 300winmag with 8000+ rounds down the barrel. It still maintains a level of accuracy that he wants. Is it shot out? probably. Does it matter to him - no.

 

[Sendero10]

Thanks for the knowledge guys! I am a hunter and not a benchrest guy. If I can stay within 1 MOA I am happy. I think I will stick to 3 or 4 shot spurts with cooling inbetween. I did like the comment about as a LRH all your shots are cold bore. So to have a true reading you would need to chart the first shot 3 days in a row.

 

[rscott5028]

LRH is absolutely about that first cold bore shot and doping your first cold bore shot multiple days in a row is essential.

But, making that shot is also about reading the conditions which takes lots of practice.

Hence, it's essential to put lots of rounds down range under varying conditions which is why many of us have multiple rifles.

One can learn a lot by practicing with 22LR, 6BR, 308 and other cartridges that are all affected by the wind but have excellent barrel life and minimal recoil.

-- richard

 

[Bart B]

In long range competition shooting from prone, it's common to shoot 25 to 30 shots with each one about 20 to 30 seconds apart. Barrels from such firing heat up very much. If they're properly heat treated and fit to a receiver whose face is square with the bore/chamber axis, hot barrels don't hurt accuracy. They all maintain sub 3/4 MOA accuracy at 1000 yards. This is for the mild 6.5x.284 up through 30 caliber magnums.

I've shot 30 shots at 20 second intervals testing 30 caliber magnum loads at 1000 yards. All 30 went inside 6 inches. Friend of mine shot 40 shots at 600 yards also about 20 seconds apart; group was 1.92 inch. I put 20 rounds from a .308 Win. at 800 yards into 3.2 inches fired at the same rate. Love shooting fast with those super hot barrels made by Kreiger, Obermeyer and the older ones from Hart. And even those skinny Springfield Armory Arsenal match grade barrels made for 7.62 NATO Garands would hold 1 MOA accuracy at 1000 yards for 25 to 30 shots fired just as fast.

If you barrel shoots bullets to different points as it heats up, you might need to fix the receiver face. Or send the barrel back to its maker and ask for a replacement that's properly stress relieved by good heat treatment. Of course if these typical causes ain't the problem, then maybe you should check the shooter's long-term shooting technique for accuracy at the target.

 

[Tumbleweed]

In the past when working up a load for a friend, I took a wet towel with me that I placed in a bucket with a couple inches of cold water in it. We were shooting three shot groups with several different COAL lengths and powder charges. It was early summer and pretty warm outside, we would have been spending way too much time waiting for the barrel to cool between groups if we had to just wait for the ambient temp. to cool the barrel off. I would just lay that cold damp towel over the entire length of the barrel and let it cool off between groups in order to keep things consistent. This worked great and we didn't stand around all day waiting for things to cool off.