plague or not

Yeah, just recently I was made aware of the flame temp charts for powders. Separate from the burn rate chart we are so used to looking at. There can exist a 500 F. burn temp between the cooler & hotter powders.
With some, like 4831 sc in 6.5 creed you can literally feel the difference on your barrel after a string. I was sold the first time I used it and noticed the barre was cooler.
 
With some, like 4831 sc in 6.5 creed you can literally feel the difference on your barrel after a string. I was sold the first time I used it and noticed the barre was cooler.
I'm going to start bringing my laser temp reader.
Of course, with my hand, I felt a huge difference between a string of 10 in the 243 vs 10 shots of a 308 barrel.
For my new 708AI I have H100V (cool powder) and RL17 (Hot powder) to experiment with.
 
With some, like 4831 sc in 6.5 creed you can literally feel the difference on your barrel after a string. I was sold the first time I used it and noticed the barre was cooler.

And H4831 isn't even that cool!

When I want barrel life in the 6.5 Creedmoor and I'm not concerned about velocity I switch to Hodgdon 100V which very cool burning.

:)
 
I'm going to start bringing my laser temp reader.
Of course, with my hand, I felt a huge difference between a string of 10 in the 243 vs 10 shots of a 308 barrel.
For my new 708AI I have H100V (cool powder) and RL17 (Hot powder) to experiment with.
Looking forward to that data. Please share when you do it.
 
How do you keep track of shots fired...????
How do you inspect for barrel wear,firecracking,carbon buildup and copper build up...????
How do you know when the barrel is wore out....????
I log every shot fired in my load book.

I use a bore scope, but don't obsess about cleanliness. I only clean when i see a drop in accuracy.

It depends on your accuracy expectations. For me, it's when a good cleaning down to bare metal doesn't restore accuracy.
 
When I was younger and dumber, I liked speed and chronoed every type of load. I was at a 1000 yard meet and a person next to me was all ****ed off when he heard his score with a 28 inch Weatherby 30-378. He was done beating a dead horse that only gets about 400 rounds down the tube. I bought it and all the reloading gear for the price of the scope and went to 30 inch Bartlein Barrel.

When it was ready for it's 3rd barrel I was sick of that gun too! The expensive cases didn't last very long either. I was going to a 338-378 because that would make the barrel last. But I just got rid of it.

Nothing like pouring in 120 grains of powder. I had a big brake on it and at the range to be nice to people I would set up clear down at the end away from people. People always came down to ask what I was shooting.

I lost my need for bragging rights
 
it doesn't bother me but I do keep it in my mind. Not so much for rifles I only hunt with but target shooting and match rifles I do keep track of round count and if I have a match coming up and the rifle isn't shooting as well as it used to I put a new tube on.
 
Are you that concerned?
Not at all. I buy multiple barrels at once and get them all cut and ready to go. I think the most I have is six 6.5-284 barrels, all cut sequentially with the same reamer. I actually don't like only getting one barrel at a time made - what if it's perfect and by the time it's done the reamer is scrapped? That's also why I buy my own reamers 🤣

I factor in barrel life. I see no harm in it and I'd prefer my barrels to last. It's a personal choice with pros and cons. It's up to the individual to come up with their own priorities.
Yup, everyone do their own thing.
Happy Hour Party GIF by Two Lane Brewing


I have a couple of rifles that will never get rebarrelled, will never be changed, will get handed down in the exact same condition I received them in. And I still want to use them. So I load carefully for them, treat them nicely, and odds are my grandsons will be shooting them one day. Probably using up the last of my H4895 stockpile!


How do you keep track of shots fired...????
Bare minimum every one of my rifles has a round count book (link at bottm). Since I usually 100% handload my loading records will total up to how many have been through the barrel. But the upshot of the barrel book is they come with so many pages I keep them by action/serial number so I have the total number of shots on an action also, not just an individual barrel.

How do you inspect for barrel wear,firecracking,carbon buildup and copper build up...????
Bore scope. I'm pretty aggressive in cleaning, when I actually do it. Won't clean until groups loosen up, scope to confirm they're nasty, then clean hard with JB/pellets/etc. Scope at the end to make sure I got it all, then shoot it. Have gone so far as to use a stainless streel brush in a CroMo barrel (was to solve an issue, not a regular occurrence!) and JB red :eek: on occasion. Some things like dedicated hunting rifles get a once-a-year put-away scrub but because they're been treated pretty harsh outside - they don't normally show needing to be cleaned on the target. If something is shooting fine I won't even bore scope it, I don't WANT to know what it looks like so long as it shoots fine.

How do you know when the barrel is wore out....????
When they don't go back to shooting after cleaning mainly, or if they foul so much that it's not worth the effort to clean them - for example I'm not keeping a barrel that can't shoot at least 50-100 rounds without going to crap if the point of that barrel is PRS or varmints or shooting steel. I'm not going to clean in the middle of a match or in a field. Can't judge by the borescope alone though, some of my big overbores are nasty, gator skinned, copper fouling nightmares, but if it's a hunting barrel that can still go 10-ish rounds and print small, no need to pull it yet. Those tend to get pulled because I'm bored and want a change not from being truly burned out 🤣

I've listened to ELR shooters talk that when shooting over AB's radar if the BC variance is over 1% they'll scrap the barrel. I guess they've shot over the radar at enough matches and know that (for them) that particular metric wraps up everything into one number and is the breaking point on accuracy in those big 375 and 408 bores.

 
Top