gohring3006
Well-Known Member
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.
plague or not
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DoneNOut
Well-Known Member
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.
sable tireur
Well-Known Member
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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.
gohring3006
Well-Known Member
Good know, I'll definitely consider that powder in my 6.5 gasser I'm going to put together this month. Thank you!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.
gohring3006
Well-Known Member
Looking forward to that data. Please share when you do it.
DoneNOut
Well-Known Member
Got the loads and agenda set for today!
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
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.
comfisherman
Well-Known Member
Frank in the laurels had a valid point. In a post 2019 world its getting harder and much more expensive to burn a barrel out. Ive had to switch to smaller bore barrel burners to get the same speed thrill...
QuietTexan
Well-Known Member
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
Yup, everyone do their own thing.
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!
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.
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
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.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.
