Barrel life?

So I am new to this and may be a silly question. As far as barrel life goes, looking at twist, feet per second and grain weight, barrel decays faster with heavy bullets at a fast twist rate? Fast twist rate with fast feet per second? Light grain bullets with fast feet per second? And or a combination of a bunch of things?

Velocity is that fancy word. I used to worry about this too based on what people said. I still haven't seen a barrel get burned up. You looking to build one or something?

Pressure is the real killer.

Yep, have built two. One is a 300 win mag with a 1 in 10 twist and a 7mm08 with a 1 in 9 twist. Just wondering what is worse to degrade barrel life. Hot loads, heavy grain bullets vs light bullets, etc.

Pressure. Something that burns out a lot of barrels is getting them too hot and not letting them cool.

I've had two get shot out now. And am working on number three.



I agree. And it many cases that goes hand in hand with velocity. 1500 rounds is all my last 22-250 barrel made it. An MV of 3750 fps with 55 gr. bullets will do that.

Run 130's in a 6.5 mm at 2900 fps or more and your barrel will not last as long as running 140's around 2780 fps.

However, my 7mm-08 should, by all acounts, last longet than my 6.5mm yet I am loading it above book max. It's not breaking any velocity records, because of a 20" barrel.

.308 Winchesters last stupid long time. Big ole bullet, not very fast, and not a skinny bore.

Agree with what has been said regarding pressure. Velocity plays a role in that but take the 6.5SAUM that is fast by most accounts and it has good barrel life because H1000 is a low pressure low temp powder it can go a long time without being burnt up.

Also, if you are going to shoot often and a lot of volume you need to view a barrel as a disposable piece of the pie...much like bullets/powder/primers. Buddy of mine once told me "they make barrels while we are sleeping at nite, why worry how long it will last?"

He's right and like JG...I've burnt two and have one in the safe that is real close and another that I think was trash to begin with...I'm still proving that though.

Also, keep in mind it's a trade off...there are only two things that beat the wind...BC and velocity.

and thats why 308 is better than any of these fancy dance 6.5 stuff


There is no replacement for displacement

Aaaaaand, I refer to Judd's statement...

Fireman, I just haven't seen them! That's my fault because I haven't come out to visit you so you can show me and tell me all the crap I do wrong.

Won't be long and I'll have something to bring better than my 270. Can't wait to get mine.

Which reminds me.. . . Need to sell some stuff

I got 4K+ 175smk waiting to be deployed........ but as a good friend of mine says"barrels are like tires..."

I think 6.5 and 308 each have their place. Was being sarcastic...


I firmly believe that if you are going to shoot inside 500 yards and want to pull the trigger a lot the 308 makes sense

I know you were.


And I completely agree with you.

Couple reasons I like the 6.5 Grendel, it pretty much mimics the 308 out to 500 yards or more and does it with less powder, lighter bullet with higher BC which both lead to less recoil. SAAMI Specs are for AR platform so max pressure is lower than a lot of other rounds making for long case and barrel life.

I'm so stinkin giddy about getting a 6.5, FINALLY!

Fireman, it won't be long and your phones gonna ring sir!

We've been shooting our Grendels very accurately out to 1000yds. That little cartridge kicks arse.

Not trying to change the topic, but along the lines of barrel wear it is often not the barrel bore but only the throat erosion that is causing the change in accuracy which leads me to this question?? Regarding throat failure on a premium barrel, is it cheaper to have a good smith cut back the barrel and rethread and rechamber the existing barrel or to just toss that barrel and install a new barrel? Have any of you shooters compared the costs?

Simple, if you buy a burner cal., do like the LR BR and F-Class Open guys do, buy two of the same barrels at the same time.

I'm getting ready. I suspect as soon as it's 75 and sunny I'm gonna get busy!

My smith tells me it is way harder to set back a barrel than to start with a new one. We havnt discussed what that means in dollars. I wish I had the means to determine if the rifling on a barrel was infact still just fine. I remember Chad telling of setting back a 2500 round 6.5mm, and only got a few hundred rounds out of it until it went bad. He says he'll never do it again. But I have not tried it myself.

The bore-scopes these days can do video or stills which your smith can put on a CD or a thumb-drive for you. I'm looking on a deal on bulk thumb-drives of decent quality for this very purpose. In the mean-time, I have plenty of blank CD's and DVD's to burn.

My experience so far is that the throat area gets BBQ'ed long before the rifling starts to go with any kind of overbore or magnum cartridge. - Most often, but not always.

A lot depends upon how the shooter treats the gun. Even a magnum can hold up for quite a while if it is always allowed to cool between shots, when not actually hunting.

Last barrel I scapped was a 260 Rem that got rode hard and put up wet sveral times.

The one before that was a .22-250 that lived on the prairiedog towns. I had to remind myself to stop and let the barrel cool on mutiple occasions. I went searching for lands the last year I shot it and had a .100" jump to lands once I got .224" of bullet in the case. So yeah, throat erosion was very evident, but who knows of the rifling was ruint or not?

Barrel wear has a lot to do with diameter and how hot/fast it is. Take a 260 Rem or 6.5 CM and shoot the 130 and 140 bullets. They are close in weight, but have a big difference on velocity and barrel wear. The 140's in a 260 should last about 2500 rounds at normal speeds (2780ish). Jump up to the 130's and run them about 2900-2950, and I've seen barrels go out at 1100 and 1500 rounds. Jump to a smaller diameter, like a 243 Win or 6mmCM, and barrel life will decrease even more from the 260 and 6.5CM. Faster speeds and lighter bullets.

If you want to prolong barrel wear, you have to slow things down. Going to a heavy bullet for caliber will do this. The twist rate won't have near as much wear as a lighter faster bullet will.

Barrel set back- I set my 28" 260 Rem back at 2600 rounds. The throat had major wear for 1.5", and into 2" was still pretty rough. I had it cut down 3.5" at the chamber and 1.5" at the crown to shorten the barrel to 23". This barrel would shoot same hole at 100 when new and for almost all it's life. When the barrel went South, groups opened up and velocity decreased (2 major signs of a shot out barrel). Once it was set back, the best groups I could get was about 1/3 moa, maybe a little bigger. The one hole accuracy was never there again. Plus, I never could get the speed I wanted, even from the 23" barrel. (Sure the 23" was going to shoot slower than the 28", but I never got the speeds I hoped for with the 23"). I shot it for another 500 rounds before I got tired of the slower speeds and larger groups. So, I got about 500 rounds more life out of the barrel. I should have turned this set-back barrel into a hunting barrel, and bought a new barrel for my comp rifle. I'll never set another barrel back again.

Bore Scopes....Very expensive...will most gunsmiths who have one, make a picture of your barrel for a small fee?