Managing barrel heat & prolonging barrel life?

GoFastPhoto

GoFastPhoto

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Hi folks,

Recently bought myself a Tikka T3X CTR in 6.5CM. I’m getting into long range shooting, and learning the ropes as a first time firearm owner. I’ve been shooting for a long time, but never owned my own rifle until this year, so firearm maintenance and stuff like that is fairly new to me.

Regarding barrel heat, and how rapid fire on my bolt action can degrade the barrel quicker, and cause problems with ammunition if the chamber becomes too hot/ammo sits in the chamber for too long… my question is, how much shooting is “too much”?

I haven’t and don’t plan on firing this thing as fast as I can - I just want to adopt some good practices now to prolong my barrel life.

My next range trip I plan on gathering data on 4 different types of ammo, shooting a minimum of 20 rounds of each. A tall target test, and probably another box or two shooting at 200 yards.

Would shooting 10 rounds (~30 seconds between each shot), waiting 5 minutes, and then repeating be sufficient to keep the barrel warm but not hot enough to cause problems? There will probably be a longer cool off period between boxes of ammo, so that wouldn’t be a sustained rate all day long. The barrel is considered “medium/heavy contour” at just under .780” I believe.

Any advice/wisdom in this area would be greatly appreciated. I do not want to baby this rifle, but I don’t want to just send it without caring about the thing either.
 
GoFastPhoto said:
Hi folks,

Recently bought myself a Tikka T3X CTR in 6.5CM. I’m getting into long range shooting, and learning the ropes as a first time firearm owner. I’ve been shooting for a long time, but never owned my own rifle until this year, so firearm maintenance and stuff like that is fairly new to me.

Regarding barrel heat, and how rapid fire on my bolt action can degrade the barrel quicker, and cause problems with ammunition if the chamber becomes too hot/ammo sits in the chamber for too long… my question is, how much shooting is “too much”?

I haven’t and don’t plan on firing this thing as fast as I can - I just want to adopt some good practices now to prolong my barrel life.

My next range trip I plan on gathering data on 4 different types of ammo, shooting a minimum of 20 rounds of each. A tall target test, and probably another box or two shooting at 200 yards.

Would shooting 10 rounds (~30 seconds between each shot), waiting 5 minutes, and then repeating be sufficient to keep the barrel warm but not hot enough to cause problems? There will probably be a longer cool off period between boxes of ammo, so that wouldn’t be a sustained rate all day long. The barrel is considered “medium/heavy contour” at just under .780” I believe.

Any advice/wisdom in this area would be greatly appreciated. I do not want to baby this rifle, but I don’t want to just send it without caring about the thing either.
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The reality that in lserious ong range shooting barrels are like tires in F1 and can be considered consumables. It is also likley that your barrel will speed up in the first 150-200 rounds.
 
Longbow said:
The reality that in lserious ong range shooting barrels are like tires in F1 and can be considered consumables. It is also likley that your barrel will speed up in the first 150-200 rounds.
Click to expand...
I’ve already accepted my barrels fate, and that it will need to be replaced somewhere around 2500-3000 rounds. Just trying to build habits that won’t prematurely degrade it. Only solid advice I’ve heard so far, is if the barrel is too hot to touch for a few seconds, let it cool off.
 
if you can't hold a finger on the barrel, it is too hot
I shoot 5 rds and wait 15mins before the next 5
most of the time
well almost most of the time
$900 for a new barrel is not petty cash
 
If that is the driving factor that is where old school calibres come into their own as has famously been declared, the .308 is not dead. Or .223 out to 600-700m with heavier bullets. My last PR Rifle was still competative at 5500 rounds.
 
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Get yourself a battery or solar power air pump. Then just make an adapter to stick a hose in the chamber.

It will speed up the cooling process.
 
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