Expected gun lifetime for a .22?

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VictoriaShooter

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I'm a relatively new shooter, and have only owned my first rifle, a Marlin 925, for a few months ... I've been shooting it a lot (I've put about 1000 rounds through it in the space of 3 months...) and take fairly decent care of it, I think ...

When I bought the gun, most shooters I knew told me that I'd have my first rifle for life, and that a .22 would "last me my whole life" ...

About a week ago I was out shooting, and ended up having a long chat with the guy at the bench beside me ... He made a comment about how I should only expect to get 3000 - 5000 rounds through the barrel of my .22 before it starts losing accuracy ...

Now, I can't find much about this online, and I really don't have the experience to know if the guy was full of sh*t, or actually knew what he was talking about ...

Can anyone comment on this? ... This is probably a really dumb question to most folks out there, but I'd still like to know ...
 
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The guy is a tool. You will definitely need to clean it after 3000-5000 rounds though.
 
Two things you can do to extend your useful barrel life are: 1. let it cool, don't get the barrel hot, and; 2. clean it properly (meaning a quality coated one-piece steel rod, quality bronze or nylon brushes, and the strict use of a cleaning rod guide - to protect both chamber and crown as well as the bore).

.22LR barrels don't tend to wear out from use. They do fail from abuse.

Don't use an aluminum rod.
Don't use a segmented rod.
Don't use stainless steel brushes, generally.
Don't clean without using a rod guide.
 
I have a CIL brand .22 that I have put well over 70,000 rounds through, and other than cleaning it when needed, it actually is more accurate now then when I first got it. I have a .22 pistol that has 19,000 rounds and the same goes for it. You'll die of prostate cancer before you shoot out a .22 barrel if you take care of it like you should.
 
Its true, some centrefire rounds will wear a barrel's accuracy by 5,000 rds (must be what he's thinking). Some will even do it much quicker(25/284, 300/378 etc) but a 22 lr will not likely be worn out in anybody's lifetime unless you have the privelage of shooting 1000's of rounds a day. Even then, you will not find out much info on this because its so rare to actually wear one out(by shooting). I've never actually heard of anyone doing it.
 
22 longevity

A retired police friend of mine, who lives in the Florida panhandle country, has had a Ruger 10-22 bone stock carbine for 25 years, in the last 15 years he never shoots less than a box a day through it, 50 rnds, every day.over 250 K, in that time alone, I've seen him make head shots on rattlers, at 30 yds from the hip. Outside finish, is pretty much gone, and he's had to replace some internals, from normal wear and tear, he runs a pull through, through at the end of each day, and she's "good to go, agin" I think lots of us are shooting, ol' pump Winchester .22's, some over a 100 years old, without any problems, Regards Bully
 
My friend was telling me how he has a Coey(surprise surprise) that has been in his family since his father was a kid, and they put massive rounds through it, dont clean it and just throw it back in the cabinet for the next day of shooting. It still shoots really well from what I have heard.
 
A typical .22 should outlast you, your children, your grand chilldren, and quite probably your great-grandchildren. Small parts of the trigger assembly may wear out, and so will the springs, but to shoot out a .22 barrel takes considerable effort.
 
As with most other firearm... If you can afford the ammo to wear it out, you should be able to afford to 1) maintain it and 2) buy a new one eventually.

At the turn of the century, some barrels were damaged by corrosive primers... but that shouldn't be a problem with you gun.

This been said, other then some picky benchrest and/or Olympic prone shooters... I haven't heard of anybody actually wearing out a 22lr barrel.

So shoot, clean it, oil it... and shoot it some more. You'll be fine.
 
I shoot 2 1940 marlin .22s that are accurate to a tee. Even out to 150-200 yards. Never miss a beat and other than a good cleaning once in a while, no maintenance has been done to my knowledge.Since I procurred them a few months ago, they have put under over 4000 varmints, too many trips to the range to sight in and plinking rounds in the many thousands. No wear evident in the bore. I cannot count on the number of shots before I got them but by the action wear, it must have been astronomical. Enjoy your gun, look forward to shooting it for many , many years.
 
By the time you wear out the barrel, the cost of a replacement will be peanuts compared to what you spent on ammo.
 
I once met a old retired guy that was a quality control person at the now long closed Winchester plant in Coubourg(sp) Ontario. I posed the question about rimfire barrel life and he claimed 45,000 rounds was when Winchester felt barrels were done. I have a Brno #5 with almost twice that through it and it shoots better now that when it was new. Maybe Winchester factored in poor maintenance and inpropes cleaning into the formula?

As for centre fire 22's...I have a Sako Vixen 222. Put 12,000 plus rounds through the factory barrel before accuracy started to suffer. Was real "frosty" just ahead of the chamber but still shot 1MOA any day. Rebarreled with a Gaillard stainless and will likely not live long enough to shoot that puppy out.
 
I have a good friend who is a safety instructor & also r.o's new shooters a lot.
He has had a Ruger Mark 1 for many years that is used all the time.

He is sure that it has seen several hundred thousand round through it. Probably close to about half a million . Seriously . Over the years he has replaced a couple of springs, it has a few dings & the finish is showing some wear but it still keeps on working.
 
I have an ancient Hiawatha bolt, 22LR that my father picked up in 1957. He put a few thousand rounds through it. Since I first started shooting, I too have put uncounted thousands of rounds through it as well. It still knocks the heads off pheasant, sharptails and rabbits out to about 70 metres. It performs better than my 17HMR heavy barrel.

The guy you met on the range probably read some article and tried to impress you after he reinterpreted a sentence or two.
 
M12shooter said:
I once met a old retired guy that was a quality control person at the now long closed Winchester plant in Coubourg(sp) Ontario. I posed the question about rimfire barrel life and he claimed 45,000 rounds was when Winchester felt barrels were done. I have a Brno #5 with almost twice that through it and it shoots better now that when it was new. Maybe Winchester factored in poor maintenance and inpropes cleaning into the formula?

As for centre fire 22's...I have a Sako Vixen 222. Put 12,000 plus rounds through the factory barrel before accuracy started to suffer. Was real "frosty" just ahead of the chamber but still shot 1MOA any day. Rebarreled with a Gaillard stainless and will likely not live long enough to shoot that puppy out.
Click to expand...

Or maybe due to the black powder that was used in .22's ages ago?
 
I have lost count of the number of bricks of ammo I have through my old cooey and a more recent semi-auto Norinco.

I have never cleaned either's barrel.

Conventional thinking is that RF pressures and temps are such that unless you are using 100 round snail drums and popping them off so fast the the barrel delelops serious barrel heat, you will really never wear a .22 barrel out in a lifetime of shooting.
 
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