How do you know when a barrel is done?

[Harwood]

I have been running some cartridges with fairly short barrel life, and barrel management has become a major consideration of late.

I'm curious about how other people are handling 2 things:

1. How do you know when to replace a barrel? i.e.
   • Are you just going to a certain round count?
   • Looking for vertical at distance? (I'd love to have AB's doppler to check for BC variability!)
   • Accuracy at 100m?
   • Borescope? If so what features are you looking for?
3. How do you manage a competition season where your barrel might go south part way through? I'm using prefits on the smaller rifles, but larger and weirder (i.e. 1.45" shanks) are being a bit of a bother.

 

[Scotty454]

When it no shoot good no more?

 

[Mystic Precision]

For my competition set ups, through either experience or the experience of other shooters, I can get a feel for average useable lifespan (match winning accuracy) for my combo. I will not end a match beyond 75% of that lifespan... the barrel likely still shoots awesome but it moves to practise or back up.

When a barrel is worn enough to show issues, it is way too late if you want to keep on the podium.. for S&G's, have at it.

When I was seriously competing in FTR, I had a barrel in the break in/seasoning stage... used to fireform new brass, general practise. A competition barrel. Then a 'senior' barrel for practise.

High wear bores, I would have at least 3 barrels on the go through any season.... going into the worlds in 2017, I had 6 barrels in various states and I competed with a 308win.

YMMV

Jerry

 

[GAIRLOCHIAN]

Most precise way is when accuracy drops.It is usually around 3 K to 5 K rds for 308 Krieger.

 

[guntech]

The barrel is done when it no longer shoots as well as you want it...

 

[Harwood]

Thanks All!

The fundamental challenge I am facing is a cartridge with a barrel life of 700-900 rounds (120+grains of powder). The performance is compelling, but I'm finding I need to do some strange things to keep a fresh barrel on for courses and matches.

As the old sign goes: "Speed costs money; how fast do you want to go?"

@guntech: I blame you for some of this...I spent WAY too many hours as a kid in the aisles at Guncraft.

 

[IvoB]

Get a good borescope off of Amazon and check your barrel often not sure on the caliber your shooting but heat tends to reduce barrel life quite a bit from what I read and was told.

 

[Potashminer]

I have used a bore scope for several years - a Lyman BoreCam - I never did learn what to look at / what to see to predict whether the barrel is "accurate" or not - or how accurate that it still might be - mostly used to verify whether my cleaning regime actually got all the crap out or not. Or to look at pits to see if they are cleaned out or not. Amazing to me how "good enough for hunting" barrels here, can look pretty grim, compared to some new, unfired barrels, but those hunting rifles were used to take many head of game, and most can still do at least 3 shots into 1.5" on 100 yard target from sandbags. I just never did learn, yet, how to tell if the barrel will be "accurate", by looking at it in a bore scope.

 

[Mystic Precision]

Thanks All!

The fundamental challenge I am facing is a cartridge with a barrel life of 700-900 rounds (120+grains of powder). The performance is compelling, but I'm finding I need to do some strange things to keep a fresh barrel on for courses and matches.

As the old sign goes: "Speed costs money; how fast do you want to go?"

@guntech: I blame you for some of this...I spent WAY too many hours as a kid in the aisles at Guncraft.

Unless you have a very specific end use, there really isn't a 'need' for honking big magnums these days for reaching out to 1 mile. Been there done that... now I reach out with far less powder, fuss and costs.

What competition demands a case that big to be used? King of the 2 mile? meaford?

Note... shooters are routinely shooting well inside 1/2 MOA at 1000yds under match conditions using a 284 and variants.

Love to know what end use you have in mind.

But with a bore life sub 1000 AND you want to compete, be swapping out barrels every 6 to 800rds or bad things will happen.

Jerry



Shooting out to 1450yds... l to r... 22 CM, 30-06, 408CT. Wasn't a whole lot of difference for drop and drift between the 22 CM and the 408CT at that distance.

Jerry

 

[Ganderite]

Like Jerry said. I would not go to a major competition with a rifle in the twilight of its life - even if it shoots well.

A blue barrel erodes in the throat, You can see the rifling getting shallow. If a blue barrel is shooting well, you can shoot a match with it. At worst, at the end of the match, it will slightly poorer.

A stainless barrel wears differently. To the naked eye, it looks like the rifling is not wearing. But what is happening is that the throat develops little cracks. Looks like dried mud. The cracks get more numerous and deeper. Eventually a piece of metal between some cracks will flake off. AT that shot the accuracy goes from very good to a disaster. So don't take a stainless barrel to a match if it is getting on in age. A practice barrel.

BUT, you can order your barrels with a 5" straight shank. When the barrel is at 3/4 life, cut off 2 or 3" and re chamber. All the worn area will be gone and you have an almost new barrel.

I did this with 22-250 Ackley's. Barrel life was around 1000 rounds.

My experience is that a SS barrel last about twice as long as a blue one.

 

[Harwood]

Unless you have a very specific end use, there really isn't a 'need' for honking big magnums these days for reaching out to 1 mile. Been there done that... now I reach out with far less powder, fuss and costs.

What competition demands a case that big to be used? King of the 2 mile? meaford?

Note... shooters are routinely shooting well inside 1/2 MOA at 1000yds under match conditions using a 284 and variants.

Love to know what end use you have in mind.

But with a bore life sub 1000 AND you want to compete, be swapping out barrels every 6 to 800rds or bad things will happen.

Jerry

Shooting out to 1450yds... l to r... 22 CM, 30-06, 408CT. Wasn't a whole lot of difference for drop and drift between the 22 CM and the 408CT at that distance.

Jerry

Oh this is absolutely for ELR; and the cartridge is 338 EnABELR.

Specifically Ko2MCanada, Valcartier and some stuff in the states as the border opens up. Thunder Valley is an easy drive for me.

The focus is to get good at running in the 1000-2000m range band, and thus far it is my favourite. I've shot a fair amount of 338 Lapua at 1000m+ now, and really find the extra 500fps noticeable.

While I do agree that you can shoot smaller cartridges that far: I have taken a 260 Remington to 1580m, I find the the substantially reduced wind (at 1932m last year I needed 2.1mil of wind with the 338E, and would have needed about 5.0mil with the 260) really makes a difference with my newbish wind-calling.

It also makes it a ton easier to spot, as you get swirl as long as you are supersonic, meaning ~1800m for the 338, vs 1100m on the 260.

I'm thinking to go with 2 actions and swap them so I can have a fresh barrel on, and one getting rebarreled pretty constantly.

 

[Mystic Precision]

If you are going that far, a boomer will be very helpful. I had 3 actions at one point... and just moved the barrels/barreled actions along.

First 50 to 75rds to confirm it shoots well... figure out where its best node is and let the bore settle.

100 to 700rds, competition... best performance

over that, practise and bullet testing.

I would move to barrel nut prefits and just have a stack of barrels tested and ready to go. As long as you are using 1 reamer and cut the chamber so the entire case is properly supported (same dimension), you can set the headspace nice and tight so you can move brass from barrel to barrel. You will not need to ship the actions so you don't have any down time.

I would definitely have 2 actions... one in development/practise... one to compete with/practise. They swap roles as the barrels wear out.

got the real estate here but having as much fun shooting rimfire at 400 to 500 yds as small centerfire out to 1 mile

Enjoy...

Jerry