How long should you let your barrel cool down?

chrised2899

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I"m sure this has been asked before but i can't find the answer anywere on cgn. I have a savage 111 30-06 how long should i let the barrel cool down between my grouping of three shots when sighting in my scope??
 
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A perfect compliment to the rest of the high tech shooting trinkets.

I like how they advertise $200 for a fancy thermometer and say it's "low cost" lol.

You can get IR temp readers from walmart for $30 in the fishing aisle. :D


To the OP:

I've got a Savage 111 in 300 win mag, the barrel gets fairly hot after 2 or 3 rounds and requires about 10 minutes to cool back down. But, I don't see a reduction in accuracy as the barrel heats up, so that's good. I wouldn't take 20 shots in a row but you can let it heat up a bit without worry.

I'm not an expert, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night.
 
It depends. A hunting rifle should be cold or nearly cold. A target rifle that needs to shoot 10 shot strings may as well be tested and zeroed that way. Likewise for a high volume varmint rifle.
A gopher gun or target rifle that won't shoot hot isn't good for much. A big game rifle that won't shoot cold isn't either.
Since you mention sighting-in, and a 30-06 is a big game caliber, make sure that you go back and make certain that the first shot out of your dead cold barrel goes where you want it. We'd all prefer that every rifle will put the first shot in the group, but that isn't always how life works.
 
A lot of guys sight their rifles in, letting the barrels get hot while they are shooting.

A critter out in the woods or across the field isn't going to let you warm your barrel with a few rounds before you take a poke at him.

You will do your one shot that matters from a dead-cold barrel

Therefore, you should sight the rifle in.... from a dead-cold barrel

Around here we sight in from a cold bore. One shot, with a quick follow-up within 2 minutes. Then let her cool down to cold before the next round.

Shooting like this, we even get under-half-inch from stock Lee-Enfields and a third of an inch from a Ross. No scopes, either.
 
Once I have my rifle sighted in I let it cool down completely then put up three targets at 100m. I then fire one shot at each target, the first target getting the first shot, the middle target the second and he third target the third shot. I then let the rifle cool down completely and repeat until I have at least three shots on each target.

I agree that the first shot is the most important one but sometimes you do need follow up shots and it is good to know what they will do.
 
Depends on what you're shooting, I find. Smaller bore high velocity rounds like the .257 Weatherby heat up really quickly and take a while to cool off, while larger bore, slower rounds like the .358 Win can throw more bullets downrange before heating up to the point of adversely affecting accuracy.
 
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