How many rounds can I expect thru my barrels

philhut

philhut

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I was doing some inventory today and began to wonder. Just how many rounds can I fire out of each of my gun. Lets assume that no malfunction occurs only barrel wear.
Most of my guns have barrels that I'd say are VG or Better/near new. Assuming that how many rounds would I expect to see thru before the barrel is as effective as a musket.


TT-33 Tokarev Pistol (wartime model)

SKS (chrome bore)


Mosin Nagant (VG bore+)


SVT40 (VG Bore)


K98 (VG Bore)
 
Unless the guns were brand new, you have no idea how much they have been fired. There is no way of knowing where a given service weapon was used. One from a training facility might have been shot a lot. One fired only for annual qualification, not so much. Some received better care than others. I very much doubt that you would find a Swiss K31 with a pitted bore.
Some armed forces do a lot of shooting - the Swedes and Swiss come to mind.
I would expect that most any service rifle would have a barrel life (for service purposes) of well over 10,000 rounds.
I remember seeing the record book that came with a CA Yugoslav version of the RPK. It had fired over 14,000 rounds. Much of that was probably in bursts. It was still useably accurate. Shot about as well as my CA AKM.
 
How fast are you planning to shoot? Heat and cleaning are generally what damages barrels.

Corrosive or non corrosive?

Assuming non corrosive, and slow fire rate to not heat the barrels, somewhere
Between 5,000 and 20,000 rounds for the rifles.

Probably 10,000 to 20,000 for the pistol under the same slow fire and non corrosive.

I know of guns with verified 50,000 to over 100,000 rounds on the original barrels. Lifespan is a function of avoiding abuse, and what defined purpose. Accirding to heskith pritchard, WWI SMLE sniper rifles were deemed to be worn out within 1000 rounds of new.
 
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Given that muskets were pretty brutal for accuracy, you will probably be fine for a long time. How you maintain those guns will probably play a much greater roll than how you shoot them.
 
Actions or receivers will go faster than actual bore and rifling of your firearms. let me say that tt33 of wartime production was rated at approx 2000 rounds. After that its a bonus. I had new norinco tokarev that I shot approx. 9000 rds through, and that's when slide cracked. however because of my regular cleaning of that gun after each session, barrel looked almost as new and was pretty accurate.
Chrome lined SKS will last forever. Action will go first.
The rest of the guns will be the same as long as you clean your barrels from receiver end they will last the life of the firearm itself.
 
I will be recreational shooting or hunting with these arms, at most a hundred or two rounds in a day depending on the gun. Cleaned always after corrosive and about every other shoot as need with noncorrosive.
My guess so far based on nothing but handling and guesswork based on quality.

TT-33 Tokarev Pistol (wartime model)
Approx 2-3000 rds

SKS (chrome bore) russian
-approx 3-5000 rds

Mosin Nagant (VG bore+)
-approx 2000rds

SVT40 (VG Bore)
-approx 1500 rds

K98 (VG Bore)
-approx 3000-5000 rds

My goal is to have at least one rifle working in all these calibres/variants thru my entire life so have tried to budget ammo accordingly. Don't want to be stuck with a pike of rifles or ammunition without the other half 20 to 30 yrs from now. Tough to accumulate much 8mm though I am a bit light on that one and will be taking one hunting and shooting the other one on special occasions only.
 
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Testing indicated that an M1 Garand barrel had a useful life of 10,000 rounds.

Most military rifle barrels tended to have a reduced life as a result of improper cleaning techniques (excessive muzzle wear) or failure to clean after firing corrosive primed ammo.

I once had a well worn M1903 Springfield barrel which was at the reject limit (.307 throat erosion and .303 muzzle) and it still shot 3 inch groups with handloads. After I rebarreled it with a NOS GI barrel there was a marked improvement in accuracy.
 
Do you shoot well enough to be able to tell what accuracy a rifle is capable of? and when it is degraded? Do you shoot with iron sights well enough to tell? Do you buy surplus ammo and plan to judge the accuracy with ammunition that might be 40+ years old? Have you rebedded your rifles to ensure that anywhere up to a 100 years of storage (including rifle racks from which they were yanked a thousand times) hasnt effected the bedding/pressure points on the barrel - or action? Are they stored in reasonably dry conditions and properly lubricated/protected from corrosion.... If you are happy with a 4inch group at 100yds fired standing unsupported (and that is not too shoddy!!) .... then the rifle may deliver that for the rest of your life. But if you assume 15,000 rounds of deliberate aimed fire..... that would probably be about right
 
how far your car engine can go? 100k? 300k? or 500k? or 1000k? Depend on how you use it and how well you expect it. Heat is only thing you need to consider.

SKS and those which got chrome bore will last little bit longer, but mainly depend on how you shoot it. Mag Burst or 1 shot 30 seconds?

Bolt action will last lot longer, because you cannot shoot it 100rounds/min. If you have a scope on it. With good ammo and good condition, any bolt action is able to do 1.5moa before 10k. 3moa before 30k rounds.

BTW bullet is another thing you need to consider. Soviet and china tent to bi-metal bullet. life of AR15 barrel which use bi-metal bullet is about one third of barrel which use copper bullet.

Here are two tips I use to check barrel life.
1.You always look the throat not muzzle. you are not gonna see much things helpful by looking down to the barrel from muzzle. Any barrel which does not shoot corrosive ammo should be bright. Throat erosion is what you are looking for. Compare new barrel throat and the barrel you wanna buy, compare the shadow of rifling, this is best and simple way to do it.
2, what if you dont have a new barrel beside it? bring a bullet. gently drop it into muzzle, not see how far it goes into, see how much force you need to rotate it in muzzle. You can feel how sharp new barrel is and how smooth old barrel is, even though both are bright and shinny.
 
I bought my K31 and K11 back in 1989, and shoot them regularly since - say, minimum of 500 per annum. Both still shoot the same as they did when I got them.

My Krico 650SS had around 1800 down it when I bought it in 2001. I shoot it a LOT, upwards of 3-400 p/a plinking, and over 300 in an annual competition week.

Last week it still shot under 0.5 MOA five-shot groups with the handloads I have always used in it.

My dad's Walther .22, bought in 1930, has had a gazillion shots down it, and still shoots most everything into about 3/4" at 50m - but that's all it ever did.

Hot shots, and more to the point, rapid-fired hot-shots, can burn a barrel out in less than a thousand rounds. Even slowly-fired hot shots can do the same.

tac
 
I seem to remember an article where the Swiss expected to get 20,000 rounds out of a barrel before re-barreling.

The article also mentioned that with more expensive steel they could get 30,000 rounds, but the 20,000 round barrels were more economical.
 
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