Practice advice

['Boo]

The easiest way to "wear out" a rifle barrel is with improper cleaning technique.

Buy yourself a good coated one-piece rod and always use a bore-guide in the chamber.

Also..... heat kills barrels. If your barrel get too hot to comfortably hold with your hand slow down your rate of fire when at the range.

That is the one complaint about the Browning I have, little to no add on's.

Thats because Browning are generally ready to shoot "out of the box" . They are not a "kit" like a lot of the new rifles that need new triggers, bedding, and/or stocks.

 

[H4831]

Thanks for the reassurance I'm on the right track. I do reload so my ammo costs aren't to high as I don't get out to the range more than 1-2 times a month(new baby) and I do own a Browning BL .22, I shoot it free hand as I'm waiting for the barrel to cool
As for the barrel wearing out, I've never owned a bolt gun or been shooting long enough to know about barrel life. Thank you

I'm not so optimistic about the barrel not wearing out, as are some of the other posters.
By your own figures you have already shot it about 500 shots. A very accurate shooting 30-06, of which catagory your Browning cerainly belongs, could lose it's gilt edge acuracy after 1,000 rounds. This wouldn't matter for hunting. "Hunting accuracy," let's say 2 to 3 MOA, could be there until maybe 3,500 to 4,000 rounds.
I once bought a new 270 Sako, the best model they ever made, and it shot out in what was probably closer to 1,500 rounds than it was to 2,000.
I think a lot depends on the barrel, with some of the finest built barrels, seeming to wear out, or at least losing their best accuracy, in the shortest time.
I admire the way you are learning to shoot. If you can get pretty good at sitting, kneeling and off hand, you will be better than abut 90% of hunters.
Since you are learning and wanting to improve, I will give you one tip on shooting.
If you don't remember anything else about shooting, remember this.
Try to hold the rifle and release the trigger, concentrating only on one thing. Keep the sights, scope reticule, aligned on the target, AFTER the rifle fires.
Of course, recoil will throw it off and you will not know whether you actually held the sights on as it went off, or not. Except a good hit will mean you were successful.!
The name for this is, "Follow through."
I will guess we will now be showered with dozens of other things that suposedly make a good shot. I know dozens of other things also, but none as important as the one I stated, so lets not confuse him.

 

[tylerjwitty]

your rifle should be good for the rest of your life even though there are a few uninformed out there who seem to think a hunting rifle will be worn out after a few hundred rounds

i burnt one out in about 4 lb of h414

personally if any of my guns don't shot around the inch- inch and half mark i don't feel good enough about the gun to take it hunting. i like knowing that i have the option to take a 350 yard shot

 

[Datz]

Thank you all for your responses and advice I'm certainly going to try and practice with more purpose and work on technique at home and transfer it to the range.

I'm a bit surprised about the idea of looking for a new trigger on this gun. I have the exact same model in the exact same caliber and I wouldn't change the trigger at all. It's adjustable, but I've never adjusted it, really just feels perfect, zero take-up or creep, you're just applying pressure till it breaks.

My only experience is with various hunting rifles, but of the 20+triggers I've touched(not nearly as many as most here, I'll concede), the x-bolt had the nicest. Maybe I got an exceptional one?

I'm going to go play with it right now.

I don't have any problem with trigger creep or dislike its function, its the angle of the trigger I wish I could change, if this makes sense. I wish it was more of a U shaped trigger and moved forward slightly, but really this is just nit picking, I really like the rifle and love shooting it.

 

[Boomer]

i burnt one out in about 4 lb of h414

personally if any of my guns don't shot around the inch- inch and half mark i don't feel good enough about the gun to take it hunting. i like knowing that i have the option to take a 350 yard shot

I've heard the claim that ball powder is harder on barrels than extruded, but 4 pounds of powder is only about 560 rounds, assuming 50 grs per round . . . thats pretty short barrel life.

Lets assume a big game animal has an 8" vital area to shoot at, this means that even if your rifle puts its first round 4" wide of the point of aim, it has a very good probability of killing the animal, thus your rifle could shoot an 8" group and still put meat in the freezer. Despite this so many are concerned with their rifle's accuracy rather than with their marksmanship over normal hunting ranges. If your rifle can produce 2 MOA accuracy, that is the cold barrel shot is never more than an 1 MOA from your point of aim, it is still on the vitals at 400 yards, if the shooter doesn't pull the shot. If he pulls the shot it doesn't much matter how accurate the rifle is, or isn't.

A fly in the ointment is that many believe that a 1" group at 100 yards guarantees a 4" group at 400. Sadly that is seldom the case, what with the accuracy limitations of the ammunition, wind defection, mirage problems, target angle, the shooting position necessary to see the target, and errors in range and bullet drop estimation. If you haven't shot that rifle at 350 yards, you don't know how accurate it is at 350 yards.

MOA accuracy has one valuable attribute in a hunting rifle . . . shooter confidence, but sometimes it leads to over confidence. The problem as I see it is that very few hunters can shoot within 3 or 4 MOA on demand, under field conditions with their MOA accurate hunting rifles.

 

[irishlad]

Cleanliness is next to godliness when it comes to longevity of any gun part, and the barrel is no exception. Powder is dirty and abrasive and over time, powder residue, lead and copper can wear out a barrel if not properly cleaned from time to time.

 

[Bananatole]

I'm a noob to nice rifles too.

I have my first on the way and I was just planning on running a bores make through it at the range every 10 shots.

Will this prolong the life?

 

[Boomer]

You don't need to do that, but if you get a bottle of WipeOut and apply it each night after shooting and patch it out in the morning, your bore will stay in good condition. Lots of guys on here don't go along with cleaning the bore until 200 or more rounds have been fired through it, but I try to keep my cleaning intervals between 50 and 100 rounds.

Shooting degrades accuracy from the chamber forward, as the hot flame from the burning propellant erodes the first few inches of barrel, over many cycles. The surest way to optimize barrel life is to allow your barrel to cool between shots, and if not between shots, then certainly between strings. The barrel should never be allowed to heat up to the extent that you cannot hold your hand on the barrel above the chamber.