shot out barrel?

pointandshoot

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ok guys, just curious how and average non-gunsmith guy would be able to tell if a barrel has been "shot out" or not. i'm sure that the best way is to take it into a gun smith...but are there certain things to look for? anyone have pics or links that could help one educate themselves in this dept? thanks in advance.
 
Unless you have an exmilitary rifle or are involved in certain types of target shooting, the chances of you haveing a worn out barrel are pretty slim. The average hunting rifle, includeing most of the standard length magnums will get several thousand rounds through them before accuracy degrades to any noticeable degree.

Now, that being said and not what you asked for, there are a couple of things you can look for without pics.

First take a look from the breach end of the rifle at the bore, there are a couple of things to look for rhat are easy to see,
1- Is the throat (where the rifleing lands start) worn down. It may still be shiney and bright but worn. There shoul also be a bit of a ramp on each land, this is normal from the chambering reamer.
2- Is there any frosting or light pitting in the bore. Sometimes pitting doesn't effect accuracy, but will usually effect pressures after extended shooting without cleaning.
3- Check the muzzle, are the lands sharp or worn smooth, either from shooting or an improperly used pull through cleaner. Usually pretty easy to spot.
4- While your there, check the edges of the bore for burrs and look down the bore for large pits or rust.

Some of the older enfields have metford style rifleing which has rounded rifleing to stop erosion from cordite powders and rifles meant for black powder or lead only will sometimes have different looking rifleing than more modern rifles.

It isn't unusal for older rifles to have bores with lines running in tangent to the rifleing from chamber to muzzle, these were manufactureing inclusions, not intentional but considered acceptable, especially on wartime production rifles.

That's just a very brief beginning but will cover most of what you need to look for. bearhunter
 
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if you are alking about a new out the box rifle or relatively new, used mainly for hunting, as bearhunter says, you'll never have to worry about burning out a barrel in your life time and likely the rifles heir. if you go to the range and shoot a hundred rounds a week and are shooting MOA , then after a year accuracy changes might become noticable, but would likely be still ok for hunting.unless you're shooting at much longer ranges, hunters don't have to be as concerned about splitting hairs as target shooters do.
 
First thing is to give the barrel a careful, thorough cleaning, so that you can actually see what you are looking at.
 
if you follow bearhunters instructions and determine that the throat is fine but most of the wear is at the muzzle, you dont have to replace the entire barrel - its much cheaper to simply get the barrel cut/re-crowned for $60-70.
 
Here a quick and dirty way to check the rifling
(my uncle showed me how to do it):

Stand the rifle up on its butt.
Holding a cartridge (of the same caliber) upside down, lower the bullet into the muzzle.
If the bullet slips all the way down (the cartridge case touches the muzzle), there's no rifling left. Its shot out.

If the bullet stops 1/2 - 2/3 of the way down, then there's still rifling.
 
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hey thanks for all the great relies guys. yeah the rifle in question for me is my sporter enfield. i'm really not worried about it too much because its not my main gun...but the funny thing is its dead balls on with the iron sights. i did the bullet upside down test and it didn't even come close to dropping in all the way. i'll see if i can't post some decent pics for you guys to check out, but like i mentioned, i'm not overly concerned.
 
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