how many rounds to wear out a barrel + mod

[farmshooter]

hello,

 

i was just wondering how many rounds it takes to wear out a barrel and mod on a .223 rifle?

 

 

just wanted to no if theres a genral amount before it starts being unacurate

 

thanks

[snowz]

several thousand easy too many to worry about compared to other cals

[fortune82]

There are loads of different factors which affect this.

 

Muzzle velocity plays a big part as does your cleaning regime.

 

Worn out also means different things to different people. A Benchrest shooter will class a tube as worn out long before a hunter would.

 

If you shoot many rounds through your rifle quickly that will also wear the barrel more quickly as it gets hot.

 

A friend who is a profesional stalker in Scotland has a .223 which he reckons has had around 5000 rounds through it and it still groups.

[farmshooter]

ok cheers guys, i shoot quite a few through it occasionaly on a range or when shooting targets, but otha than that itl just be 5-10 shots when out lamping

[Billy.]

You could wear the barrel out in 20 shots. It's all about how rapidly you fire.

 

I'm sure you'll notice that a couple of shots in succession will heat the barrel to almost an untouchable heat. Once the barrel gets too hot, it'll become more malleable and a shot topping 20,000psi could easily cause some internal stresses and warp the barrel.

 

If I'm zeroing, I'll fire no more than three shots in succession and slowly walk up to the target to let it cool.

[Vipa]

I've never understood this. (I'm not for one minute doubting this Billy, I'm terrified of breaking my T3 Lite when I'm at the range as the barrel gets VERY hot, VERY quickly)

 

When I was in the army, many many moons ago, we had the barrels of LMGs glowing cherry red before changing barrels on night live fire exercises. If you think how many tens of thousands of rounds they get pumped through them in quick succession, they never seemed to suffer any real harm. My SLR was pretty damned accurate and god knows what that had gone through it in it's lifetime!

 

Obviously, they were never designed as a precision rifle but if we are talking wear and barrel damage are we looking at the widening of a group to maybe twice it's pre wear size or are we talking 'can no longer hit a barn door with it?'

 

I was reading on one of the precision shooting sites that the f-class guys tend to look upon a match barrel as 'spent' after about 750 rds :o Christ, I put 200 rounds through my TRG at the range the other day just doing some load development work!

Edited March 7, 2011 by Vipa

[Billy.]

I've never understood this. (I'm not for one minute doubting this Billy, I'm terrified of breaking my T3 Lite when I'm at the range as the barrel gets VERY hot, VERY quickly)

 

When I was in the army, many many moons ago, we had the barrels of LMGs glowing cherry red before changing barrels on night live fire exercises. If you think how many tens of thousands of rounds they get pumped through them in quick succession, they never seemed to suffer any real harm. My SLR was pretty damned accurate and god knows what that had gone through it in it's lifetime!

 

Obviously, they were never designed as a precision rifle but if we are talking wear and barrel damage are we looking at the widening of a group to maybe twice it's pre wear size or are we talking 'can no longer hit a barn door with it?'

 

I was reading on one of the precision shooting sites that the f-class guys tend to look upon a match barrel as 'spent' after about 750 rds :o Christ, I put 200 rounds through my TRG at the range the other day just doing some load development work!

 

When I say 'wear out' I mean, you can risk not being able to shoot a tight group at 100 yards.

 

I think if you're in the army, unless you're going down the marksman route, you're going to be ringing off several rounds at a time, which will at best, pattern within several inches. You'd probably be quite chuffed with that, if you were shooting at a body shaped target at 100 yards.

 

However if your target is a 10p coin at 100 yards, you might find that the gun, through wear a tear doesn't exactly fling a bullet where it's pointed.

 

If you just bought a Sako or the like and it couldn't keep a sub 1/2" group at 100y even if it's strapped to a rest, you'd probably take it back. If you're in the army and you have a SA80 you'd probably be lucky to get that, but what it shoots is probably good enough.

 

Like I said about the marksman stuff though.. It's a rifle that's given and looked after to a marksman. It's his precision tool and will more than likely try his utmost to keep it on target.

 

Anyway, I've quickly scribbled the above, before my lunch break, so excuse if it makes no sense

[Vipa]

When I say 'wear out' I mean, you can risk not being able to shoot a tight group at 100 yards.

 

I think if you're in the army, unless you're going down the marksman route, you're going to be ringing off several rounds at a time, which will at best, pattern within several inches. You'd probably be quite chuffed with that, if you were shooting at a body shaped target at 100 yards.

 

However if your target is a 10p coin at 100 yards, you might find that the gun, through wear a tear doesn't exactly fling a bullet where it's pointed.

 

If you just bought a Sako or the like and it couldn't keep a sub 1/2" group at 100y even if it's strapped to a rest, you'd probably take it back. If you're in the army and you have a SA80 you'd probably be lucky to get that, but what it shoots is probably good enough.

 

Like I said about the marksman stuff though.. It's a rifle that's given and looked after to a marksman. It's his precision tool and will more than likely try his utmost to keep it on target.

 

Anyway, I've quickly scribbled the above, before my lunch break, so excuse if it makes no sense

 

No... It made perfect sense... back in the day (only just) before the SA80 was rolled out en mass, we had no EoTech holo sights and the likes, it was iron, iron or.... iron... gawd, I was RMP, so to be honest apart from the odd excersise, my 'normal' weapon was a Browning Hi-Power :wacko: As long as it was capable of hitting a human sized target at 25 yds..... it was fine!

 

With SLR I was chuffed to bits with 20 rounds into 6" @ 200yds (iron sights). With my TRG I'll be really p****d off if it stops making one raggedy hole, so, I can see what you are saying.... If my TRG is no longer capable of getting 3 rounds to at least clover leaf (fully supported and benchrested) then it is no longer fit for the purpose I bought it for. When we were shooting GPMGs and LMGs, to be honest, I wasn't interested where the rounds were going, I just loved watching the tracers go down range

Edited March 7, 2011 by Vipa