damaging rifle barrels?

[Robby22]

im very shortly going to purchase a 243, a shooting friend said when zeroing the gun, you shouldnt have more than 3 or 4 shots before letting it cool down, otherwise it might damage it, he has a much bigger calibre than a .243, so i didnt know whether it applied to a 243 or not, im fairly new to shooting rifles so some advice would be most helpful. Obviously i wont be firing shots like there going out of fashion, but will want to get it zeroed.

 

cheers

[deadeye ive]

Heat is the biggest threat to barrel life ............Shoot a centre fire like you would a Rimfire and you'll soon find out .

20 shots per hour

[Big_Sam]

Well when I shot fullbore we were getting off a shot, about every two minutes, so about 30/hour

 

But that was because we was sharing a target, you could half that otherwise. Does get a bit warm though, but the heavy barrels cope ok.

[duey]

Robby

 

If you try to zero with a warm or hot barrel you will get a false zero

 

If you have a heavy barrel rifle you may get away with about 5 consecutive shots, if its a lighter sporting type barrel take no more than three shots then leave it to cool down to stone cold then start again

 

I know this may take a while but it is worth it in the end.

 

Once you have established a true zero you can get away with shooting the rifle with a warm barrel as you will, with practice, be able to predict to a degree how much your shot will move from its zero point

 

do not let your barrel get really stinking hot as is is a sure way to reduce its life span, if you shoot a string of ten shots, then give it at least ten to fifteen minuets to cool down before shooting again.

 

Ian

Edited February 14, 2008 by duey

[Robby22]

thanks for the advice guys