barrel life

meathshooter

what would be the barrel life on different cailbers say from .22 up to .308
I know loads would be a big factor, how many rounds before its time for a new barrel

foxshooter243

meathshooter wrote: »

what would be the barrel life on different cailbers say from .22 up to .308
I know loads would be a big factor, how many rounds before its time for a new barrel

thats a fairly broad question. i could go through the whole range but it would be handier if you specified a few..

IRLConor

Well, for .22lr the answer can be "a very, very long time". DURC has a few rifles which have had thousands of rounds per year put through them for several decades and they're still in very good condition.

rrpc

IRLConor wrote: »

Well, for .22lr the answer can be "a very, very long time". DURC has a few rifles which have had thousands of rounds per year put through them for several decades and they're still in very good condition.

The weight of the barrel is a big factor there Conor. The target barrels are very heavy and dissipate heat well. Lighter barrels will take a lot less punishment.

Still I've seen target barrels 'shot out' in the past. It's evidenced by widening groups and you can test by benchresting the rifle or just the barrel and action.

It wasn't me!

IRLConor wrote: »

Well, for .22lr the answer can be "a very, very long time". DURC has a few rifles which have had thousands of rounds per year put through them for several decades and they're still in very good condition.

I think someone said (could have been Bernard) that one or two of the older ones might have seen half a million rounds.

I will work it out tonight.

It wasn't me!

Cool, would be an interesting one.

meathshooter

foxshooter243 wrote: »

thats a fairly broad question. i could go through the whole range but it would be handier if you specified a few..

say .223,243,6.5x55,308

IRLConor

It wasn't me! wrote: »

I think someone said (could have been Bernard) that one or two of the older ones might have seen half a million rounds.

I dunno, I'd estimate that those rifles do 50-150 rounds per night, 2 x .22 nights a week, ~25 shooting weeks a year. That's 2,500 to 7,500 rounds per year. Throw in a few competitions as well at ~60-80 rounds per competition.

I don't think you could quite make half a million rounds out of that. They're not that old!

Now, a quarter of a million might be plausible for some of them.

It wasn't me!

The benefit of being lefty is that mine will be considerably cleaner, since no-one else is using it.

I work out that 7/8 see ~4500 rds per year minimum in the current set up and I imagine it was at least twice that pre air rifle boom (1995+)

So lets say the 7/8 are about 35 years old so that yields

4500 x 13 = 58,500

9000 x 22 = 198,000

Total = 256,500 rounds per rifle and they are still grouping tightly!

Now these calcs are rough and carry a lot of implicit assumptions but I would say that there have been at least 200,000 rounds fired per rifle.

foxshooter243

meathshooter wrote: »

say .223,243,6.5x55,308

The figures im going to give you are from a study conducted by "rifle shooter" magazine in the US and they reflect the useful life of a rifle barrel, the barrels continue to shoot ,but not to the same accuracy level as before,wether or not the shooter notices or cares is another matter.
they are based on standard loads in the rifles.
223-4000
243-3000
6.5 55-3500
308-4500.

It wasn't me!

Deleted User wrote: »

I work out that 7/8 see ~4500 rds per year minimum in the current set up and I imagine it was at least twice that pre air rifle boom (1995+)

So lets say the 7/8 are about 35 years old so that yields

4500 x 13 = 58,500

9000 x 22 = 198,000

Total = 256,500 rounds per rifle and they are still grouping tightly!

Now these calcs are rough and carry a lot of implicit assumptions but I would say that there have been at least 200,000 rounds fired per rifle.

Cheers zaraba, that's still a lot of lead down the barrels anyway.

In fact, on brief and possibly inaccurate calculation, assuming bullet weight to be about 2.6 grams, it comes to just under 667 kilos. They've knocked out over half a ton of lead!

foxshooter243

Deleted User wrote: »

I work out that 7/8 see ~4500 rds per year minimum in the current set up and I imagine it was at least twice that pre air rifle boom (1995+)

So lets say the 7/8 are about 35 years old so that yields

4500 x 13 = 58,500

9000 x 22 = 198,000

Total = 256,500 rounds per rifle and they are still grouping tightly!

Now these calcs are rough and carry a lot of implicit assumptions but I would say that there have been at least 200,000 rounds fired per rifle.

what type of groups are they capable off?

rrpc

foxshooter243 wrote: »

what type of groups are they capable off?

The rifles concerned can still shoot better than the shooters . I've seen some very old target rifles retired to benchrest and can still take the pips out at 50m with a good driver.

foxshooter243

foxshooter243 wrote: »

what type of groups are they capable off?

It can still knock in tons in the right hands! (not mine)

IRLConor

foxshooter243 wrote: »

what type of groups are they capable off?

Off a rest they'll hold inside the 10 ring all day long at 25yds (which is where they're shot). The 10 ring on an NSRA 25yd target is 12.92mm across. (If my calculations are correct, this is about 0.5MOA (worst case))

From the shoulder, it just depends on how good you are.

foxshooter243

IRLConor wrote: »

Off a rest they'll hold inside the 10 ring all day long at 25yds (which is where they're shot). The 10 ring on an NSRA 25yd target is 12.92mm across. (If my calculations are correct, this is about 0.5MOA (worst case))

From the shoulder, it just depends on how good you are.

Its an amazing service life, ive heard that the 22lr had a long life but didnt realise how good it was.

It wasn't me!

foxshooter243 wrote: »

Its an amazing service life, ive heard that the 22lr had a long life but didnt realise how good it was.

It's worth noting that they're heavy target barrels though. Lighter barrels wouldn't be as good.