Am I the only one that's never ....

[JFrank]

What is considered "shot out" varies among applications and people.

If a light gun (5-shot groups) LRBR barrel had been shooting under 3" at 1000 yds, and then opens up to 5"--and that is with me keeping up with tweaking the tune before each match, I consider that barrel shot out. It might be a candidate for a new chamber, but only because I have my own lathe.

Also, If one of my LRBR barrels gets past 800 rounds and is only a mediocre shooter, it comes off and scrapped. If it's a really good shooter I might rechamber it, since I can do that myself.


Now if a big game hunting barrel goes from 1" to 2" groups at 300 yds, I don't see an issue.

Who’s LG shoots under 3 in regularly?

 

[wbm]

Am I the only one that's never

No.

 

[chkunz]

For many of us, barrels are expendables like powder, brass, bullets and primers. We shoot them out and replace them. For an active competitor this may be a barrel for each shooting season.

 

[BoydAllen]

"most of those guys are swapping barrels well before 1000 rounds" Source?

 

[22BRGUY]

In my experience several factors increase barrel wear but the most important
seem to be cleaning regimen, round count, and shot rapidity which means
heat buildup.
I think heat buildup is probably right up there in importance.
In matches, guys try often to shoot rapidly to keep conditions similar. Understandable
for sure. I've also watched guys at the range shoot rapidly when just testing different loads.
That to me seems to be asking for unnecessary barrel wear. JMHO

 

[JFrank]

... shot out a barrell?

Are there any other lessons to be learned / you have learned about shooting out a barrel? Order new barrels right now, etc?

Lead times on new barrels can run out to 14 months so plan ahead is the big lesson.
If your current barrel is no longer competitive it’s probably time to try a new one.

 

[Rocketvapor]

I've got friends that think an AR barrel ought to last 10,000 rounds.
I've been watching the throat grow on mine and plan to toss together another upper with the new barrel (3 month lead time from X-Caliber) and keep shooting this old one for trigger time.
Not going to buy once/cry once so the 28" bull, 1:7, 5R, no threads, is right in my price range for a consumable.
Yes, I shoot an AR

 

[Bronsin]

The only barrel I ever shot out completely was my own fault. A .223 savage that I got too hot on an extended session and it tore the throat right out of it. I just use a shot clock now and take my time firing groups.

 

[ebb]

If you are wanting to know if its a thrill or requires a special skill set, no not really. If you think you need the experience come on down and I am sure with a couple of trips over to Manatee we can trash something. but with the price of primers, bullets and powder it certainly won't be the cheap thrill it once was. Use to be if you wanted to try something new, or were sick and tired of your old chambering you could trash one pretty quick and send the parts to Col Billy and pretty soon new and cool was on the way.

 

[GetReal]

I've got friends that think an AR barrel ought to last 10,000 rounds.
I've been watching the throat grow on mine and plan to toss together another upper with the new barrel (3 month lead time from X-Caliber) and keep shooting this old one for trigger time.
Not going to buy once/cry once so the 28" bull, 1:7, 5R, no threads, is right in my price range for a consumable.
Yes, I shoot an AR

Question -

Is this the "chasing the lands concept, where you seat the bullet longer and longer in the case as the throat erodes?

 

[Rocketvapor]

Chasing the lands? Naw.
Just changed powder from IMR4350 to SB 6.5 and 88 ELD to 85.5.
It's starting over with an old barrel.

 

[INTJ]

Who’s LG shoots under 3 in regularly?

Lots of us do in good conditions.

 

[JFrank]

We had great conditions in March with like 26 shooters, one guy shot 2 targets under 3 in on sat and just two guys on Sunday. I would consider under 3 in exceptional.

Approx 104 LG targets that month only 4 were under 3inch , some months we had none and perhaps a dozen over the entire season, @InTraining might have the exact numbers.

 

[INTJ]

We had great conditions in March with like 26 shooters, one guy shot 2 targets under 3 in on sat and just two guys on Sunday. I would consider under 3 in exceptional.

Approx 104 LG targets that month only 4 were under 3inch , some months we had none and perhaps a dozen over the entire season, @InTraining might have the exact numbers.

I don't understand your point. A highly competitive LRBR LG will be able to shoot under 3" in good conditions at 1000 yds, especially at Deep Creek. Crud, an IBS LG screamer group is 2.5" or better, and if your rifle load won't shoot a screamer group in good conditions then its not as competitive as it should be.

I only shot one sub 3" LG group last season, but I was having issues with my LG. Alex shot back to back sub 2" one match weekend. That is an excellent rifle. I don't think I remember as many sub 3" in 2022 as in 2021, leading me to believe conditions weren't as good overall in 2022.

I made a major change to my LG load and it improved quite a bit, but it's still not where it needs to be. I am doing some stock work then more tuning, and if it doesn't come around I'll pull the barrel even though it has less that 600 rounds on it.

So I wouldn't consider this barrel shot out of it doesn't improve. The last LF barrel I considered shot out would hold about 5" 5-shot groups at 1000, which is mediocre so at 1000 rounds I pulled it.

 

[JFrank]

It’s a good topic and should be talked about in more detail, maybe in march while we’re freezing our tails off in the pits. Lol i suppose my point is I just see sub 3 inch as the exception and I believe the math will show a very low percentage of shooters accomplish it on a regular basis. I’m not exactly sure when a barrel gives out, mine went a little at a time but I had plenty of days it just shot average followed by very good.

 

[Dave Way]

I understand the general wisdom of short-range shooters. But understand this -- most of those guys are swapping barrels well before 1000 rounds (and maybe as little as 800). When the brush exits the muzzle the wire tips point rearward >>>>>>. When you pull that back into the barrel, the sharp points can dig directly into the edge of the crown.

I've seen what this can do -- that created what looked like shark's teeth on the edge of the crown. And this was on the barrel of a well-known PPC shooter (who modified his brushing method after seeing that).

I won't challenge what other people have done successfully. I have simply observed that repeated back and forth brushing can cause undesirable wear. I don't understand the argument against removing the gunk off a brush before sending it back in...

Please post a photo of the damage caused to the crown by a bronze brush, a brush that was NOT being used with an abrasive that is. I have never been able to find any damage to the crowns of any of my bench rest barrels in 30 years of shooting. I don’t remove that evil brush before pulling it back through the crown either.

Take a new bronze and try to intentionally damage a stainless barrel stub by rubbing, striking or however you want to try to damage it. Then post photos of that damage.

I don’t mean to be abrasive, pun intended, but this comes up all the time and I have never been able to replicate the damage others speak of.

Dave.

 

[Jeff Porter]

Question -

Is this the "chasing the lands concept, where you seat the bullet longer and longer in the case as the throat erodes?

For me shooting an AR service rifle chasing the lands is really adjusting tune. When X count falls off I will do a seating depth test to see if I can tighten up a group. A lot of time it is a longer seating length ( same jump as previous but accounting for throat erosion) but not always.
As Walt said, barrels are consumables. With the cost of components, travel and match fees I don’t risk a barrel going south in a match. Button barrels will get pulled around 3000 ( +/- 500 rounds ) and cut rifle barrels at 4000. I sell them on Arfcom or to a new shooter who is only shooting reduced course matches. They tend to shoot well for a lot longer at 300 or less.

 

[Clancy]

I can’t imagine building something that costs $4,000 or more and not shooting it enough to at least wear one barrel out. Seems odd.

Some of mine have gone very quickly and some I may never wear out, but all the same, I’ve shot out many a barrel with fairly predictable barrel life— although some have gone much longer than I thought they would.

I got tired of whiz-bang coyote cartridges like the 22x47 (1100 rounds) and 25-06 (800 rounds) and replaced it with a 6BR, which has gone several seasons so far and required so little load development that the round count was below 40 when I hit the field with it.

Get out and shoot those things!

 

[DiffEQ]

A 7 mag (crown), a 22LR (ancient gun of which I was the 2nd owner, rifling worn smooth), and 6.5 Swede AI - the life of which was cut short by a rapid string of 100 rounds.
Have a CZ in 40S&W with over 20k rounds on the barrel - still accurate (for me) but the slide causing gauering on the top of the barrel is significant.

 

[MikeMcCasland]

Barrels get cheap and easy to replace when you're dumping thousands into components and travel expenses for matches. Showing up with a tube that isn't competitive gets real old, real quick.