20 Tactical and barrel erosion

[old leghumper]

Have heard that this cartridge will eat a barrel. Has anyone tried salt bath nitriding and if so did it help slow the erosion.?

 

[sawcarver]

Gary, most guys Ive talked to with a 20 practical or tactical get 3-4000 rounds out of one. Never heard they were barrel burners. Heck I know guys with 2000+ on a 20br and still going strong. But to answer your question Ive never nitrided anything

 

[mikecr]

The question is never really how many rounds someone can get out of a barrel. That's pretty nearly infinite.
The right question is: what is the ACCURATE barrel life?
That being the point where a barrel forever stops shooting as well as it had been.

You can get 3 or 4 thousand rounds down a 6PPC and still be 1/2" at 100yds.
But it's competitive(far better than 1/2") to ~900, and time to change the barrel.

For a 20P load I found here, I would predict 2,000 accurate. Push it past 3900fps, and expect accurate barrel life to drop from there.

 

[457ciSBC]

Then there’s flame temperature right; what’s more detrimental ....2k rounds of 90% burned 40 grains of a 3500 degree powder from a 20-250 or 2k rounds from 100% burned 28 grains of a 4000 degree powder?

 

[mikecr]

The 28gr/4kdeg load reduces accurate life count moreso than the 36gr/3500deg load.
Neither would make it to 2,000
There is also shot rate and load pressure to consider.

And there is more to barrel life than who can get the highest shot count and still be happy enough with results.
If you're like me, you find a barrel's best, and you can't stand shooting it beyond that.
When I'm used to 3/8 and it step changes to 1/2, I'm not gonna chase tail to get another 300 rounds. It's time to screw another barrel on, as I expected.
Even if 1/2 is all I ever needed, I just get used to that 3/8 I guess, and rather than reduce my range capability I'll use another rifle while the burned out barrel is being replaced(when needed).

It's part of what makes 'barrel life' subjective.

 

[jepp2]

Have heard that this cartridge will eat a barrel.

Some will depend on your loads and your firing rate. When I got my first 204 Ruger, asked around to find out expected barrel life. Got a wide range of answers. When I started shooting my 20P's, I wasn't sure what barrel life to expect from it either. The smith that built my first 20P (also happens to be the first to chamber a rifle in 20P) said he got 5K before accuracy dropped off. And he loads hotter than I do.

I use mine on colony varmints, and occasionally (like every day) get the barrel a bit too hot. But my load is on the milder side. I shoot 32 gr bullets around 3800 fps. With that combo, I usually get over 5K rounds before I see the accuracy start to drop off any. Your 20 Tactical should get similar life. Not sure that warrants nitriding, and how much it would help anyway.