204 Ruger barrel life ?

[GlennGTR1]

Does anyone know what to expect for barrel life in rifles chambered for 204 Ruger?

 

[fdshuster]

I saw the beginning of some serious firecracking, using my Hawkeye borescope, at a recorded 775 rds. fired. The barrel was taken off shortly after that & replaced with a Hart 223, 1-9 twist.

 

[GlennGTR1]

That seems like an extremely short barrel life.

 

[fdshuster]

That was just the beginning of firecracking, the first indication. The rifle still shot well, ( in no wind conditions), and copper fouling was not a problem. I would have expected it to be "good" for a lot more rounds, depending on the users accuracy requirements. Some demand 1/2 moa, others are happy with "just barely moa", and still others think a rifle is "accurate" if they can hit a pie plate at 100 yds. Several of my 243 barrels had the same amount of firecracking at 400 rds., and they lasted for 1400 'til I got rid of them. I had other issues with the 204 Ruger, and went back to a 223 on that particular rifle. The 204 barrel was a Hart, 1-12 twist.

 

[drop_point]

I had one that started to open up around 8k rounds. It went from a .2 shooter to over an inch at that mark. I sold the rifle and replaced it with another. I've noticed very good barrel life on .204s. Oddly enough, I think people see worse life out of .223 than .204 Ruger.

 

[K22]

Oddly enough, I think people see worse life out of .223 than .204 Ruger.

That doesn't make any sense to me! The 204 is more overbored than the 223, i.e. the case capacity ratio to the bullet diameter is higher than the 223 so you would expect a shorter barrel life for the 204. However, there are a lot of 223's being made today with fast twists but I'm not sure how that would affect barrel life.

 

[people]

No matter how you plug in the numbers more powder plus a small bore equals less tube life.

 

[drop_point]

See the 2007 April-June issue of Varmint Hunter magazine--read about the turbulent point specifically.

 

[fdshuster]

people: See my above post, " depending on the users accuracy requirements". I personally have no use for the rifle that will not hold, at least, M.O.A., smaller is better. Consistantly under 1/2 M.O.A. with 5 shot groups at 300 yds. is a "winner". I've burned out 3, 223 barrels that have been replaced at between 4 & 4500 rounds, with uncalled flyers, and heavy copper fouling. As seen with my borescope, heavy firecracking for at least the first 2" of throat, with a lot of rifling "gone". When it gets even worse, bullet keyholing will become a problem. The US Army Marksmanship gunsmiths change out the Team M16 match barrels at between 2500 & 3000 rounds, when they begin to see a drop in accuracy. A clubmember has an AR-15 that he says has over 20,000 rds. fired, we looked at the bore with my Hawkeye, and I believe him. It is a smoothbore, (well, not exactly, as there are large chunks of steel ripped out of the bore), with no rifling for a measured 12" in front of the chamber. Keyholing is severe at 100 yds., and he is lucky to be able to hit an 8" dia. pie plate, but to him it is "accurate"!

 

[people]

fdshuster I did read your post. I always read all the posts before posting.

 

[fdshuster]

I also follow your policy of saving the low round count barrel(s) for the "serious" work. A Krieger barreled upper, built by Compass Lake ( 1-7.8 twist) now has 4300 rds. fired so I limit it to 200 yds. Another Compass Lake upper, also a Krieger, has 1100 rds., so it is kept for the more demanding requirements. Guess I'm getting off the subject of the original posting ( 204 Ruger barrel life), so I better sign-off. ;D

 

[Turkeytider]

I had one that started to open up around 8k rounds. It went from a .2 shooter to over an inch at that mark. I sold the rifle and replaced it with another. I've noticed very good barrel life on .204s. Oddly enough, I think people see worse life out of .223 than .204 Ruger.

That’s saying something if you get better barrel life than a .223 out of ANYTHING!

 

[RegionRat]

That’s saying something if you get better barrel life than a .223 out of ANYTHING!

Not sure if you noticed, the thread was from 2011 and while drop_point is still with us, others are not.

 

[Turkeytider]

Not sure if you noticed, the thread was from 2011 and while drop_point is still with us, others are not.

No I didn’t. Thanks.

 

[RegionRat]

No I didn’t. Thanks.

No worries, it is always an interesting topic to hear about.

I'll play along and share that I wear out the 204R barrels on AR uppers in about 2000 - 2500 rounds before I notice they start to open up when hot.

I confess I treat them as consumables and assume I will be changing them out depending on the season's mileage. I run up to two ten round mags without worrying how hot they get and rotate to another one for cooling it off. I run two at a time, and will also often have a 17HMR running, and also some sort of a long-range rig running all at the same time in rotation.

On good days that means I have to clean them at lunch, on slow days at the end of the day. I run mostly the Hornady 40 VMax and I don't have the pressure cranked up very high.

ETA: Now that John has passed on the keys to WOA and they have moved their shop, has anyone run a WOA 204R barrel to end of life since the owners changed?

 

[willyp19]

I bought a REM 700 VLS in 204 back in 2005, fired approx. 1500+/- rounds before I saw any accuracy issues. My load used (RL-10x, SBK 39gr,) @ 3500 fps. I kept shooting well over a 2000 rounds, and yes, I would have consistent fliers. Along with a throat was burned out.

 

[searcher]

The oldest tube on one of my 20P A/R's (Hart 1-12" Remington varmint contour 26") has 6,554 rounds on it and still shoots right around 1/2" MOA. It was an under- 3/8 MOA tube when new. Has mild fire cracking and a pretty smoothed bore the first few inches but still is serviceable for my use, though my borescope says it shouldn't shoot as well as it does. I have another .20p A/R that I take in case the older tube gives out in the middle of a shoot, but it hasn't happened (yet). I have had to adjust the powder volume a few times to keep the speed up - and I adjusted the bullet depth once to get the best tune out of it that I could with all the mileage on it.

By contrast, I have three .223 tubes on A/R's and a bolt gun (all varmint contour 24" to 26" tubes) with 5,690 rounds (Krieger), 4,820 (Shilen) and 4,022 (Remington factory barrel), all of which show a bit more fire cracking and wear than the .20 Practical. I don't run hot loads in any of these rifles. I have shot mostly 32 & 40 grain V-Max and 39 BK's in the .20P, almost entirely with Accurate LT32 powder since the tube was new. I shoot mostly 40's and 50's in the .223's, using LT-32, Rel. 7 and 8208XBR, depending on the rifle.

I don't baby these tubes when on a squirrel field, though I do stop shooting a rifle once it hits around 150-200 rounds and set it aside till cleaning in the evening, swapping in another. They do occasionally get very hot - too hot to hold a hand to. I have used moly on most of the bullets in the .223's but not the .20P - which I run bare.

I think my .20P's will prove to outlast my .223 tubes. Seems counterintuitive to me - but that is what it seems.