223 barrel life

[rmist]

Shooting F TR with a 223... What kind of barrel life is to be expected shooting the heavier bullets ?
Thanks again,
Rmist

 

[fdshuster]

Rmist: Others will have other experiences, but my son wore out a Hart 1-7 twist, shooting F-Class match's using the 80 gr. SMK with 24.5 grs. of Varget. He reached a point after approximately 3000 rounds that the 80's could not be seated to touch, and remain inside the case neck.

We scoped it out with our Hawkeye's and both saw the same condition: No firecracking at all, but the throat & leade area were completely washed out.

My 1-8 Hart, 223 has close to 3000 rounds fired also, but it had a steady diet of 55 gr. bullets and the throat length is only about .015" longer than when new.

 

[rmist]

Thank you for the information !!
Rmist

 

[chuckbuster243]

I have a shilen select match that is at around 2700 of 75 amax. Set It back as far as possible just for prairie dogs this past spring. It shot about 800 55's after that and it still shoots them around an inch but fouls horible and wont shoot the heavies hardly at all. I knew this before hand and it is now for pillars and bushings. I figure acurate life jumped out the window at 3k. The throat is so long a 80 smk wont touch the rifling and be in the case. An interesting note is the barrel life calculator on this sight was almost dead nuts for the frst run on it. Matt