280AI Barrel barrel life expectations

[brianc74]

How many rounds should a guy expect befor the rifle stops shooting 1/4 Moa. I plan on shooting Berger 168-180 vid bullets. going with a Nosler sammi noturn neck chamber.
I plan on 1000 yard shooting and long range hunting with the rifle. The rifle is a all custom with a Full Bull Proof Research 26" 1-9 twist barrel. Action is a Bat HR and is Devcon steel bedded into a Manners EH5A.
I am looking for longer barrel life then a 6.5-284 Norma

 

[Willow]

Just about to have a 280AI finished myself. One guy I shoot with runs a 280AI and got around 2000 rounds of useful barrel life before he hung a new truck axle off his Barnard action. That was using Sierra 180s.

 

[DaveTooley]

How many rounds should a guy expect befor the rifle stops shooting 1/4 Moa. I plan on shooting Berger 168-180 vid bullets. going with a Nosler sammi noturn neck chamber.
I plan on 1000 yard shooting and long range hunting with the rifle. The rifle is a all custom with a Full Bull Proof Research 26" 1-9 twist barrel. Action is a Bat HR and is Devcon steel bedded into a Manners EH5A.
I am looking for longer barrel life then a 6.5-284 Norma

You'll see accuracy start to fade around 1200 rounds if cared for properly. But please get back to us when you have that rifle shooting 1/4 MOA.

 

[Ggmac]

I agree with Dave , at about 800-1000 rds you may think it's the load , bedding , crown , etc . While chasing down the reason for flyers you would be better off having it borescoped to see how bad the checking is .

 

[shoot4fun]

Lots of naysayers here on how long a 280AI barrel is good for. I am surprised at the short life-span estimates. I just started really working on mine but (just an opinion) the design of the case, with a longish neck and the ackley shoulder, barrel life would be much longer. I admittedly didn't think about how hard reloaders usually push those .284 bullets and with what powders so that would have to be a contributing factor to barrel life. In my latest testing the Berger 168 VLD ahead of Retumbo produced 2990 FPS with zero pressure signs from my 28" 1 in 8.75 Bartlein 5R.