barrel life big 6's

[Frankr]

reading the post on 243AI barrel life,
i have a rem 700LA sitting here. bought it with the intension of building
a 6/284 hunting rifle. to shoot the 105VLD and everone i spoke to about it said less than 1,000 round it would be shot out.a friend of mine said his was gone at @500 rounds.
my nabor told me he had a 6/284 and it was the most accurate rifle he ever had but was done @800 rounds. so i never built it,its alot of money to spend to be gone in a years time.so i just never built it. i would have to say that if the 6/284 is that hard on barrels,the 243AI or the 6mmAI would have to be just as hard???

But i will say this i had a 25/06AI 28" light palma match barrel, i would thing it would have to be hard on barrels, i had a bunch of fire forming to do then i was pushing 85NBT at 3,990FPS and at 500 rounds the throat had never moved, I dont have a bore scope but it still shot and the jam length never changed in 500rds.
so what is the expected barrel life of a big six?

 

[Frankr]

well ppc would'ent the 243AI be just as hard or allmost just as hard on barrels, its real close in powder charge?

 

[Frankr]

well im right in the middle or maybe in the begining of a 6BR build, very expensive.
but when its done i got to get a barrel on this 700LA. even though i have a bug for that 6/284 i just cant spend the money on a rifle i might shoot out in a year.
so i think i decidied on a 280AI barrel for it. but i keep going back&forth on 280AI or straight 284win set up to shoot the 168VLD for hunting everything from long range coyote to deer.

 

[Killshot]

Barrels are consumable items, like powder and projectiles. Go for the 6/284.

 

[bozo699]

Barrels are consumable items, like powder and projectiles. Go for the 6/284.

Killshot is 100% spot on as far as I am concerned. I have a friend that has one in a 1:8 That has over 1200 rounds on it and its still very competitive,mine has over 500 on it still shoots one ragged hole, I shot two back to back 10 shot 8.5" groups at 1k in a 15 mph switching wind last Saturday, but if I wake up tomorrow and its shot out I will smile thinking of all the fun shooting I had with it as I call Krieger and order another barrel,
no different at all when I run out of bullets I call Brunos and order more When I am competing I will shoot as many as 7 fowler shots followed by 10 record shots all in under 10 minutes and usually less than that, now thats what is hard on barrels I would hope when hunting you don't even come close to that kind of abuse, if you do think hard on replacing your scope. For a hunting application I wouldn't think twice about building one, I hunt year around, my last .243AI lasted 10 years, thats 365 X 10= 3650/ $450 for the re barreling job = a little over .12 cents a day for all the fun I had, show me another sport you can have that much fun for .12 a day plus bullets,.. golf?? Whatever!
Chamber it in 6*284 and have a blast blowing varmints up and talking long range antelope and whatever else, ENJOY.
Wayne.

 

[1000yardstare]

Got 1200 rounds out of a 6AI in a MacLennon 8 twist barrel. When she went it was like falling off a cliff.

The low usage 6AI brass is now necked up to 6.5mm in a Shilen 8 twist Select Match. Will be interesting to compare barrel life between the two calibers using the same brass.

 

[TonyR]

well im right in the middle or maybe in the begining of a 6BR build, very expensive.
but when its done i got to get a barrel on this 700LA. even though i have a bug for that 6/284 i just cant spend the money on a rifle i might shoot out in a year.
so i think i decidied on a 280AI barrel for it. but i keep going back&forth on 280AI or straight 284win set up to shoot the 168VLD for hunting everything from long range coyote to deer.

The barrel life with either a 280AI or one of the 284s should be much better that any of the high capacity 6mms. I have a couple of 284 Shehane barrels that have over 1500 rounds on them, mostly in 20 round string fire matches at 2900 fps with 180gr bullets, with no loss of accuracy. I believe that others are having similar results. I think 2400 may be possible. I have had great results with the 162 A-Max and I would expect the 168VLD to perform at least as well.

 

[1shot]

Several years ago I chambered up a 1-8” Broughton in 6XC with the plans to shoot tactical competitions with 105 gr. bullets. At the distances we were shooting at, the manual elevation adjustments were virtually non-existent only using hold over/under if necessary. We had a stage of fire of 30 pop-up targets in 90 seconds ranging from 50-300 meters. After that stage my bbl. stayed too hot to touch for several hours. Long story short, the bbl. was toast at round 866. Good enough for varmints to 300-400 yards, but that’s about it. The moral of the story for me is, don’t use an overbore cartridge if you have plans of for any rapid-fire shooting and expect any kind of decent bbl. life.
I hope this helps,
Lloyd

 

[TonyR]

Several years ago I chambered up a 1-8” Broughton in 6XC with the plans to shoot tactical competitions with 105 gr. bullets. At the distances we were shooting at, the manual elevation adjustments were virtually non-existent only using hold over/under if necessary. We had a stage of fire of 30 pop-up targets in 90 seconds ranging from 50-300 meters. After that stage my bbl. stayed too hot to touch for several hours. Long story short, the bbl. was toast at round 866. Good enough for varmints to 300-400 yards, but that’s about it. The moral of the story for me is, don’t use an overbore cartridge if you have plans of for any rapid-fire shooting and expect any kind of decent bbl. life.
I hope this helps,
Lloyd

It is pretty interesting how much barrel life changes with bore diameter using the same parent case. People using the 7mmWSM in F-Open talk about 700-800 rounds while I've talked to BR shooters using a 300WSM that get 3000 or more competitive rounds and there were similar comparisons when people were moving from the 6.5X284 to the straight 284s. Some of those differences are probably due to the different lengths of strings and cleaning intervals with the different courses of fire; but I'm sure that the bore diameters are also important.

 

[johnmyers]

You may be surprised how much bbl life you can get out of a 6-284 using slow burning ball powder if you use common sense about getting it too hot.

 

[Frankr]

Ok thanks for the reply's guys. im torn... when im ready to get it barreled i will have to decide. but i now have been leaning tward that 280AI with the higher BC 168VLD.but as it has been said maybe i will do it in 6/284 and pound it, if it gives up then i could put on a .280AI barrel.

 

[rebelbell24]

Barrels are consumable items, like powder and projectiles. Go for the 6/284.

Exactly, and that's why I'm having a 6/284 built right now. It's going to be a predator hunting rifle so hopefully it will last for a little while. When it does get shot out, I will have another barrel put on and enjoy shooting it too!

 

[Scott Harris]

If you shoot a few thousand rounds per year, then you'll be putting 4 or 5 barrels per year on it: one every two or three months. At $500-$600 per barrel, that's an expensive habit. Unless you're made of money, I recommend avoiding cartridges with less than 1000 round barrel life. JMHO.

 

[bozo699]

I have never owned a gun that got less than a 1K before it was wore out, not even my .338-.378 weatherby if it did though I would just rebarrel it. Fast cars like gasoline and fast guns like barrels, its just the price you pay for performance.
Wayne.

 

[abishai]

I have a 243 with an 8 twist douglas that has 2600 down the tube. My gun smith told me it was erroded about a foot up (at 2000). It will still shoot the crap out of the x ring at 600, or a half inch at a 100. I run my loads hot with slow powder ( 3050 with 115 DTACs). A cooked barrel can still be accurate, but a pain in the butt to clean. Not bad for a barrel that was only supposed to last a 1000

 

[Baron B58]

Describing a barrel as a consumable sure is a nice easy way to make the financial pain of barrel replacement go away. I think the folks who do this has in general got a few more dollars in the bank than others. In South Africa our barrels are licensed and it may take 6 months up to a year just to get a barrel replaced; so for most of us even something like a 6.5/284 is a crazy idea; a 6/284 is downright ridiculous. Apart from this I think a straight 284 Win with high BC bullets will probably outperform the 6/284 at long range anyway; so why bother? Save a bit of barrel money and rather invest it in a super nice scope!!

 

[TonyR]

Describing a barrel as a consumable sure is a nice easy way to make the financial pain of barrel replacement go away. I think the folks who do this has in general got a few more dollars in the bank than others. In South Africa our barrels are licensed and it may take 6 months up to a year just to get a barrel replaced; so for most of us even something like a 6.5/284 is a crazy idea; a 6/284 is downright ridiculous. Apart from this I think a straight 284 Win with high BC bullets will probably outperform the 6/284 at long range anyway; so why bother? Save a bit of barrel money and rather invest it in a super nice scope!!

Baron.
How does the barrel registration work for someone bringing a rifle to SA for a match? In the US, we register the receiver but I have asked my smith to engrave the serial numbers of my match barrels on the finished barrels in case I head in your direction for a match. Most of the manufacturers stamp the numbers on the end of the blank but these get machined off when the barrel is fitted to the receiver.

 

[Baron B58]

Hallo Tony; yes we have to licence the barrels !! The authorities are not that worried about receivers although you are not allowed to have them in your possession without a matching licenced and numbered barrel. The gunsmith must stamp the manufacturers number on the side of the barrel when he assembles the firearm. Not sure about importation but having a number on the barrel will probably simplify things. If you ever do come out this way be sure to let me know; talking to a 284 guru and shooting personality can never hurt!!

 

[TonyR]

Hallo Tony; yes we have to licence the barrels !! The authorities are not that worried about receivers although you are not allowed to have them in your possession without a matching licenced and numbered barrel. The gunsmith must stamp the manufacturers number on the side of the barrel when he assembles the firearm. Not sure about importation but having a number on the barrel will probably simplify things. If you ever do come out this way be sure to let me know; talking to a 284 guru and shooting personality can never hurt!!

I'll be sure to do that. I have a friend who goes to your big matches most years and he always has a great time.

 

[ChuckMiller]

I've got 2 6mm-284's, both over 1000 round's, have no idea where the lands are. Both still shoot around .75moa and I have no plan to rebarrel them anytime soon. Shot a feral pig with one last week at 330yds, pig didn't complain either. It took me 6 years to put that many rounds down them. When accuracy goes away to the point that I can't shoot them I'll have them set back, until then...........