I don't shoot Benchrest, F Class or FTR, so I know very little to nothing about when a barrel is considered worn out for those uses by those that shoot those disciplines.
I only know AR15 Service rifles and I have personally worn out around a dozen 20" barrels since 2003 when I got started in full distance ( 200 - 300 and 600 yard ) matches. Prior to that I was a 200 yard reduced course shooter for 2 years.
When I was shooting a lot of matches and practicing heavy from 2007 - 2009 working to earn my Distinguished Rifleman Badge i would go thru around 6000 rounds a year. ( I legged out and earned badge #1970 in 2009 at the age of 59 with an AR15 before 4.5 power scopes were legal to use )
I am now governor of the range and spend more time working on the range and helping new shooters get started and improve so these years I now only shoot
around 3000 rounds a year
I have went thru mostly White Oak Wilson Button Rifled Barrels and probably wore out around 8 of those. I have also used pac-nor, Kreiger and now Bartlein. All of them have been good to great. Bartlein has been awesome to deal with and the product is top shelf so that is likely all that i will purchase from here on out.
My experience thru all those barrels follows what 99% of other AR15 Service Rifle shooters find.
The $220'ish button rifles Wilson or green Mountain barrels are good for around 3000 rounds and the $450 - $500 Cut rifled barrels are typically good for around 6000 rounds. I don't know why that is the case and i don't concern myself much with why it is. I just know it is...
Simple math says this equals around $.07 - $0.08 cents a round no matter which barrel you choose so they are virtually the same cost per round to use.
The only difference is when or how often you will need to replace the barrel.
I / we service rifle shooters consider barrels like tires or brakes on your car.
They are a wear item and you replace them when you see evidence they need replacing.
Compared to travelling to matches, match fees and ammo the barrel is the lowest cost part of the total picture so most of us don't overthink it.
My experience is also the same as 99% of other service rifle shooters.
Either button or cut rifled they both typically shoot very much equally well until they get to end of life and start costing you points.
We start to know when a barrel is nearing it's end of quality / full distance match life in the 300 yard rapid fire stage and the 600 yard slow fire stage first.
X count drops off, you use more of the 10 ring and start getting 9's ( or worse ) on shots that you are confident you executed well. That is when that barrel will no longer be used in full course matches.
It can and will be used for at least another 3000 or more rounds for 200 yard standing / offhand practice and sitting rapid practice.
That is why most serious service rifle shooters run at least two uppers.
http://www.sw-hearing.com/konrad/thoughts/barrels.html
The shooter and the level of Marksmanship skill is always the weak link in Service rifle (and XTC Match Rifle ) where you shoot standing with no sling support and sitting and prone with only sling support.
Long way to respond to a thread asking
Retvet09 asked >>> So my question is, does cut rifling add real longevity to the life of a barrel or is it just perceived? <<<
Just a Service Rifle shooters perspective / response to the question which seems to be different thnt those that have responded in this thread already.
Seem like not many Service Rifle shooters post here so what I typed above may be of little to no interest to most of you here.
Hope helpful to some here..
George Smith
https://nfga.org/high-power-rifle/
https://nfga.org/leveridge-range/
Edited to Add:
There are always outliers with all of them from one extreme to the other.
You will hear report of Wilsons lasting over 10K rounds and still shooting great and reports of Kreigers or Bartleins dying with 1000 rounds or less thru them and visa versa.
I think we all need to keep in mind that the barrel companies are somewhat at the mercy of the quality of the steel they get to work with. I would imagine the quality of the raw material goes up and down from year to year or maybe even more often than that.
I always wondered if you took a worn out barrel or a new barrel and did Rockwell hardness tests every inch of the barrel to see the spread in actual hardness of the 20 reading you would get in a 20" barrel from lot to lot of steel.
But as stated above, to me that would be overthinking it as a shooter.
I keep spare new barrels on the shelf and run 3 uppers. If I loose confidence in any barrel off it comes. Maybe I have removed barrel that are totally fine... So be it, like I said all part of the game as a easily replaceable wear item.
If it's in my head that there is any doubt off it comes.
