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End of barrel life:(

270 ftw

I want to share my experience and then hear yours. Is my barrel headed to the graveyard or did my shooting skills degrade?...i just dont want to except that my barrel is done for before hearing from you all. Especially because I feel there was a rapid decline even though i am still able to keep my load 20 thou off the lands with .220 grip.

270 win
26 inch 1 in 8 #6 contour brux
1563 round count
99% were berger 170gn eols over 56gn H4831sc & .020 thou jump. That gave me 2820fps avg

This barrel always shot amazing! Up to around 1300 rounds it was sub 3/4 moa all day everyday 5 shot groups. Lots of sub 1/2 moa as well when I was on. From 1300 to 1450 it was still crushing some 3/4 moa groups and opening up to an inch....

But these last 100 or so rounds that were spread out over 3 outings were just a mess. So sloppy i didnt want to measure. And not just that the total group size went to 2+ it was the patterns on the paper. Holes everywhere why no rhyme or reason.

So is this just how barrels go? Do they just fall of a cliff like that? I was expecting something more gradual. The only thing i can think of is mentally I knew I was over that 1500 round mark and for whatever reason in my head that was the limit and it translated to my trigger finger?
 
1500 rounds is a believable number to shoot out a barrel. Have you tried JB or something to see if it's a fouling issue? Clean in down to bare metal and then give it a try. Might have to chase a little close to the lands too. All hope is not lost (yet).
 
Good advice so far . If a good Cleaning does not work , check every Bolt & Screw on the Rifle and Scope Mounts . If that don't work , change Scopes . If that don't work , palm it off on your worst relative !
 
Oh yeah. I have been using jb pretty regularly from about 500 rounds on to keep the carbon ring out of the neck. Im not exactly sure why my set up produced such a nasty carbon ring...i think just the overbore and high pressure nature of the 270 win and the mega load i always ran through it. But before i knew about the carbon ring i actually had that same load that normally never show pressure signs blow a case up. Full case head separation on a 4x fired brass. Maybe a bad case but ever since learning about the carbon ring and using jb i never had even a stiff bolt opening. And i was always able to confirm that carbon ring with a borescope. On a side note, gun always shot its best best after a nice jb clean...like i had to check my spent cases to make sure i shot 5 cause i just didnt believe it was that good. This also might have led me to jb more often then what some people consider healthy. However, i measured bolt face to lands more often then anyone i know and i never at all saw any evidence that jb could a eroad any measurable amount of steel.
 
I had a similar experience with my Model 700 Rem, 243 except my round count was a lot higher, i.e. about 3,500 rounds. Groups opened up to 1 3/4" or so but that wasn't so bad as the unexplained flyers. So I was about to have it rebarrelled when as a last resort I tried Bore Tech's Cu+2 copper remover. For most of the history of this rifle I cleaned with Shooter's Choice.

Following the advice of the Bore Tech Rep I ran about 30 applications of Cu+2 through the bore over a period of about 3 days allowing about an an hour dwell time between applications. The initial patches came out dark purple. Finally I obtain a light blue patches (robin's egg color). After the treatment I shot two five shot groups. The groups shrunk to about 3/4" and retained this level throughout the fall and winter with no unexplained flyers. However I don't expect this to last much longer since round count is so high and will probably opt for a new barrel before next fall.

Depending of your use of the rifle (assume it's hunting since it's a 270), if you can get it down to about 1 1/2" without unexplained flyers you so be good to go for hunting so I'd try the JB or an effective copper remover and see what happens. You may be able to extend the life of the barrel.
 
I would soak with your choice of carbon cutter, and let it soak, (If soaking is allowed) for a very, very long time.
Did you harvest anything with the 170's?? How was the bullet performance? Thx & good luck!
 
The end of your barrels life is when this barrel stops shooting to your expectations. When that happens, it is time to see if another shooter wants to invest more time and $ to see if this barrel meets their expectations.
Lots of variables,
Ben
 
The usual first sign of impending doom is hollow groups. Then bullet impacts become random as the yaw becomes prominent. Very likely you’re at the end of life for that barrel. The 270 is a barrel burner but not near as bad as the 243 or 6mm Rem.
 
Not for nothing but the absolute two things I would do would be, as mentioned, a good clean and I would sure as hell put another scope on it to check on that as well.
 
370bc said:
I would soak with your choice of carbon cutter, and let it soak, (If soaking is allowed) for a very, very long time.
Did you harvest anything with the 170's?? How was the bullet performance? Thx & good luck!
Click to expand...
Yes 2 elk, a small bull and large cow both around 450 live weight. It was awesome. Both at 200 yards. First one right behind the shoulder in the butter zone. Hit a rib on the way in and looked like a grenade went off for the exit. Could not figure out what happen to the lungs until i realized they had been completely liquefied. Top half of the heart missing also presumed liquefied. Elk didnt take a single step.

Second one i pulled the shot right into the shoulder. At first i couldnt figure out why it died...there was no apparent damage to the vitals. The shoulder bone was gone but all the vitals came out intact. No exit. However there was an unbelievable amount of blood in the body cavity. Upon closer inspection i realized how many small cuts and tears were everywhere from the shrapnel. All through the neck area with all the vains and arteries in there, the trachea, parts of the heart. You had to look close but everything in that region had dozens of cuts, tears, lesions etc. Elk took 2-3 steps backwards and the fell over backwards.
 
Prose said:
Well it looks like the Barrel Life Calculator is pretty accurate!
Click to expand...
Yeah thats pretty crazy! Can anyone else describe the end of their barrel life? What it was doing before you decided to pull the plug and how quick it declined?

And thanks for the suggestion so far everyone. I can confirm its not a cleaning or scope issue.
 
The calculator above is obsolete. I've asked and apparently this site cannot replace it..
But in this case, it is right.

Accurate barrel life ends with a step change in results. Of course you have to know the best from your barrel to see this change (most people don't). It can be further extended for a few hundred more shots with lapping/JB treatment, or barrel setback. This, while heading for barrel replacement.

The cause: bore constriction (not erosion) passes most tests.
 
I had a 300jarret and I suspected it was in need of a new barrel. I asked a friend to borescope it and when we saw it had fire cracking from the chamber and the next 6 inches forward I was sure it had needed a barrel for a while. Scope it and see what it looks like.
 
270 ftw said:
Yeah thats pretty crazy! Can anyone else describe the end of their barrel life? What it was doing before you decided to pull the plug and how quick it declined?

And thanks for the suggestion so far everyone. I can confirm its not a cleaning or scope issue.
Click to expand...
Had a 6br that fell apart at about 2300 ads. Used the jb paste and scrubbed it good. Groups came back to normal, but thats quite a different animal than a 270. You stated you used a borescope to see your carbon ring. I'd look at your throat area for firecracking as ebb has mentioned. Let us know what you find.
 
Oh it has fire cracking and then some. I scope it all the time. Looks like the bonneville salt flats in there. Started around 1200 rounds and yes it keeps getting worse. But it was still shooting at 1400 with lots of fire cracking. So im not convinced that just seeing fire cracking means game over. Did anyone else have a rapid decline? Or you all had gradual...
 
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