hows the barrel life on 20 practical?

[they call me trinity]

thats it, hows the barrel life on 20 practical.

 

[Catfish]

It will be about the same as the 204.

 

[BigDMT]

I'm run my .204 Ruger at only 3715 fps with a 34gr bullet and barrel life is great. Think I'm going on 3000 +/- rounds now and accuracy is still really good. Could push that 34gr bullet over 4000 fps, but don't see the point in wasting extra powder and barrel life on gophers and targets. Anyhow, 20 Practical barrel life should be very similar.

Though I'm gonna re-barrel my .204 Ruger here pretty soon to a 20 Tactical. Which of course is just a 20 Practical with a 30 degree shoulder. Not re-barreling because my .204 Ruger barrel is no good, but because I can save a ton of money by utilizing 223 brass. And use even less powder for reloading and have similar performance.

That's an obvious advantage of the 20 Practical as well. Although loads can be developed with the 20 Tactical during fire-forming, no fire-forming is needed at all with the Practical version.

I also love my custom 20 VarTarg, but brass cost is an even bigger issue with that round. But a really cool round nonetheless.

 

[they call me trinity]

thanks, why use tacical instead of practical, is thier a BENIFIT THAT ONE HOLDS OVER THE OTHER?

 

[they call me trinity]

ADDITIONAL QUESTION, WHAT AR15 ROUND WOULD HAVE THE BEST BARREL LIFE OF THEM ALL, THE IDEA BEING THAT A BARREL SWAP COULD YIELD A PLIKER AND A PRECISE VARMINTER, FORM THE SAME PLATFORM?

 

[jasonf]

thanks, why use tacical instead of practical, is thier a BENIFIT THAT ONE HOLDS OVER THE OTHER?

The Tactical has a longer neck which should aid accuracy and barrel life, and has Lapua manufactured factory brass available from Grafs. On the down side it uses expensive cartridge specific dies, vs easily adapted cheap 223 dies for the 20 Prac.

 

[RJinTexas]

If your doing a 20 cal on a AR platform I build a 20 practical, as there no since in trashing good Lapua brass in a AR.

RJ

 

[ab_bentley]

ADDITIONAL QUESTION, WHAT AR15 ROUND WOULD HAVE THE BEST BARREL LIFE OF THEM

The better question is whay care about it. If you can shoot enough to wear out a barrel you can afford a new one. I have a good friend with over 2K thorugh his 20 Bobcat (same case capacity as 20 Prac) and his will shoot like my new ones. The 20's on the 223 cases will have a life of 2000rd+ (most go twice that) and if you really want to make a barrel inviceable Melonite it (MMI TrueTec). Adam

 

[BigDMT]

jasonf, I don't know if neck length adds as much of an advantage for the Tactical as the 30 degree shoulder angle.
A 30 degree shoulder design often exhibits exemplary inherent accuracy and reduces the amount of case stretch with higher pressures. Thus increasing brass life with higher velocities and reducing the amount of work needed for trimming and annealing.

Also jasonf, I see how a longer neck can help accuracy in some cases, but I don't see how it helps barrel life? What exactly do you mean by that?

 

[pwdrbrn]

BigDMT, I think he's thinking about the turbulance point inside case neck, rather then in throat area. Another advantage of steeper shoulder angle. Tom.

 

[mattri]

Re barrel life: I asked this same question on the Saubier forum, there were some great replies, mostly from guys getting 3500 and above with no problems at all. For some reason the link won't paste.

Re the 20 Practical vs the 20 "Tactical": There is no practical gain from changing the shoulder. The 20 Practical is at least as accurate, as fast and as easy/hard on barrels, brass etc. Forming 20 Practical brass is as easy as a pass through a type S neck sizer.

http://www.saubier.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15798

 

[jasonf]

BigDMT, I think he's thinking about the turbulance point inside case neck, rather then in throat area. Another advantage of steeper shoulder angle. Tom.

Yes, that is what I was thinking. I overlooked mentioning the shoulder angle. Apologies.

 

[BigDMT]

I see. Yeah there isn't much difference between the two and one could be just as accurate as the other in any given rifle build. I've read great reviews for accuracy on both. I think either one would be a wise choice for excellent accuracy or economical varminting or target shooting.

 

[vargetman]

The difference in the powder capacity is 2 tenths of a grain with the 20 Tactical having the slight edge there. The 20 Practical is the same shoulder angle as the 223 and shouldn,t have any feeding problems in the Ar-15. Or it dosen,t in my AR-15. You can use range brass to make 20 Practical cases and the dies cost much less that the 20 Tactical. In my Ar I only shoot the brass 5 times and I throw it away. The 20 Tactical brass cost more. So if you shoot Lapua brass in an AR it wouldn,t be very cost affective. As far as accuracy this isn,t any difference between the two. It just depends on how much you want to spend. As far as brass growth in a 20 Practical for a AR just trim your brass to 1.745 once and don,t trim them again and throw away after 5 firings. They don,t grow that much to affect accuarcy. I don,t like to trim brass. And I will bet your chambers are at least 20 ths. over the max trim to length. This is my penny,s worth.

John

 

[RAG]

Great thread. I've been contemplating the same...20 Practical or 20 TAC. I have lots of 223 Lapua and fireformed 223 Ackley brass, so I could go either way. I do like the 30 degree shoulder and longer neck, but I highly doubt I'd notice the difference of one over the other in any respect. I'm going to base my decision on finding someone with a reamer properly matched to the loaded rounds (.233 neck) and the Redding FL Bushing die...with the right specs, the brass will barely get bumped on each FL sizing, just like with my Harrels PPC and BR custom-fit dies. We'll see...

 

[1deadpdog]

GOOD Q/A here!! answered a LOT of questions I've had about this same topic!

 

[chesty for president]

I built a 20 practical on a Savage Long Action about 2 weeks ago and already put 400 rounds through it. I love the fact that I can use 223 brass, it takes a few extra steps but you really only have to do that once. Being active duty I have access to "i buy" a lot of lake city brass which ive found works awesome since I have 3000 with the same year headstamp. I did however have to use a small base redding die the first time around, Im guessing because of the tight chamber in the Criterion barrel I shoot. Since I ran all the brass through the small base die, almost all heavy bolt problems went away. My barrel is 26 inch 1-11 twist and LOVES to eat the 32 grain Z-MAXES and Im glad because they are really cheap at 59.00 for 500 i need to order a bunch more. I hardly have any copper fouling in my barrel at all after a hundred rounds or so, I never overheat it also. If I cant touch my wrist to the barrel its to hot for me, probably stupid but thats just me. Anyway I dont know much about the Vartag/Tactical rounds except I like to get out cheap...I say go Practical but Im a newb...


Respectfully Submitted ,,,Semper Fi

 

[JASmith]

ADDITIONAL QUESTION, WHAT AR15 ROUND WOULD HAVE THE BEST BARREL LIFE OF THEM ALL, THE IDEA BEING THAT A BARREL SWAP COULD YIELD A PLIKER AND A PRECISE VARMINTER, FORM THE SAME PLATFORM?

A good rule of thumb comes from dividing the case capacity by the square of the bore diameter. The smaller the ratio, the longer is the average barrel life.

After that, one looks at how small the ratio can be and still get the types of trajectory and wind bucking you are comfortable with.

 

[mattri]

I'm using that same Criterion barrel. 26" 1:11 with 0 freebore. Mine shoots the 39gr SBKs better than I can hold. Its got about 1500 rounds through it and I'm not chasing the lands yet.

 

[bobcat93]

What a great thread..
I want to build an ar15 with a 20 practical barrel..who should I go with?
Also what twist and how long?.. I was thinking about a mid length gas system on an 18" barrel w/ 1-10 twist..for 32 gr bullets