Regarding barrel wear

[watercam]

The two barrel comparison in the Bulletin was interesting but did not mirror my experience with the .243 in competitive shooting. 20 shot strings plus sighters in fifteen minutes times three strings of fire is a normal match. No cleaning for 300-500 rounds is not at all unusual. My last barrel lasted just about 1200 rounds before it went south in a big way. Still too short a life for my pocket book.
Do appreciate the expense put forth by the tester though, must have hurt a little!

 

[fdshuster]

watercam: I did only slightly better with 3 different 243 Win. barrels, slow fire & using mild loads only. 1400 rounds and they were each ready for the scrap barrel.

 

[ebb]

I don't know why you guys done use the 6CM , they claim 4000 rounds and benchrest accuracy.

 

[fdshuster]

ebb: Easy to make a claim. The proof is what I see on the target, and with the Hawkeye borescope, all with a careful record of actual number of rounds fired.

We have a member at one of my local clubs who claims "over 20,000 rounds fired out of my AR-15 and it's still accurate". Just for kicks I made arrangements with him to borescope the barrel after he gave it a cleaning. The first 12" of the bore in front of the chamber had no rifling---- it was a smoothbore. From there to about within 2" of the muzzle the lands had some large chunks missing. Extreme firecracking with holes in the bore surface. When he saw the remaining approximate 2" of rifling at the muzzle, he said "See it's still a good barrel".

For a target he uses an 8" diameter paper picnic plate and at 100 yards he can keep most of his shots on the paper plate, but, they are all keyholed to the full profile of the bullet. To him, this is "accuracy".

Claims mean nothing ! Show me the proof !

 

[Forum Boss]

Great post -- we've all met the type. I guess your fellow club member is happy if his smoothbore AR maintains "Minute of Barn Door" at 100 yards. Grab one of those key-holed pie plates if you ever have a chance. I'd love to show that on the Bulletin.

PM

ebb: Easy to make a claim. The proof is what I see on the target, and with the Hawkeye borescope, all with a careful record of actual number of rounds fired.

We have a member at one of my local clubs who claims "over 20,000 rounds fired out of my AR-15 and it's still accurate". Just for kicks I made arrangements with him to borescope the barrel after he gave it a cleaning. The first 12" of the bore in front of the chamber had no rifling---- it was a smoothbore. From there to about within 2" of the muzzle the lands had some large chunks missing. Extreme firecracking with holes in the bore surface. When he saw the remaining approximate 2" of rifling at the muzzle, he said "See it's still a good barrel".

For a target he uses an 8" diameter paper picnic plate and at 100 yards he can keep most of his shots on the paper plate, but, they are all keyholed to the full profile of the bullet. To him, this is "accuracy".

Claims mean nothing ! Show me the proof !