Should i worry about barrel life?

[Retired Grunt]

p.s. - I have not owned a 6.5 but I have shot a 260 (a near duplicate of the 6.5) for a lot of years, enough so that I shot out 3 barrels and Nick Caprinolo is spot on with the accurate life estimate 0f around 1500 rounds.

drover

I am shooting a Savage 12 LRP 6.5 CM and am up to 2500, It's shooting better now than when I started.

 

[wwbrown]

Yes barrels where out if you are lucky enough to shoot them enough, some cartridges are harder on barrels than others.

The total cost of shooting includes ammo, gas to get to range (unless you are lucky enough to have your own), ... When you add up the total cost a new premium barrel installed, for say $700, is not the most expensive cost in the 1,500 to 3,000 rounds it took to wear the barrel out.

After you have your premium installed you may soap your forward saying "Why did I wait so long to get this new barrel installed?". The new barrel will probably shoot more accurately and clean easier than the original.

The drawback to getting a new barrel installed is not having the gun to shoot while the gunsmith does the install. You can have a gunsmith remove be factory barrel and you can learn to install your own precut barrel saving you time and maybe some money.

Long story short: Go out and shoot as much as you want or need to gain confidence in your skills and don't worry about barrel life. Barrels acre like tires on your car they are consumables.

 

[fatelvis]

Don’t worry about barrel life at all. Unless you are shooting competitively, you probably wouldn’t even notice when you shoot the barrel out. Besides, how long would it take you to go through 2000 rounds of ammo in your new rifle? Shoot and enjoy.

 

[Coyotefurharvester]

100 rds a year, improper cleaning is a bigger issue than shooting out the barrel. A stuck erector in a scope, a bigger accuracy issue, after the scope has been left sighted in for several years.

 

[Kracken McGraw]

Don’t worry about barrel life at all. Unless you are shooting competitively, you probably wouldn’t even notice when you shoot the barrel out. Besides, how long would it take you to go through 2000 rounds of ammo in your new rifle? Shoot and enjoy.

Yep, at 3,000 rounds if you shoot 40 rounds(2 boxes) at each trip to the range that barrel is going to last 75 trips. Me betcha that’s a lot of years for most folks.

 

[Nasr]

You guys really answered everything for me and really put things into perspective. I guess my biggest worry as someone who is new is that it could be kind of hard to figure out how to change the barrel or how to find someone who can do it for me. But I am sure that would change the more that time passes.

 

[300_whisper]

My buddies bartlien 6.5CM barrel has 3k on it and still going strong. Also, if you send it back to Ruger they’ll rebarrel it for $80. Just keep the original box.

 

[ronsatspokane]

I am shooting a Savage 12 LRP 6.5 CM and am up to 2500, It's shooting better now than when I started.

I shot an LRP in F Class when I first started out. Had ~4000 rounds before it started opening up.

 

[DangerRanger]

No

 

[Park ranger]

1800 rounds on my 6.5 CM, still does fine at 1000

 

[smithcollector]

I think most people can get around 2,500 - 3,000 rounds out of a 6.5 before the accuracy really suffers, with proper cleaning and not getting things too hot. If you're shooting 1/4 MOA you might notice a decrease in accuracy sooner, but for us regular mortals it won't open up enough to matter, especially at 300 yards. The cost of feeding your rifle 2,500 rounds is much more than you likely paid for the rifle. A new barrel will probably cost $600-$800 installed. I think wearing out a barrel for all but the most hard-core competitor is something to be proud of and should not be a worry.

 

[tmwinds]

I think most people can get around 2,500 - 3,000 rounds out of a 6.5 before the accuracy really suffers, with proper cleaning and not getting things too hot. If you're shooting 1/4 MOA you might notice a decrease in accuracy sooner, but for us regular mortals it won't open up enough to matter, especially at 300 yards. The cost of feeding your rifle 2,500 rounds is much more than you likely paid for the rifle. A new barrel will probably cost $600-$800 installed. I think wearing out a barrel for all but the most hard-core competitor is something to be proud of and should not be a worry.

I think Ruger will rebarrel for less than $100 for the original owner. A new rifle is around $475.

 

[ebb]

Shoot it and have all the fun you can have, when it needs a barrel you will know. Don't give it a moments thought till then.

 

[Forum Boss]

We had a shooter at our club who was running a 6.5-284. He would only get about 700 rounds of competitive useful, accurate barrel life. He was doing very aggressive cleaning with lots of back-and-forth brushing (not removing dirty brush) at crown. 20+ fast, sawing strokes back and forth. We convinced him to be more careful, clean more gently, clean when the barrel is warm, use Carb-out. Guess what, his last barrel won a match with 1500+ rounds through it. His overly aggressive cleaning practices were dramatically shortening his barrel life...

 

[divingin]

You guys really answered everything for me and really put things into perspective. I guess my biggest worry as someone who is new is that it could be kind of hard to figure out how to change the barrel or how to find someone who can do it for me. But I am sure that would change the more that time passes.

Ruger American uses a barrel nut. Changing a barrel is not hard (though it may require some specialized tools.)

You'll need a barrel nut wrench that fits your nut (not sure what the American uses.) You may need an action wrench (stick into the action on holds it by the lugs to keep it from turning.) And you may need a barrel vise. Ideally you need a Go Gauge, but you can make do with a good piece of fired brass.

Procedure: Remove the bolt. Remove the scope. Remove the action from stock (usually 2 or 3 screws.) Either clamp the action in a non-marring vise, or clamp the action wrench. Use the nut wrench to remove the barrel nut. Clamp the barrel vise on the barrel and unscrew it.

Remove the action from the vise or wrench, reinsert the bolt with the go gauge or fired brass. Screw the new barrel in until it stops, then back it off just a smidge. Install the barrel nut as tight as you can by hand. Check that the bolt will open smoothly without binding. If you have a nogo gauge, check that the bolt will not close on it. Once satisfied with the headspace, chuck everything back up and torque the nut to spec. Doublecheck your headspace, then reassemble everything you took apart.

Takes just a bit longer to do than it took me to type this (assuming no problems with things like breaking threads loose and the like.)

Note that this is a rough guide; you probably want to do other things like anti-seize the nut and barrel, clean things out as much as possible while it's apart, etc.

 

[ckaberna]

You guys really answered everything for me and really put things into perspective. I guess my biggest worry as someone who is new is that it could be kind of hard to figure out how to change the barrel or how to find someone who can do it for me. But I am sure that would change the more that time passes.

Forget barrel life. As others said, concentrate on cleaning the one you have, correctly.
if you can fund the components to wear that one out to point you can’t hunt with it, a new custom barrel isn’t anything!
Barrels are wear items. Learn to safely handle, load and shoot. By the time you wear that one out, odds are you will have 2-3 more at a minimum, especially if you continue to visit this site.