Barrel life for .223 target rifle

[veep]

Can anyone give me an estimate of the barrel life of a .223 target rifle?

I know loads make a big difference to life so lets say it's shooting heavy pills like 80gr, and fast. Worst case scenario.

Ideas? Rough guesses?

[Jack V]

It all depends on how much accuracy loss you will accept. Some top BR shooters can see the accuracy falling off after 500 rounds and get a new barrel .

Some hunters slam away for 10 000 rounds until the bullet is going sideways through the target .

My 223 is at 5200 moly coated rounds now and has moved from .5 to .8 inch groups. So it is going.

Still plenty accurate for hunting but maybe another few thousand will see it out. Bore roughness also has a bit to do with it . A really bad eroded throat can stuff up accuracy even though the remainder of the bore is tight and cause the accuracy to fail suddenly. One of the tricks is as the bore wears and you see accuracy with boat tail bullets drop off switch to flat base bullets. Good barrel cleaning and care will help too.

You should get around 6000 to 8000 rounds but 4500 rounds of good accuracy is more likely .

This kind of thing varies greatly due to many different quality barrels and many different loads . Even shooting technique makes a difference such as over heating a barrel.

[halberg]

My 223 is at 5200 moly coated rounds now and has moved from .5 to .8 inch groups. So it is going.

Jumping in the way for a second here... It's interesting to read the specific change of .5 to .8.

So hard to get actual measurements on this things.

+1

[Jack V]

My 223 is at 5200 moly coated rounds now and has moved from .5 to .8 inch groups. So it is going.

Jumping in the way for a second here... It's interesting to read the specific change of .5 to .8.

So hard to get actual measurements on this things.

+1

I agree . I shot a SSAA award at .5 when I first tuned the gun all up and got it shooting well from a new gun but now the average is around .8 and some groups are over 1 MOA . That was with the same batch of projectiles too. So it is fairly clear to me that the accuracy is slipping . I even re-bedded the action and fitted a new scope to see if it made it better and no real change . If I took the average of many groups over a period of time it would most likely be a worse situation . 1 to 1.25 MOA could be it's real accuracy now . I am not prepared to fire off all that ammo at paper just to get a better statistical average and wear it out more for no good reason . The indicators are there that it is loosing accuracy at what rate I can't tell . Might go ok for another 3 or 4 thousand who knows.

[Gregg]

I'd almost say it doesn't matter....

For the money you'll spend on the rifle, accessories and ammo you need to shoot to wear it out, the cost of a new barrel is a drop in the bucket.

Well a few drops maybe.

Just enjoy the shooting

[Atter]

Just enjoy the shooting

+1

[Jack V]

I'd almost say it doesn't matter....

For the money you'll spend on the rifle, accessories and ammo you need to shoot to wear it out, the cost of a new barrel is a drop in the bucket.

Well a few drops maybe.

Just enjoy the shooting

A new quality barrel fitted , will set you back 6 to 8 hundred dollars. That is expensive when you consider the price of a new gun Like a Howa or Weatherby .

Most times it's more cost effective to sell the worn gun and put that money toward the new one. Unless the old gun is something special .

I don't waste ammo at the range just to prove a statistical point .

[Gregg]

He can correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure from Veep's post he's out for a bit of fun, not to be ultra competitive.

I suspect he won't be buying a new $800 barrel every time accuracy degrades by 0.1 MOA.

[veep]

Not unless that lottery ticket comes in