petemacsydney wrote:
One immediate question though...
Chronos, what did you mean by "another factor is barrel life, about 10-15c per shot for a .308, "
cheers and thanks again peoples!!
You need to be aware barrels chambered in some cartridges produce more barrel wear than others.
Let's say like a lot if shooters you want to buy a small caliber rifle for rabbit, hare, ferral car and fox shooting. There are many choices. Some will reach out a bit further by launching bullets further, often referred to as shooting flatter
A .222 (.22 caliber) barrel might wear to the point if not being accurate enough after say 12000-14000 rounds.
A .223 (.22 caliber) shoots a little faster than the .222 and might wear a barrel a little faster, say 8000-10000 rounds.
A ..22-250 (same .22 caliber bore) produces much more velocity by burning more powder and so wears barrels much faster, maybe wearing out in 1500-2000 rounds making it more expensive to shoot regardless of what the components cost.
If ahaving a rifle rebarreled cost say $600 you can divide that by your barrel life in rounds to see what each shot will cost you before you even buy a bullet.
Some target shooters with extreme performing cartridges count their barrel life may around $1 per shot. Something like an f open rifle in 6.5-284 might be up there where a $800 target barrel is burned out in under 1000 shots (an extreme example)
Hope that makes sense, the figures used are guesstimates only for explaination.
Chronos