life of a 223 barrel

[Chuck Phelps]

Service life of a 223 barrel

Not wanting to run high pressure loads, probably on the low side.

Taking that into consideration, barrel life?

Savage factory barrel 1:9 twist.

chuck

[squirrel_slayer]

thinner the barrel the slower the rate of fire needed. if you shoot it to much without letting it cool don't expect it to last. if your nice to it I see no reason you should be able to shoot 2-3k rounds out of it. also different loads act differently. a 40gr will generally wear faster than say 75's (more powder+higher velocity=more wear)

[Westcliffe01]

You first have to define what barrel life is. The first place you hear these discussions in in competition circles. Benchrest shooters may be done of they can no longer hold a 1/4" group. Many "regular" shooters are thrilled if they get a rifle / ammo that shoots under an inch. There are plenty more for whom 1.5-2" is perfectly OK.

If you are expecting your barrel to hold better than MOA, it sounds like a barrel life of at least 3500 rounds is possible, provided it is not being shot rapid fire style. The better the accuracy you expect and the faster you want to shoot it, the lower than number will be.

[Chuck Phelps]

thinner the barrel the slower the rate of fire needed. if you shoot it to much without letting it cool don't expect it to last. if your nice to it I see no reason you should be able to shoot 2-3k rounds out of it. also different loads act differently. a 40gr will generally wear faster than say 75's (more powder+higher velocity=more wear)

Savage varmint contour barrel 26” If I can get it (Model 12 FV)

Rate of fire, at the max 10 per ½ hour

On the heavy side of bullet

Speed: what ever gives best accuracy.

2-3K would be good.

chuck

[scope eye]

I had a 223 barrel that I never put a "normal" round through it, I mean I must have put 2000 plus hot loads though that thing and never saw any difference in accuracy from the beginning, it has been rethroated and then turned into an AI then rethroated as an AI, that barrel must have 10,000 rounds though it and still going strong, my buddy has it now as a spare or as he calls it a guest gun, he lives in NH and we have a mutual friend that comes up from MA once in a while, he likes to shoot but Knows nothing about guns, so we told him it was a 30-06 so he goes back to MA and tells everyone he shot 100 rounds of 30-06 That day, does this make me a bad person.LOL


Dean


PS: That rig still has that same Simmons whitetail classic 6.5-20 X 50 since day one and still hols zero that whole rig is a freak of nature.

[Chuck Phelps]

You first have to define what barrel life is. The first place you hear these discussions in in competition circles. Benchrest shooters may be done of they can no longer hold a 1/4" group. Many "regular" shooters are thrilled if they get a rifle / ammo that shoots under an inch. There are plenty more for whom 1.5-2" is perfectly OK.

If you are expecting your barrel to hold better than MOA, it sounds like a barrel life of at least 3500 rounds is possible, provided it is not being shot rapid fire style. The better the accuracy you expect and the faster you want to shoot it, the lower than number will be.

Barrel life would be until I am not able to shoot much any more, I would be shooting this after I shoot my 22lr for the day. 1/4” groups sounds good but if it shoots under 1” at a 100yds I would still be happy after 2500 or 3500 or so rounds.

Rapid fire to me is 10 rounds in ½ hour.

3500 rounds is a lot of shooting in todays world even if your are reloading, and I would be reloading.

I go to the range once a week most weeks. I stay 4-5 hours at a time and will burn 100 rounds of 22lr, the 223 would be at the end of my shooting day. I would say no more tham 10 rounds a range trip. There are months during the year I might not make it to the range (4).

chuck

[Chuck Phelps]

I had a 223 barrel that I never put a "normal" round through it, I mean I must have put 2000 plus hot loads though that thing and never saw any difference in accuracy from the beginning, it has been rethroated and then turned into an AI then rethroated as an AI, that barrel must have 10,000 rounds though it and still going strong, my buddy has it now as a spare or as he calls it a guest gun, he lives in NH and we have a mutual friend that comes up from MA once in a while, he likes to shoot but Knows nothing about guns, so we told him it was a 30-06 so he goes back to MA and tells everyone he shot 100 rounds of 30-06 That day, does this make me a bad person.LOL


Dean


PS: That rig still has that same Simmons whitetail classic 6.5-20 X 50 since day one and still hols zero that whole rig is a freak of nature.

Sounds like you are a evil person.

Don't think I will be putting that many rounds down the tube. Maybe my son will finish using that gun up.

chuck

[Westcliffe01]

If you take 1" off each end of a shot out barrel, it will probably continue soldiering on for a good while. The 223 case only holds on average about 24-25gr of powder so according to the rule that a barrel can digest 12-13lb of powder before it is done, that equates to 3360 rounds at the bottom end. Of course at some point the rifling will wear down too, so fixing the throat and crown only goes so far.

[scope eye]

This is definitely this barrels last time before giving up the ghost, we even had to trim some off of the barrel nut because we ran out of meat on the barrel,

Dean

[Stockrex]

This is definitely this barrels last time before giving up the ghost, we even had to trim some off of the barrel nut because we ran out of meat on the barrel,

Dean
it was all good till you admitted to white tail classic, shame on you, $100 scope still holding zero, I mean come on....

[scope eye]

it was all good till you admitted to white tail classic, shame on you, $100 scope still holding zero, I mean come on....

I told you it was a freak of nature, actually I have that same scope on my BTVS 22lr and my BTVS 22mag, and they hold zero, they don't when there internals get rattled around, like on a 308 or something of the sort.

Spanky

[JW]

I'm with you Scope Eye
I had a white tail classic on my 223 for several years and still works great
Not sure how long it would last on something with more recoil
Back to topic -- I have a savage BVSS that was at 1500 rds plus when I put on a shilen barrel for a 6br
But the 223 was still going strong and accurate
Jack

[5spd]

Fixed for my sanity

[scope eye]

I have a .223 Savage varmint bbl in my basement I took off after 41,369K rounds of all moly coated 50g bullets. My load was medium and it was strictly a p-dog/coyote rig. Last time I said that I got call liar and of course all the big mouths (another site) never took my offer up to come to my home & look at my books.
I took it off after I was out shooting p-dogs and saw my bullets zipping 30-50' off target and way low.
Bore scoped it after I cleaned & took it off. Rifling started about 4" from the completely shot out/fire cracked throat, rifling is pretty thin, but could still see it to the muzzle in spots.
I have over 4k documented through the new bbl as of my last shoot, it still shoots under .700" @ 100 yds.
I run an average of 4-9k rounds in the.223s every year and have 2 new bbls on hand for when those go out.
Barrel life can be under & over rated from my own shooting experience. IMO it depends on what a person considers shot out.

Please tell me that's a typo.

Dean

[5spd]

Please tell me that's a typo. Dean
No typo, but My sanity is more important so I fixed it.

[scope eye]

I am not doubting you, it's just not a number that you see every day.

Dean

[scope eye]

No typo, but My sanity is more important so I fixed it.

Hey I no exactly where you are coming from, I get that all the time with my speed claims, and how generous my powder portions are in my load data.

Dean

[moonbogg]

Been thinking about my savage 12 .223 barrel life as well, and it has me sort of depressed. I received the gun new about 5 months ago, and according to most people, including those in this post, the barrel is already more than half way dead and I barely had a chance to get a good feel for the gun. Kind of ridiculous.
I didn't count the exact number of rounds, but it is around 1,500 at this point. I shoot about 200 rounds per range session easily, and I don't like waiting an hour between shots, so the barrel gets warm, but not too hot to touch. Nice gun though. Too bad these things die almost instantly when used by someone who shoots a lot like me. I figure at this rate i'll need a new barrel once a year, but probably more often than that since i'm starting reloading and will likely shoot more.

EDIT: I had to add that i've seen people say that a .223 will outlast the shooter and the shooter's kids and blah blah. Yeah right. A .223 will last a year if i'm lucky. At least I get to look forward to a Shilen.

[thomae]

Moonbog, it might be worth it for you to nitride the next barrel you get.

[Torky455]

Don't give up on that barrel yet! I had just over 5000 rounds on my Model 12 Varmint barrel when I took it off, and it still shot < .5 MOA. It started spraying pretty bad somewhere past 4000, but a REAL good cleaning (bad copper) and a little Iosso brought it back.
I have a Hart on there now, and boy does it shoot!