Rifle tinkering

[txrob5150]

Fairly new to the idea of wanting to improve/tinker with my Savage rifles, and the bug has hit me fairly hard. I find myself coming up with more and more ideas of ideas, projects, and builds. Wanted to spur some feedback on some questions.

How many open projects do you guys have going?

Do you ever call a rifle done?

[J.Baker]

Just two at the moment which are basically in the load development stage (and have been for over a year now because I've been slacking off in that regard).

As for a rifle ever being "done," I guess that would depend on the individual person. Some are perfectly happy to leave well enough alone once they finish their initial build. Others tend to be a little more A.D.H.D. and can't ever seem to leave anything alone and thus constantly have to keep tinkering with it no matter how good it's shooting.

Then again, if you shoot it a lot it will never be done because eventually you're going to have to replace the barrel which starts the project all over again.

[Travis98146]

The idea of replacing a rifle barrel put a question in my head. How many rounds would it take to warrant replacing the barrel (2,000, 10,000)? I've seen the "tack drivers" being shot at my local gun range and they might put a round through every 5 minutes (letting the rifle cool between shots) in the course of several hours there. It seems to me that a person would have to spend a lot of hours per year shooting.

[JeepsAndGuns]

The idea of replacing a rifle barrel put a question in my head. How many rounds would it take to warrant replacing the barrel (2,000, 10,000)? I've seen the "tack drivers" being shot at my local gun range and they might put a round through every 5 minutes (letting the rifle cool between shots) in the course of several hours there. It seems to me that a person would have to spend a lot of hours per year shooting.

That depends on several factors. Things like cartridge/caliber, velocity, powder type and charge, among other things.
You get something that is low pressure and low velocity, you might get a very long life. While if you shoot a small caliber bullet very fast, that will shorten the life of a barrel.
You take something like a 22LR, the round is so low pressure and slow, the barrel will almost last forever. While you take something like a 22-250 and push light bullets and lighting speed, barrel life will suffer.
I have a 6mm-284 that was my grandfathers. That caliber is known to be a "barrel burner". It has a lot of powder behind a small light bullet.

[coyote wacker]

I started in 8th Grade metal-wood shop a Mauser 98 cut and crowned barrel at 20" drilled and tapped for a Williams receiver sight....made a stock from a chunk of walnut....
Rifle was put on display for parent teacher conference .....1968...
Next year built a cannon and carriage that shot golf balls....

Still have several projects on the burner always.....