Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles 22-6mm barrel life

what sort of barrel life can I expect from this chambering?

barrel will be crome-moly, not stainless, but it will be well cared for as it will be used for deer hunting and will not see intensive shooting.

my idea is to avoid the very slow powders since I will not be .
using bullets over 65gr.

thanks in advance

BBerg

You can probably count it on your fingers.

I don't really have a number, but I'd be budgeting for a new barrel soon....

Depends on the amount of powder used. I did a lot of research on barrel life when I wore out the barrel on my .25-06. What I was told is barrel life can be predicted by the amount of powder used. The size of the bore plays into this too but not as much as you would think.

My barrel wore out as I came to the end of an 8 lb keg of IMR4350 that I bought when I purchased the rifle. That keg lasted over 20 years, and I shot the rifle quite a bit over it's life span.

I purchased the rifle new in 1978 and bought the keg of powder shortly after. I still remember paying $64 for the 8 lb keg. I rebarreled the rifle 3 years ago and purchased another 8 lb keg. The new barrel is stainless and I was told to expect a longer life. It won't need a barrel in my lifetime.

This is the reason cartridges like the .223 or .308 have a longer barrel life, they don't burn as much powder.

There are other considerations like cleaning and never letting the barrel get to hot.

You'll notice when the barrel is worn if you spend any time at the range. Mine would still group fairly but out of 5 shots 1 or 2 would be flyers and open the group.

Not exactly sure but previous posts are right, more powder equals less life....shooting them hot and dirty certainly equals less life. I routinely get 9-10K rounds through a .223 before I even start thinking its time...on a .22-250 (more similar to your idea...) Ive seen visible throat wear a tad bit of accuracy loss as soon as 2500 rounds...
For " not intensive" shooting and a deer rifle..it should last a decade or so. For good prairie dog shooting...about a week

Ingwe

i dont no about the 22-6mm but my howa 22-250 is smoked at 1100 round 40gr vmax loaded hot but barrels are cheap shoot it and have fun

I think its more the throat you need to worry about, my throat goes long before the tube.... I got a .22-250AI chambered on a 700 action last year, and have been running it medium to hot on my loads. My o-give has grown over .085" in less than a year. The thing i was told is anytime you get a load over 4k-fps expect to replace soon. There are a couple guys I know of who are running that 22-6mm, and hunt for a living. They say about every 3-4 seasons on there guns.....

Again this is second hand info, I aint no expert by any means!!
I just know that my ackley need a new tube SOON!!!

Well to put it another way.. I bet an 8lb keg of powder for it would last longer than accuracy in the barrel will...

It is the throat where the wear starts. As it ages the wear keeps moving up the barrel from the throat.

It's tough to say how long your barrel will last. But you can predict it somewhat. For instance, my .25 cal burned 54 gr of powder and 1 lb of powder weighs 7000 gr. Mine wore out around 1000 rounds. I used to load that cartridge hot and they may have contributed to a shorter life. So be it, I'll just invest in another barrel.

You've thrown something else into the mix, a chrome lined barrel. I have no idea how much longer that will give you.

The gunsmith that used to do work for me could tell be looking up the barrel with a mirror. He told me it had to be a mirror and I don't remember why. But when he showed me I could see there was no rifling for a few inches ahead of the throat.

It looks like barrel life will be short so I will not shoot it too much at the bench and restrict its use mostly for hunting.

Like that, and using not-so-slow burning powders, and not shooting it hot and dirty, I hope it will service my deer hunting for a few years.

Normally, as the barrel (throat) wears out will groups start opening but printing regular patters, or will the rifle start throwing fliers? I can perfectly live with a hunting rifle that groups in 1.5" but I hate fliers...

Thank you very much to all of you for your comments.

BBerg

Saying barrel life is merely proportional the actual amount of powder used in the case is wrong.

It is not that simple.

All other things being equal- steel quality, how the barrel is used(not allowed to over heat) and maintanence- the more over bore the powder charge for the caliber- the faster the tube will burn out.

As a good example of this - a .17 Rem barrel WILL shoot out faster firing the same weight powder charges as a .223.

Another good comparison is a .243 compared to a.308.

Over the course Match shooters who track the number of rounds fired have proven a .243 has about HALF the usable barrel life of a .308, even though they shoot the same weight powder charges.


And PLEASE do not try to tell me a .30-06 firing the same weight charges as a 25-06 will be shot out in the same number of rounds( 1,000?). That is baloney.

If you keep the bore size constant- say .224 and simply compare larger case vs small, of COURSE the larger powder charges will shorten barrel life.

This conversation emphasizes the fact that the amount of freebore you start off with has a direct relation with the barrel life. Short throats = longer barrel life as long as the bullet is not seated where it is touching the primer. A bullet will only jump so far before it gets started crooked in the lands, shaving off one side of the bullet.

Also, I have set back custom barrels that started off with 6" of straight shank several times and accuracy was restored in cartridges like 22/250 AI and 243 AI. The barrel did not look to good, but as long as I could get into fresh lands, accuracy was restored. As the barrel gets fire cracked, more cleaning is required...another chapter on cleaning barrels with a lot of rounds on them.

From shooting many thousands of rounds at p. dogs, I can tell you that a cleaning rod will damage a bore in the area from 5-7 o'clock. Use a cleaning rod guide with a bushing that fits on the rod to center the rod in the bore or pay the price of washed out lands from a cleaning rod. Lucas and Neil Jones sells these types of cleaning rod/bore guides...buy'em once and pass them on to your grand kids.

Why worry about it? Shoot it as much as you want, when it wears out have it rebarreled. That's what many of us do.

And yes, when the barrel wears there will be fliers.

You'll shoot a lot of deer with it before it gives up the ghost, I'd imagine. Even if only 1,500 shots, that's a lot of deer.

I'd not avoid the best powders made for it...

You're chosen an over-bore capacity rifle in 22-6MM and worrying about barrel life?

Not a lot but for sure no one can tell you, even if we had one - which precious few of us do - such things are far to variable to predict.

I'd bet you could stretch your barrel life to 2000+ rounds if you keep your loads a bit under max and use a suitable powder like 7828 and such . I would not be in favor of using a fast powder to reduce the loads .

In theory , using the 6mm case should increase throat life somewhat versus a case like the 243 , reason being the sharper shoulder and the longer case neck .

You might look at salt bath nitrideing. Check out some of the talk on 6br.

I have read marbles about Ultra Bore Coate, but I have yet to try it since they are not ready to ship overseas, do you think UBC has any effect on barrel life?

BBerg

FWIW, my understanding is that heat is key. Firing repeatedly without allowing the barrel to cool will accelerate wear enormously, even compared to firing the same rifle with the same cartridge and same load but allowing the barrel to cool between shots. Of course there is a relationship between the powder capacity / loads bore size etc. and the amount of heat generated.

From match shooters that shot the 22/6 a lot at 1000 in years past... set the barrel up so that you can set it back 1-2 times...IE shank big enough.... and expect with heavy bullets, that barrel life will be 600-800 rounds of top accuracy... of course you can get that 2-3 times by setting the tube back...

I would not worry about teh powder choice... pick the best and go.

Also be aware that chrome moly barrels die slowly, while SS die instantly almost... just an FYI... take your chosen load... shoot a 5 shot group, record the chrono data and use that as verification at 400 rounds.... recheck accuracy, and MV and adjust powder charge to get MV back to where it was... accuracy will probably come back....

rost495,
I will definetely do that experiment.
I'll save the same components to make sure except for barrel use all other things remain the same.
thanks!

BBerg.

.