While reading Mule Deer's Rifle Troubleshooting and Reloading in the chapter on barrels, shooting a hot barrel is mentioned several times. Since steel gets softer with heat, shooting a barrel that is "too hot" can cause significant throat erosion but what is "too hot"?
Somewhere along the line I heard/read if you can't hold your hand on a barrel it is too hot so for years that has been my rule of thumb during range sessions but is that right? It definitely varies by cartridge since 5 rounds from a big over bore like the 300RUM can exceed my ability to keep a hand on the barrel while 20 rounds through a 223Rem or 375H&H doesn't seem to get that hot.
So what is "to hot" and how do you measure it?
