I need to amend my earlier conjecture...as the OP stated, it's all about cartridge design. I would opine that any military cartridge of WW I or WW II can have a long life. Overbore varmint and target cartridges have a very short life to go by the experts.
Kind of off topic, but an interesting historical note: In WW I, the Brit 100th Machine Gun Company fired their 12 Vickers MG's for 12 continuous hours, expending in excess of a million rounds, only going through ten barrels. But wait...there's more...no stoppages in a million rounds. And then in the Nam we had the low bidder M-60...Jesus wept.
