Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Barrel Life and the 6.5 Creedmore

If you're shooting enough to shoot a barrel out then a rebarrel is really not high on your list of expenses.

-Jake

I have heard High Power shooters say 3,500 to 3,800 for the 260 Remington so the Needmoor should get close to 4,000 due to shoulder geometry and a half grain less capacity.
But just a guess.

I'd be willing to bet this guesstimate is a whole lot closer to reality than the OP's shot in the dark.

Everyone compares barrel life to 308. Everything I read says 308 is good for 5000 rounds of match grade accuracy and double that for hunting accuracy. Supposedly the 6.5 should be good for about 1/2 that.

I never see anyone say anything about 270 barrel. With similar bore diameters, and much more powder in a 270 I'd THINK a 270 should wear out sooner. But I've never seen any numbers on that.

Why 1/2 the 308 barrel life?

JMR40,

Good point about the .270. I have shot several .270 barrels out, with NO competition shooting, which obviously would decrease barrel life. In fact I shot out the barrel of my very first .270 (a Remington 700 ADL purchased new in 1974) because it shot so well I was FASCINATED by whacking away with various loads. Plus, I still had it after purchasing my first chronograph five years later, so had to shoot it quite a bit more to see what happened with various loads.

Have yet to shoot out a 6.5 Creedmoor barrel, mostly because I keep trying more of them to see if my initial results (with a Ruger 77 Hawkeye purchased in 2010) were aberrations. It's very first 5-shot group at 100 yards, with Hornady 140-grain factory ammo, measured around .6 inch. I somewhat foolishly sold that rifle a year or two later, because of figuring (1) I'd covered handloading the 6.5 Creedmoor for all time, and (2) I didn't know it would become SO popular.

Have now owned six 6.5 Creedmoors, and extensively shot four others, both factory and semi-custom, such as H-S Precision. The WORST any of them shot was 5 shots in an inch at 100 yards, and my present rifle (a Bergara B-14 Ridge) is pretty much a one-holer with factory ammo. Haven't handloaded for it yet.

But when and if I do shoot out a 6.5 Creedmoor barrel, I would expect it to last at least 3500-4000 rounds in normal hunting use, where the barrel is rarely heated up much.

That Bergara Ridge will be my next 6.5CM.

You must ice box it after every shot ?????
I looked at my friends Browning 26Nosler and it has some fairly serious firecracking in the throat and he has only 150 rounds through it, I'm betting his wont make the 500 round mark

I used to keep a wet towel in my ice cooler to drape over the barrel between shot strings on my .257 bee. Ended up rebarreling and will keep the new barrel cool without having to cool it with a towel.

Bought a 6.5 CM for play time.

PRS shooters could answer this question.

Shilen barrel and I let it cool, don’t burn it up.

I’m guessing about barrel life, extrapolating forward from observed changes at 500 rounds.

As long as it’s shooting sub MOA, who cares what it looks like thru the scope. The scope just helps to keep score.

When it finally goes South at the range, the scope will likely tell why. Then it’s new barrel time.

DF

Nosler reports most of their customers have gotten 1000 rounds or a little more from Nosler rifles before accuracy starts to drop off, and one guy got 1500. I've put 300-some rounds through my 26 Nosler Liberty rifle, and while there's some erosion just in front of the neck portion of the chamber, it's not into the lands yet, and the rifle shoots very well. But on warm days I cool off the barrel with ice-water when it starts to get hot.

I take several rifles to the range, stack hot rifles in vertical position with open bolt. Heat rises and the barrels cool while I'm shooting another rifle.

That works well for me without having to use ice water.

DF

I also like to bring at least 3-4 rifles, if not more, and prop them up with the bolts open. A drum fan helps too.

I have a magnetic gun rack that sticks to my truck fender. I stack hot guns there with open bolt. After I've shot a couple of others, I can start over with the rotation.

Just gotta keep good records as you go.

DF

Anyone that actually will shoot out a barrel and not just have mental masterbation about it... isn’t worried about shooting out a barrel.

I have been using a 12v high volume air inflator like for air mattresses and a short section of rubber tubing to force air from the chamber through the barrel. Works faster than convection in a vertical rifle.

Dirtfarmer,

I generally take 4-6 rifles to the range, and MOST of the year do exactly as you describe--lean them muzzle-up with the action open to let the warm air from inside the barrel rise. Since both the ranges I shoot at are covered, with nice rifle racks, this works MOST of the year in Montana.

But it does not work ALL the year. Generally any time from June through mid-October even our days can get pretty warm, and if I am going to get all my testing done without sitting around waiting for barrels to cool in the shade, ice-water cools them down instantly. Since I'm usually testing handloads for articles, I want the barrel temperature to be as consistent as possible. Have yet to see the ice-water do them any harm.

Have also used a couple gas-flow gadgets that cool down barrels, mostly because people send them to me to test. They work, but not nearly as fast as ice-water.

PS--I am not all that worried about barrel life, as plenty of people are making new barrels pretty much constantly. Instead, I want to get my work done in as little time as possible. I am generally alone at the range, not there to relax and BS with buddies.

Interesting topic for sure. I am slowly working on burning out the barrel on one of my 6.5 creedmoor rifles. The other one, I save for hunting (Tikka T3x Superlite). The rifle that I have been shooting more has been my savage 12fv cabela's exclusive. I really don't care if I toast the barrel on that rifle, as the whole rifle can be bought, at certain times of the year, for $319.00...When I first started loading for the rifle (back in august of last year, I made a note of the OAL for the 140 grain Hornady ELD match bullet. It measured 2.840" OAL to the lands. I loaded them at .020" off the lands and have shot that same OAL for the last 8 months. Here's one of the first targets I shot with said rifle with both factory ammo and my first handloads, where I was working up a load:

This gives you a little comparison of how 1 type of factory ammo does compared to a non fine tuned handload. Both loads use the same 140gr ELD match bullet. The charge wt the rifle dotes on is 41.5 grains of H4350, and that is what I've stuck with for the last 8 months.

Here's how the rifle shot with a fairly new barrel (after 150 rounds downrange) that was starting to break in:

The throat was still very fresh, with no signs of errosion.

Now, when I measure OAL, the lands are at 2.865". So, in 1000 rounds down the tube, the throat errosion is .025". To me, that is not much at all. The other night, I loaded some ammo to 2.845" just to check accuracy. I may even have to re-adjust for optimum powder charge as well. I plan on shooting those loads this weekend to make a comparison. But as of right now, at 1,040 rounds down the barrel of my 6.5 creedmoor, I don't see any loss of accuracy. Here's one of the last groups I shot with said rifle when it was right at the 1,000 round mark:


I'll continue to keep track of how this rifle does and make note of when accuracy finally starts dropping off. Could be interesting...

My Bergara is the Woodsman, accuracy has been outstanding.Would really love to have a couple of wind free hours with it. Having the prettiest wood I have seen on a factory rifle in a long time is a bonus. I'll likely be ready for something else before I shoot 3500 rounds through it.