Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters How hot is too hot?

As a former Pig Gunner, I can tell you there ain’t sheit wrong with an M-60 if you are smart enough to properly care for it. Shot out a few barrels though! Happy Trails

Not with Blue Dot

Yeah, I've melted a barrel or two on the M 60 when in the guard...

Being a medic in a chopper unit, we were still required to qualify on the M 60 on the chopper and on the ground...

being the medic, I was the last to shoot, and often some of those idiots on ammo detail, they would take out the tracers, and make them a long belt of tracers for the hell of it...

my turn to shoot out to 100 meters, and there were no tracers for me to sight the burst.. so several times my 1 Sgt would be my ammo guy and would tell me to just lean on it when were almost done...

so I just would do so...

when we went to the Mexican guy who would run the cleaning round down the barrel as you did the No Brass No Ammo Sgt...routine... he'd run the cleaning rod down the barrel and it would halt with his hand sliding down the barrel and hitting his hand on the flash suppressor... he wasn't too happy when that happened...

funny thing it was my fault, but being the medic it was my job to take care of his injured hand....

thank Goodness he didn't know who's barrel it had been....

I can attest to the fact that the 22-250 starts to feel like a much bigger gun when your in a good prarie dog town. Thats why I switched to a 204 and a 223. Neither of which seem to provide for as much terminal carnage as the 22-250 though.

Haven't noticed much difference in "carnage" between the .204 and .22-250. In fact a couple years ago introduced a friend who'd always been a big .220 Swift fan to the .204 during a PD shoot, remarking that in general I found the .204 to work just as well, but with a lot less recoil. Of course, that also depends on the bullets used. After the shoot, he agreed with me.

I've had to replace a few shot out barrels, or gun tubes as we call them,on Abrams tanks.... requires a overhead lift. They can get very hot from shooting, in fact they have a system to recalibrate the sights as the barrel heats up and droops.

Not sure if this is true or legend but herd of a guy who shot so badly with a 300 Weatherby that the wood stock started smoking after several magazines, and they had to cool it off with the only liquid available. I would say that is too hot and probably pretty stinky.

When we go PD shooting we set up camp for a few days. Each time we go to one of the near by towns, I’ll take two rifles. I take as small as a 17 Hornet and just for kicks have taken up to a 416 Rigby with 400 grain bullets. (Neither one of those had problems with the barrel getting hot.)

But I’ll usually take to camp a couple 223’s, a 204, a 22-250, a 22-250 AI and a 6mm or two. I’ll often take a couple revolvers too.

One of my first rifles was a 6mm on a Mauser action. Unfortunately, I took that to PD shoots and couldn’t control my trigger finger (Sort of like free whiskey). Good judgement follows bad judgement and experience.

New take-off Remington 700 223 barrels can be bought on-line pretty cheap and I’ve replaced a few of those.

Generally, I try not to shoot more than 5 times with one rifle then switch to the second one I’ve taken along.

Have a friend with a 7mm Rem mag that had a bad scope. He said he shot about 25 rounds through it in short order while hurrying to zero his scope, which wouldn’t. The last few rounds before he gave up keyholed the target. The barrel was too hot for him to touch. I told him he probably ruined that barrel. .

My guess is no. Instead it probably copper-fouled considerably.

Hard to fry a barrel in 25 rounds, though it does help to not shoot one until it gets too hot to touch. On prairie dog shoots I usually take at least four rifles, partly for rotation, but partly to shoot at different ranges:

.17 HMR for "starting" a town, as close to directly downwind as possible, because the report doesn't frighten them down their holes as much. It works consistently out to 150 yards.

Once most dogs within 150 are down (either in their holes or otherwise) the 17 Hornet gets dragged out, because out to 300 yards it works VERY well, and recoil is so light you can still see the bullet impact.

Once that puts dogs within 300 down, the next step is a .204 with 40-grain plastic-tips, which work great out to 500+.

Beyond that I use whatever "big" cartridge is the choice of the year. This has been anything from a fast-twist .223 to a fast-twist 6mm or 6.5mm--again with plastic-tips, because they expand more reliably, but heavy, high-BC bullets.

As a result, none of the barrels gets very hot.

John, I use the 50gr vmax.in the 22-250 and 40gr vmax in the 223 and 204.

Then I congratulate you on your perceptions.

Have shot a bunch of PDs with various .22-250s and .220 Swifts. The highest I've EVER seen one lifted was about 15-20 feet with a .204 using factory Remington ammo loaded with Hornady V-Maxes made with green tips for Remington.

Might also add that a few years ago I went PD shooting with several other guys, who mostly used the traditional combination of a .222/.223 type round for ranges out to around 300 yards, with a .22-250 or .22 Swift for longer shots. I brought a .17 Hornady Hornet and a .204 Ruger, and pretty much all of them thought I was undergunned.

When we started shooting, one of the first dogs I shot was was around 275 yards away. When the bullet hit, it went at least two feet in the air, and one of the guys near me said, "Hey, that little .204 does OK!"

I said, "That was the .17...."

The prairie dog probably had gas.

Tempilaq, liquid crystal displays and no touch thermometers all work. I used to think tempilaq and done for the day or at least the firearm when it melts. In the old days coming back tomorrow was so much easier.

My own .204 is a fast twist modern sporting rifle with the hope that I can rebarrel it myself when necessary. That may mean being satisfied with wear beyond the point I'd send it off. The .17 HMR always seems pricey both gun and ammunition as I remind myself it's a specialists tool to justify spending the money. Plastic tipped bullets look good and perform better though.

On the other hand I am seeing more competition for places to shoot every year. It's been years since it was the landowner's cousin married my father's older sister so I was family for permission to shoot.

More effort means making each trip more of an expedition and less of a grab any rifle for a few shots, typically something like the described coyote rifle - the proverbial combo 6mm bore from the days the .243 and .244 were dueling for market share.

The marvelous thing about the black tail jack peak in the 1980's was taking a break was a pleasure because I knew the shooting would still be there when I came back. Now I maybe abuse the rifle more because it may be a while before I get back to it.