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On average what would the barrel life be between a 300 WM and a 300 RUM.

I have heard from Celt1 that the typical 300 RUM factory barrel lasts 600 rounds. He says the Lothar Walther barrels he uses last much longer.

After 825 rounds, the barrel on the SS Sendero in 300 Win I had was still shooting well and had only .010" of throat erosion. I'd guess a 300 Win would go 1500-2000 rounds, but that is only a guess.

Blaine

Personally I'd be willing to bet if you took good care of both of them they'd both be in the 1500-2000 rounds for really good accuracy.

"GET TO THE HILL"

Dog

A fellow (LRNUT I think) that posts on another board said he had around 1800 rds thru his 300 RUMs and they were'nt showing any signs of being shot out. A lot depends on your loads,hot or not.
Jeff

I took alot of input from other well known smiths and what I had myself.
The average seemd to be about 600 rounds on a factory 300RUM before excesive throat erosion started.

I do not doubt that some have had much more than that, but all I can do is relay what I have seen and heard from other smiths.

Note: I have no idea how well the people took care of the barrels I had seen other than that they said they took decent care of them.

The highest round count with good accuracy data I have to date is a 300 RUM with over 1300 rounds of hot handloads through it. Still shooting under 1/2"

I am going to email the guy and see what he is up to now.

Celt

Celt and all -

By comparison, what kind of good barrel life do you see on older standard cartridges like the .270, 7mm-08, .280, .30-06, .338 Win. Mag. and .375 H&H?

John

How long a barrel lasts is the sum of many factors. First of all how hot loads you use in your rifle. If you usually shoot the barrel hot, it will last for a shorter time. If you shoot 2-3 shots, instead of 5, the barrel will remain cooler during the training. Also how regulary you clean your barrel, and with what, makes a lot of difference. Some solvents are mean to the barrel, and can reduce it`s life, f.eks sweets, robla solo etc. The barrels qualtiy will of course also play a big part.

I have fired about 1000 rounds from my 30-06, and it still group tight. From my 6,5X55 i hae fired 6000-7000 rounds, and it still shoot very accurate. Other barrels in other cal may last much shorter than this. My local gunsmith says that an anverage cal in a noramal quality barrel will do about 3500-4000 shots before the barrell is worn out.

I put 5000 documented rounds through a Model 70 Super Grade 300 Winchester magnun before it started to stray. When it did open the group up, it went wild. I hand loaded every round fired and the rifle never had a hot load through it. It never fired a factory load either. I fired mosly 180 grain Barnes X over 73.5 grains of RE-22. 3000 fps. That's a mild load. If I did my part, the rife grouped under a MOA.

I put about 2000-2050 rounds through my Sako 300 Wby ( boFors barrel) and it was barely starting to shows signs of wear when I took it off. The throat had advanced a little but since it didn't have the wby free bore it wasn't a big thing. My best 200 yd groups were about 7/8" in it's prime and they opened up to about 1 1/2" when I took it off.

My buddy had a Rem PSS which had exactly 4500 rounds through it when it just went bad all at once. Went from a sub MOA rifle to 2-3 MOA in about a weeks time. A new Schneider barrel and it was better than new. Never fired anything other than Fed gold medal match in it.

I know another gent here in AZ that got a 7mm STW when they first came out. He ruined his barrel in under 300 round by shooting it when it was warm. I suspect these high intensity numbers are prone to problems when not treated right where other calibers are more forgiving...