Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters barrel life

What would you expect to be the normal barrel life for a well cared for .270 Winchester?

at least 2500 to 3000 rounds

Since I'm starting to wonder if my barrel is worn out I have one other question. I'm trouble shooting accuracy issues to see what other variable I can eliminate.

Does a worn out barrel lose velocity compared to when it had a lower round count? When the rifle was new I was using 130 grain Core-Lokts and 60 grains of H-4831SC. Currently I am using 130 grain Sierra Game-Kings with the same charge and velocity is about 150 fps slower.

You are not losing vel., you changed bullets. You can't get accurate results when you change data.

I have only worn out one barrel, it sprayed proven loads all over the target. And that barrel did lose velocity.

Fraser,

It depends on what you mean by "barrel life." I've burned out two .270 barrels, though only one of them was new when I purchased the rifle. Both barrels were VERY accurate at first, grouping 3-5 shots well under an inch at 100 yards, and one of them averaged three shots in an inch at 300 yards. When the accuracy became ordinary (three shots in an inch or a little more) I rebarreled one rifle and sold the other. As I recall, that took about 1800 shots in the new barrel, but I also shot that barrel quite hot on a number of occasions--and it was a factory barrel, which are sometimes made of softer steel.

Velocity can drop as a barrel wears, but as has been pointed out, you're not shooting the same loads when making the comparison.

The velocity change could be an erroded throat which also can have a negative impact on velocty. AS has been mentioned there are a lot of factors going into wearing a barrel out. Shoot it until it will remove your finger prints a lot and you will be well on your way. The cut of the chamber and if it had freebore also factors into throat errosion. My suggestion, stick with a single load and try that one on different days in as ideal conditions as possible and see what your velocity and accuracy turns out to be. Try another bullet under the same conditions and see again. You didn't mention if you changed primer along with bullet and/or even the brass. Sometimes a barrel just doesn't like a particular bullet or even a bullet/brass/powder/primer combination.

Mule Deer, my experience sounds much like yours. When I first got this rifle it only shot over 3/4" if I was getting sloppy. 3" groups at 400 yards were pretty routine.

Lately I can't seem to get a good group out of it. I've checked bedding and screws, cleaned the bore repeatedly, tried different scope and different loads.

Tulie's suggestion of different loads and scope on ideal days is well advised but I've tried that. Primers have always been WLR.

I'm looking into rebarrelling options. I also might just sell it. Plenty of people are happy with 1.5" groups but when a rifle is 9.5 lbs scoped and has a 26" barrel it needs to be accurate to have a place in my gun rack.

Fraser I went through this recently,and the progression (deterioration? is fresh in my mind, so I feel your pain.

Barrel in question was a nicely accurate #1 Krieger 270 that for some reason loved RL22 and 130 gr bullets,which it lived on since I installed the tube in 2004...I shot it quite a bit but cannot pin down round count;but it was quite a few...fair to state I fired it 2-3k times;hunted with it, etc.

The last year,groups suddenly opened...nice tiny 100 yard groups were now an inch, instead of clusters;300 yd groups went from great to lousy.

At first you are not sure if it's you, or the rifle, so you try this and that;clean dirty, change loads, etc...inconsistency is the dominant characteristic.

I even had a smith diamond lap the throat last summer,and this brought it back if I cleaned it like a maniac....for awhile...

I finally gave up this winter, took it to my smith with a new Brux 270 barrel I had squirreled away,and it should be ready any day now with the new tube.

Yeah, that sounds familiar.

could just be a different lot of the same powder

for those that want to stretch out the life on a shot out barrel..

I learned this off of the cast shooting guys.. loads with SR 4759 and IMR 4198 will still stretch out that barrels life and give more than enough accuracy at deer hunting ranges of 250 yds or less...

hey when you are 65 yrs old.. you may not want to stretch your hunting career out long enough to cough up the cash for a new barrel...

I also think too many of us gauge the 'accuracy' of our rifle barrels by how tight of a group they shoot off the bench..

however few of us hunt off of a bench... and minute of Bambi at 100 yds is more than adequate for the needs of many of us..

I had an ER Shaw barrel in 223 that was NO benchrest shooter whatsoever at first... but surprisingly it did as well as my best shooting 223 out to 250 yds on targets the size of a pop can...what more could ya ask for..

As luck would have it I found a half box of my old handloads with the 130 Core-Lokt. It must be about five years old. I have to try it because it would be my best possible information. I have clear notes on velocity and accuracy with this load.

Gee's I use to shoot deer on a crop damage permit, back then I shot a M-70 XTR in 270 and a M-8 4x Leupold. My load was simple a 130 gr Speer SP those were cheap and they work well on White Tails, Power IMR-4831, I kept good records on that rifle. At the start is shot fine, nothing exciting just good consistent 1.5 inch groups, some times a little smaller some times not. Over a 9 year period on three different farms. I put over 3500 shots true that barrel. It still shot well enough for most of the deer at distances I would see them. I sold that rifle and the gent that bout it, still shoots his deer with it, never misses. I think barrels last a lot longer that we think they do. I remember not so long ago, If you had a rifle that shot 2.5 inch groups its was one you kept for life. When did it 1.5 inches become crap accuracy?

Everyone has their idea of what "accuracy", "barrel life" and "shot out" means. For the average Joe, like the guy you sold the rifle to, 4" groups at 100 yards will last him many lifetimes and he will be tickled pink with it, because he doesn't know better. Even and extremely worn out barrel will often shoot many thousand rounds under 5" at 100 yards, which is FAR better than most guys can shoot.

For me, a rifle that shoots over an inch is a dog and get's a new barrel, regardless of round count. For a bench shooter or competition shooter, 1/4" groups would be a warn out barrel and would NEVER be competitive.

Most of the guys that shoot BR in my parts average about 1,300 rounds of usable life in their competition barrels. The barrels are still tack drivers and are not remotely shot out, but they are no longer competitive. On many of the BR sites, you can pick up these "shot out" barrels for very little. They will still have several thousand rounds of usable life in them for the average guy. Flinch

Sea fire, I hope only to cheer you on.

Unless your terminally ill you have a long road ahead of you.

Example,
My barber is 82,works 6 days a week.

Also of note, I stayed at a bed and breakfast in MO over Christmas. He ran it alone. His age ...88. He used to fly C-47s over the hump to Burma.

So smile and live ! ( get you a new barrel if you feel inclined )

Best,

Michael

Hell yes! The day I'd finally had enough with mine,I shot an almost identical rifle at 300 yards as well,it staying in about 3" and my "old" barrel doing 8-9" or so.....I could have killed easily with either one...but the more you shoot, the less the liklihood you'll put up with it.

One thing I do when evaluating guns is considering a value on my time as well as keeping track of what it's costing me to chase down a problem. Unless you have a range in your backyard, you're going to quickly find that between gas to get to the range and component costs you're out $100 before you know it. Then putting a value on your time for developing loads and going the range you could easily say you're out $300 or more.

A long way of saying if the gun isn't doing what you want, cut your losses and ship it out for a new match grade barrel. It'll likely shoot even better than it has in the past, you'll know that you've got a good 2000-3000 rounds of life left in it and you're not wasting your time chasing your tail.

I've been absent from this topic for a few days now. As near as I can tell from the last shooting session I've likely eliminated variables other than the barrel. However, by chance I did do enough scrounging around to find a few partial boxes of old .270 loads.

One of these loads was the 130 Core-Lokt handload from several years ago. I know for certain that when I used to use that load it consistently shot 3/4" at 3170fps. This will allow me to shoot the exact same ammo as I did when results were more pleasing. I'm interested in one last possibility. While I have never experienced it, I have heard of people getting into such a bad lot of powder that they thought their rifle had gone bad. This will confirm or eliminate this possibility.

Other than that I also found a partial box of 110 grain V-Max handloads that shot extremely well when I used them several years ago. It will give me one more test.

I bought a new Remington varmint .22-250 with a heavy barrel. It always hovered around 1" groups, nothing stellar. One day, after a couple of thousand rounds went down it's pipe, it suddenly started shooting everything into 1/2". This lasted for about 200 rounds, then groups suddenly started growing to 2 inches, then 3".

I liken this event to running the gas tank dry with a 2 cycle engine. The last few seconds, the RPM's increase along with horsepower, then it dies. This barrel did the same thing, shooting stellar, then died . The throat was so rough it would tare the patches Flinch