Big difference?

Think pressure and rate of fire......

Gotcha aalf. So rate of fire being equal and the AI being loaded to standard 260 speeds for practice and full house loads only used for hunting. I should see no difference in barrel life.

That'd be my take on it.....

I read somewhere at one time that the shoulder on the AI helped on barrel life. It was on the Internet so it has to be true. Good enough reason for me to go AI.
Thanks aalf

Use some disclipline in your rate of fire and I doubt that you'll live long enough to discern a difference.

Not enough to even worry about, your barrel life will depend more on your shooting style and how hot you let the barrel get , that a couple of grains of more powder.

How many rounds do you guys expect out of a .260?

Dober

Put it this way.

If you load 140 bullets in both the 260 Rem and the 260 Ack to 2,800 fps the Ackley will get better barrel life.

Course I just can't wrap my head around the idea of running a AI at the same speed as a regular round. That'd be kind of like running a Vet @ 60 mph all the time.....

Long and the short, if the AI costs me a new barrel 300-500 rounds quicker (which I think it would) I'm not a gonna worry about it.

Dober

Doesnt' directly answer your Q but to me the big diff tween the two would be with the AI you'll not be trimming much at all and you'll get another 100 fgs. 4 me, the reason to AI is to reduce the trimming.

Just my thunks on this

Dober

They make barrels every day....grin

Second that one, don't worry about toasting a barrel. If you use one up just think about all the fun you had while doing it.

Barrels are a consumeable just like bullets, primers and powder. We have to keep folks like Bartlein, Brux, Lilja, Shilen, Pac-nor , Kreiger etc working!

Barrels are like tires... they go bald, ya replace them...

anyone ever see a thread about thread life and how to maximize it?

things wear out... some faster than others...

Lord knows my body seems to be finding that out...

Fire-forming is for the birds.

I've done a ton load of fire forming over the years and allI can say is that there's several arks of rodents, chucks, yotes, and big game that would just a soon I never did...(and yes theres a few birds of various flavor that didn't see the humor either)

4 me I've never had an issue with fire forming.

Dober

And I can't get my head around the idea of running at grandma speeds!

Hey what can I say I'm a G-pa with 4 G-kids....I can do without the xtra 50 fps.......<g>

Dober

(side note, I'm still in lust with that darn rig)

Any ideas on expected round count? I like to try to run atleast 20 rounds a week out of my BG rifles. With taking care and not running long strings of fire, should I be able to get 2 years/2000+ rounds?

I have yet to fire-form a round that has the same velocity as even the parent cartridge, and the point of impact is certainly not the same as the AI'd round. Don't like having to reconfigure come-ups, or resight in my rifle between the different loads. Not to mention why burn up a barrel just to make cases? Sure, you can dick around with cream of wheat etc, but I would rather be out shooting the real deal. That's why my AI days are over. Too much effort for little gain.

The theory that used to be advanced was that the sharper shoulder on the AI round protected the throat from erosion. The contention was, if lines extended at the angle of the shoulder converged ahead of the neck of the cartridge, erosion would be increased. This was always given as the explanation of why the 243 Winchester was so hard on throats.
This is one of those theories which, on the surface, almost makes sense but I know of no serious studies done to try and prove or disprove the theory. One of my early mentors was adamant that it was fact and I saw no reason to dispute this. My subsequent experience has done nothing to indicate the truth one way or another. Like so many of these things, it comes down this; if you want believe it, go right ahead. GD