.243 Win barrel twist rates and bullet weights.

[sloughfoot]

Barrel life is about a half second or so, no matter what.

 

[halfmileharry]

IMO, accuracy degradation or "wearing out a barrel" is one of the most overblown topics for the average rifle shooter. Unless you are a high volume competitive shooter or a high volume varmint shooter, it will take a long, long time before you have to worry about a worn out barrel. Even when the accuracy of a barrel starts to degrade due to wear, that degradation will be gradual and largely unnoticeable for quite awhile unless you shoot competitively in matches where fractions of an inch matter. Most sporting rifles will struggle to reach the accuracy that such competitive shooters seek in the first place so that point is rather moot. Before you worry about accuracy degradation you need to know what your barrel is capable of in the first place and determine a reasonable standard of acceptable accuracy for your purposes.

As noted, there are things you can do to prolong barrel life such as using lighter loads and not allowing the barrel to get hot while shooting. If/when accuracy does start to degrade, you can maintain accuracy a bit longer by seating your bullets out progressively farther as the throat erodes, within reason of course.

Bingo! Worn out/shot out barrels are very uncommon. INGO is a place it's probably more common.
I did have an M-16 barrel worn out a couple of years ago. No throat rifling or rifling out by the flash hider. Just a little in between.
It was an OLD National Guard rifle they'd trashed out. I only bought the rifles for the stocks, handguards, uppers, and bcgs. The lowers had been destroyed I was told.
That's the ONLY barrel I've ever seen worn out.

 

[bwframe]

IMO, accuracy degradation or "wearing out a barrel" is one of the most overblown topics for the average rifle shooter. Unless you are a high volume competitive shooter or a high volume varmint shooter, it will take a long, long time before you have to worry about a worn out barrel. Even when the accuracy of a barrel starts to degrade due to wear, that degradation will be gradual and largely unnoticeable for quite awhile unless you shoot competitively in matches where fractions of an inch matter. Most sporting rifles will struggle to reach the accuracy that such competitive shooters seek in the first place so that point is rather moot. Before you worry about accuracy degradation you need to know what your barrel is capable of in the first place and determine a reasonable standard of acceptable accuracy for your purposes.

As noted, there are things you can do to prolong barrel life such as using lighter loads and not allowing the barrel to get hot while shooting. If/when accuracy does start to degrade, you can maintain accuracy a bit longer by seating your bullets out progressively farther as the throat erodes, within reason of course.

Bingo! Worn out/shot out barrels are very uncommon. INGO is a place it's probably more common.
I did have an M-16 barrel worn out a couple of years ago. No throat rifling or rifling out by the flash hider. Just a little in between.
It was an OLD National Guard rifle they'd trashed out. I only bought the rifles for the stocks, handguards, uppers, and bcgs. The lowers had been destroyed I was told.
That's the ONLY barrel I've ever seen worn out.

This is encouraging. I was wondering how much exactly is "degrading accuracy?" Sounds like even if I spend a fair amount of shooting learning the gun, loads and the techniques of precision shooting, this accuracy loss is a while off? Also good to know that it will be a slow transition vs an "it's done" situation.

 

[two70]

This is encouraging. I was wondering how much exactly is "degrading accuracy?" Sounds like even if I spend a fair amount of shooting learning the gun, loads and the techniques of precision shooting, this accuracy loss is a while off? Also good to know that it will be a slow transition vs an it's toast situation.

Personally, I would tend to look at it this way: If you shoot enough to wear out a barrel to the point that it is no longer providing acceptable accuracy for your purposes, then you have probably learned a lot and had at least a little fun along the way. At that point, have the barrel replaced(which is relatively inexpensive and can possibly be DIY with some rifles) with a new one and mount the old one proudly in frame over your mantel.

 

[natdscott]

We match-shooter-types trash barrels when they drop off below 1 MOA. If they're really good shooters and they know the barrel well, then they'll quit at 3/4 MOA, or when they start losing X-count.

Granted, we shoot somewhere between 30 and 90 rounds a day, more in practice, and sometimes as much as 200 or so in a long weekend, all on un-lined barrels, and our rounds are shot a 1 per minute at the SLOWEST, and never less than 15 at a time.

If you are a decent shooter and you pay attention, you'll know when the barrel is going. Particularly with Stainless, it will fall to pieces in as little as 20 rounds. They can be shooting 'okay, but it's opened up a little', to a 4 MOA rifle in just a magazine or two full.

Chrome-moly tends to eaaasssee into the grave more, so you have to watch it.

BOTH types of steel will start to require more powder for the same velocity, and at the end of life, you will start having to put on GOBS more elevation on your longer distance zeroes. If you start seeing that, go ahead and put the rifle in the safe, kiss it goodnight, and shoot something else for awhile.

Best advice: keep a log book, and keep records within 5-10 rounds worth. If you really care about it's accuracy, when you hit 1,000 rounds, call Krieger and get another tube ordered. When that tube shows up, bite the bullet and send it to be re-barreled.

Barrels are like brake pads. They last a long time, but when they're done, they're done.

-Nate