[jlee91w]

New member here, will shooting super light bullets wear out the barrel faster than regular loads? For example, I was thinking of the 110gr Hornady V-max in 270 win and 300 wsm with a speed around 3500fps. This is per the new Hornady reloading manual. Will this burn out a barrel like shooting a 22-250? Big case of powder with a small bullet? I don't want to ruin my hunting rifles goofing off trying to make a coyote or varmint load. Could I run these bullets at a slower speed and not have the same problems like the 22-250? BTW the 270 is an older FN action, and the 300wsm is a new remington 700 but neither are heavy barreled target rifles. Thanks in advance for the insight. Jared

[Afy]

Barrel wear is a function of bullet count and velocity. Typically higher the velocity, quicker you wear the barrel out. In real terms your barrel life is about 6 seconds spread out over approximately 2K-3K bullets through it.

Now if you are only hunting deer with your rifle I wouldnt worry too much about the barrel life, for how many bullets are you putting through it in a year?

[jlee91w]

So bullet weight doesn't figure into the equation? I remember reading that big cases w/ small bullets i.e. 22-250 and 220 swift burn barrels out faster than others. I wasn't sure what caused the erosion, fast velocities or powder burning around the bullet? And of course I can't find the article to jog my memory. I shoot quite a bit, I am doing about 50-70 rounds a month through each rifle. Thinking that most barrels last around 2000 rds, I was worried that I could be causing some problems and was thinking that it would be a little cheaper and something different to try the really light bullets. Now I am thinking maybe backing off the hunting rifles, maybe 100 rounds a year to be comfortable and proficient and buying a rifle for the range. Either a 22-250 or 308 for reaching out to 600yds and maybe varmint/coyote. Thanks again Afy

[ArchAngelCD]

It's not the lighter bullet that causes the accelerated barrel wear, it's the higher velocities you can attain with that lighter bullet. If you're worried about wearing out your barrel slow the bullet down a bit.

[jlee91w]

Thanks Archangel, I will try dropping it down 500-1000fps and see if I can achieve any accuracy or if the bullet will even stabilize. I appreciate your time. Jared

[Funshooter45]

You don't have to drop them down all THAT much. Yeah, the faster velocities will definitely have increased wear. If you were shooting thousands of them at that speed, the effect will be noticeable. I think the wear vs. velocity thing must be a non-linear effect. But if you're going to try 50-100 of them for kicks, there's probably not going to be any harm to your rifle.

I was thinking about doing a similar thing for my .308. One of my shooting buddies told me he is having phenomenal accuracy using a 110 gr bullet in his .308. I don't know the exact recipe, but I see you can get some very high velocities with that light bullet. I'm not a bit interested in 3300+ fps velocities for that rifle, but I would like to see what kind of accuracy I could get with it at 2900 or so. So I bought 100 of the Sierra 110 gr bullets just to play around with. I have gotten good accuracy in that rifle with 155 and 168 gr bulllets. It would be fun to have a lightweight load also.

[ColtPythonElite]

Go ahead and shoot your high velocity loads. It's gonna take more than a hunter uses for coyotes, groundhogs, ect to burn out a barrel....You aren't gonna burn up a barrel unless you are shooting high volumes. I've got a 15+ year old .22-250 that I shoot max loads in. It is only used for groundhogs on our farm and rarely sees more than 20 rounds a year. The barrel in it is like new.

[ArchAngelCD]

For example, I was thinking of the 110gr Hornady V-max in 270 win and 300 wsm with a speed around 3500fps.

Thanks Archangel, I will try dropping it down 500-1000fps and see if I can achieve any accuracy or if the bullet will even stabilize. I appreciate your time. Jared
Actually, I think if you drop that 3500 fps load to 3200 fps or so you will get the flat shooting round you are looking for but do little or no additional barrel wear that "normal" loads.

[243winxb]

270 & 300 are not "barrel burners".IMO The bore is to large. To reduce throat erosion, the bullets nose/ogive should seal the bore before the bullets base leaves the case mouth. This keeps hot gas from blowing around the bullet just before it takes the leade/rifling. At least this is how i look at it.:confused: If you have seen gas cutting of a top strap of a revolver, or pit in a bolt face from primer blow out, you know what hot gas can do when venting thru a small area. Single base powder are said to burn cooler than double base?? Maybe thats the way to go. The larger the powder charge= more throat erosion is my guess. :confused:

[NuJudge]

I've heard a lot of Service Rifle shooters, shooting 69gr bullets at 200 and 300 yards, and shooting 80gr at 600, talk about how the 80gr bullets put a lot more wear on the barrel per shot.

Ball/Spherical/globular powders are thought by some to reduce wear, when compared to extruded powders.

I don't worry about it. Try not to get your barrel any hotter than you need to.

CDD

[jlee91w]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I have placed the order with midway for the 30cal Hornady 110gr Vmax and for the Speer 90gr in 270. I will try to move the vel down to 3000-3200 for the 300 and 2800 for the 270. Thanks, Jared