Question about my barrel

[damyankee]

Was cleaning my jarvis barrel for my USP and upon inspection I noticed a scratch running about half the length down on one of the lands. I'm afraid to ask but how bad is this? Also, while I'm at it, how long will a chomemoly pistol barrel last? I've heard a couple thousand rounds but havent asked here (where people really know what they are talking about) so.... ok, thanks for any info!

edit: its a hair width scratch if that matters, and the barrel is lands and grooves.
edit2: ive been shooting for a couple years now but I am still completely a rookie when it comes to matters like this, I've checked the forums for info about scratches but cant find anything. The same with barrel longevity....Again, any insight would be much appreciated

 

[Darkker]

As far as the scratch goes, either shoot into some water and recover your bullet, or get a dental pick. The goal is to see if this is just a "Visable" scratch, or something nasty. Since you say you have been shooting for a few years now, I'm going to assume that IF this was something serious, you would have noticed a serious change in accuracy....
As far as the holy grail of "How long" the best answer is, IT DEPENDS.
Heat is the killer. The hotter, the faster the wear. Without taking this to the N-th degree, if it is not "Burn your Arse" hot, but maybe not pleasant to hold. Use that as your limit, and you should get in the ten's of thousands of rounds down the pipe, before an "Oh She-ot" in accuracy is noticed.

My personal high-miler is a 9 with just over 12,000 rounds. IF you put it in a vice, it will still shoot better than me holding it.

 

[dfaugh]

If you define "scratch" the way most people would, it probably won't have any affect on the accuracy, at all. I've got milsurp rifles that had really ugly barrels and they shoot quite well (although I often need to re-crown, because of "cleaning rod wear" at the muzzle). As long as there's enough rifling to impart the proper spin to the bullet accuracy won't suffer.

As far as how long a barrel will last, the answer is "it depends" As mentioned heat is a factor. But most pistol barrels should last for a long time(several thousand rounds). Some rifle barrels not so long.

 

[Jim K]

I would try to think of a possible reason for the scratch. A common cause is getting a steel cleaning rod with a sharp edge too close to the bore. Another is carbide or other hard material embedded in a cast bullet, or in the bore ahead of the bullet to be picked up by the bullet.

You also need to determine if it is possibly a crack. Some welding shops can do a magnaflux or other test to determine that.

If it is only a scratch, it should be no problem, even accuracy-wise. If it is a crack, it is new barrel time.

Jim

 

[Sunray]

"...heard a couple thousand rounds ..." That'd be ludicrous with any firearm. Never mind a pistol. Run a dry patch through. Then look in the barrel, if there's no 'fluff' sticking to the scratch, forget about it. It's not a problem. If there is, then contact jarvis.