Barrel Burners - 243 vs others?

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I keep reading/hearing that the 243 Win is a notorious "barrel burner". I understand the concept and don't dispute this. I suspect it has a lot to do with how hot and how many rounds are fired.

But, say for a 6mm round at 2800 - 3000 fps, by comparison, is the 243 Win more prone to barrel burning than, say, the .22 cal varmint rounds like the .22 Swift, 22-250 or the 25-06? Wouldn't all of the high velocity varmint rounds be just as likely to burn one barrel as another?

Thanks.
 
I never really regarded the 243 as particularly prone to shooting out barrels.

The highly overbore cartridges like the 220 Swift that are pushing maximum pressures are much more prone. I would suspect that any of the WSM cartridges would be.

The worst I have heard of (as story are told under the influence of coffee and campfire) is the 270 Weatherby magnum. It had a reputation of burning out a barrel in 500 rounds or so. It was enough to make me pass up a great deal on a NIB No. 1 I was considering on adding to the collection (even though I should have bought it just from the aspect of rarity). Take a look at a reloading manual for this cartridge.
 
Isnt it the .264 Win Magnum of the 1950s top the list?

Whoa, i got my .25 06 right there close to 7 mm RM.
 
I shot exactly 4109 rounds of fairly stiff 243 using 70gr BlitzKings over 5 years in my main prairie dog rifle before accurracy started to decline. By decline I mean my groups opened up to nearly an inch at 100 yards, which is unacceptable for my purposes. However, I am having that barrel turned down to sporter weight for use as a deer rifle, as it still has some life left in it. The rifling and bore are still in great shape, but the chamber is showing some signs of wear, and I can't seat the little bullets far enough out anymore.

My 22-250AI and 280AI seem to be much much harder on the barrels IMO
 
Dr T said:
Very nice table. Do you have numbers for 6mm Rem and 270 Wby.?
Click to expand...

You can calculate it using the case capacity and bore diameter.

6mm Remington:
54.6 grains case capacity/((.243/2)^2*3.14159)=1177.3

.270 Weatherby Mag:
85.3 grains case capacity/((.284/2)^2*3.14159)=1346.6
 
In my experience, the 243 is a lot nicer on barrels than my 22-250. If you do burn a barrel (actually the throat), you can sometimes have your barrel set back, re-chambered and keep right on using it. It's not a reason to not own one.
 
I think the barrel of my .257 Weatherby Magnum will probably be a crispy critter after a thousand rounds or so but, the way I look at it, a new barrel will cost less than replacing the tires on my pickup truck and I don't lose any sleep over that. There's just no way around it: If you want speed and lots of it, you're going to have to pay for it.
 
I pay no attention to a cartridge being over bore which is why I own cartridges like a .25-06, .22-250 and .300 H&H Mag. For the pleasure of shooting when the barrel is gone I'll have another installed.

My .25-06 died at about 1000 rounds. A lot of it was me constantly scrubbing the bore I'm sure but for $400 I had a Krieger Match barrel installed and it should last another 20+ years.

I hear of people loading light to get a barrel to last longer, I refuse to do that. May as well buy a smaller cartridge in that case. The .22-250 is a good example of this. Some of the loads I hear people shooting aren't much faster then a .223. When the barrel on my 250 dies I'll just have another installed and start over again.

As a barrel gets shot out I have not noticed groups getting larger. What I have noticed is flyers. When I had the 06 rebarreled it would still shoot 3/4" but out of 5 shots 1 would be more then 1" away from the tight group. I thought it was problem with something else and took it in to a smith. He looked in the bore and told me to rebarrel.

The benefit of a good after market barrel became very evident on the 06. That rifle on a bad day will now shoot 1/2" groups and clean up with only 2 patches. At present I have 40 rounds through the new barrel.
 
Thanks for the graph RW. I figure i got about 2000 more rounds to go before i burn out my barrel/ throat. I guess I have another 60 years to go.

I can live with that.
 
Thanks all. My interest isn't so much about choosing a new rifle as it is about preserving what I have. I have a Belguim Browning BAR in .243 Win (and in 7mm Rem Mag, too) that I haven't really shot much, but I have been bitten by the reloading bug and am working up .243 loads at present. As it is a semi-auto, I won't be seating bullets almost to the lands, and I won't be shooting small varmints at 300 yards, but I would like to see what kind of holes I can punch in paper at 200 yards and hope that I can put an 80-85 grain bullet out to 100 yards with sub-MOA accuracy with a bit of work. I do have a bolt action CZ-527 Varmint in .223 that I am also fond of shooting. It is already sub-MOA with factory loads of 55gr ballistic tips and 52gr BTHP's when I do my part.

So far, so good. :D

e375b802.gif
 
I'm one oof those that wants to get all thatI can from my guns and will load to maximum potential without exeption. I'm always getting crap from friends that shoot my guns because of the excessive recoil and constant lectures about burning them up. I have an old 700 ADL in .270 win. that I've ben loading to it's potential maximum since I bought it new in the mid 1980s and it is still holding a decent group. That rifle must have several thousand rounds put through it. I don't discount barrel burning as non sense, but I think it can be prolonged some by how the load is assembled. I neck for all my rifle cartridges and seat just off the lands, as close as I can get. And when it comes to cleaning, I am pretty maticulous and I've always heard that will excelerate burning. But the one thing I don't do is shoot a hot barrel. I'll put a 5 shot group on paper over a 7 or 8 minute time frame, and then swap rifles while that one cools down. I don't know if that helps any, but I can't imagine it not. I once saw a guy pour water over his Douglas barrel on a custom built M98 7mm mag after he had been heated it up enough to make the water sizzle. I would think that could warp or even fracture a barrel.
 
I would argue that firing rounds too quickly when using any high-stepping round without giving the barrel sufficient time to cool off between shots probably contributes more to short barrel life than any "over-bore" cartridge does when shot with patience.
 
You are exactly right.

I have one friend who kills a deer or two every year with his pre-64 .243 Model 70, as he has been doing since Kansas has had a deer season. And he kills a ton of coyotes every fall and winter with it too.
His barrel is far from shot out.

I have another friend that completely burned out a 6mm 700 Remington barrel in one morning shooting over a prairie dog town.

Despite my repeated warnings, he continued to shoot all morning with never a break to allow the barrel to cool down. By noon, his barrel was toast and he wasn't hitting the dogs any longer.

SO, you can burn a .243 / 6mm barrel out in about 4 hours.
Or you can't burn a .243 / 6mm barrel out in 40+ years.

It all depends on how hot you let it get how often.

rc
 
I'm one oof those that wants to get all thatI can from my guns and will load to maximum potential without exeption.
Click to expand...

Gamestalker, I agree pretty much with the above. I load my rifle cartridges as close to max as I can and still get the best accuracy. In every rifle I've had the accuracy as been outstanding with the load near max.

When I burn up the barrel I'll just get a new one. My first burned out barrel took 26 years on a .25-06. To be honest I figure a lot of the wear was me always cleaning it to get the last bit of copper out.

To each his own but I shake my head at reloaders that load a cartridge down to where it's giving performance of a lesser cartridge to make it last. Why own it in that case? Buy the lesser cartridge and be done with it.
 
I shake my head at reloaders that load a cartridge down to where it's giving performance of a lesser cartridge to make it last. Why own it in that case? Buy the lesser cartridge and be done with it.
Click to expand...

i completely see your point.

one thing i noticed after chasing heavier loads non stop is that after i dropped the powder charge down to the bare minimum my 243 started throwing the best groups for that bullet wt. i've ever seen.
has anyone noticed this or should i just chaulk that up to my specific barrel? i changed nothing else about the load other than the charge wt.
i have used IMR 4350 and 100 gr. hornady's exclusively.
 
I have a 7mm Mag I purchased in 1975 and have fired somewhere between 3 and 4 thousand rounds. Its a Rem 700 BDL and I keep waiting for it start slinging rounds but it still shoots sub moa. I never push it with max loads and never do extended strings of fire. I wonder how long it will go?
 
I wonder how long it will go?
Click to expand...

Before I flippingly say "the rest of your life", I'd better ask "how old are you now"? Unless you're fourteen years old (and since you bought the rifle in 1975, you're probably a tad bit older than that :)), the way you've been shooting it (no prolonged strings of fire and shooting "sensible" loads), I predict you'll die before your rifle does. I'm sure you hope I'm wrong. :D
 
SwampWolf said:
Before I flippingly say "the rest of your life", I'd better ask "how old are you now"? Unless you're fourteen years old (and since you bought the rifle in 1975, you're probably a tad bit older than that :)), the way you've been shooting it (no prolonged strings of fire and shooting "sensible" loads), I predict you'll die before your rifle does. I'm sure you hope I'm wrong. :D
Click to expand...
LOL, Swampwolf, i'm 57 and I say your spot on with that prediction, unless I can hit the lotto or someone leaves me a chunck of moola, which would cause an early retirement and that translates in to more range time.
 
I did manage to burn up a 243 back in the late 70's in two summers shooting ground hogs and also went out west that fall and shot up some dog towns. Back then you could shoot ground hogs from your truck and no one would say anything. But I remember a buddy that had a 220 swift that gave up the ghost in one summer of hog hunting the farms around here.
 
I have a custom 243 I put together back in 1965. It will still keep them in nickle sized groups. If I tinkered with the load I might be able to do better. I have been shooting the same powder/bullet since new......chris3
 
One reason to own a number of rifles is that if you spread your shooting around, you won't wear out the barrels as quickly.

I think I need another rifle...;-)
 
Would someone please explain to me why excessive cleaning accelerates barrel wear? I would think the opposite would occur. I've also never understood the reason for cleaning a barrel only to foul it with a few rounds prior to (target) shooting. Is it simply a matter of controlling the degree of fouling in the barrel?
I am concerned because I have a 22-250,a caliber hard on barrels,I learned after buying it. Thanks.
 
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