Larry E
Member
I've shot out barrels on .223's, .22-250's (with my brother's help), and .243's. A .243 with warm loads will use up a barrel in 1500-2000 rounds, the .22-250 is about the same or maybe a little more, and the .223 is easily 3000 to 4000 rounds.
If someone is doing high volume or rapid fire shooting a .22-250 or .243 will eat barrels like a little kid going through a candy store. It all depends on what a guy's barrel budget is. Be aware that stainless and chrome-moly barrels are about equally accurate, but when a stainless barrel goes it seems to just go while a chrome-moly barrel's accuracy declines bit by bit.
Cleaning is important, but when the throat goes accuracy is right behind it, and there's no cleaning process that can save a throat from hot gasses.
Maybe it's just me, but loading a .22-250 down to save the barrel is sort of like buying a Corvette to drive 25 mph to the supermarket.
If someone is doing high volume or rapid fire shooting a .22-250 or .243 will eat barrels like a little kid going through a candy store. It all depends on what a guy's barrel budget is. Be aware that stainless and chrome-moly barrels are about equally accurate, but when a stainless barrel goes it seems to just go while a chrome-moly barrel's accuracy declines bit by bit.
Cleaning is important, but when the throat goes accuracy is right behind it, and there's no cleaning process that can save a throat from hot gasses.
Maybe it's just me, but loading a .22-250 down to save the barrel is sort of like buying a Corvette to drive 25 mph to the supermarket.