Barrel Burners - 243 vs others?

[Larry E]

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.

 

[Art Eatman]

I've never heard about "excessive cleaning" hurting a barrel, but I don't really know what "excessive cleaning" is...

I bought my Sako .243 in 1970 or 1971; I disremember. I dunno how many rounds through it, but it's somewhere over a thousand, anyhow. Even messing with prairie dogs, I don't let it heat up where I can't touch the barrel.

For deer and coyotes, I use the Sierra 85-grain HPBT. Back when my eyes were a tad younger, it was easy to get half-MOA with that load. 37.5 grains of 3031, although I suggest starting out a grain or two below that.

Last time I took it to the bench, I put three behind a dime, so I don't reckon a thousand rounds or so would hurt anything. But nowhere is it written that every load must be max.

 

[TEC]

OK, so how long is reasonable to wait between shots and, in the case of ladder testing, between 3-shot groups? How many shots it too many shots to fire in a .243 for a morning at the range testing loads?

 

[twofifty]

depends

my rule of thumb depends on ambient temperature when doing the tests.

65F to 75F: 2.5 minutes between shots. Rifle stays on rest, bolt open.
76F to 85F: 3 minute intervals. Rifle is racked vertically, bolt open.

I don't bother developing a load when temps are below 65 or above 85.
This is entirely based on BS hunches.

 

[Ruger GP100 fan]

If I may please word my question a little better so I can begin to understand. If I take my gun to the range and shoot,say,5 or 6 rounds and for what ever reason,end it for the day and return home. The next day I return to shoot 25 or 30 rounds for accuracy.Are the 5 or 6 rounds shot the day before adequate for proper fouling to begin "target"(paper) shooting,or ought I have cleaned the barrel prior to returning to the range and fired another few "fouling" rounds? To put it perhaps a bit easier to respond to ,is there something special or unique about freshly-fired fouling rounds(other than warming the barrel)?

 

[Art Eatman]

My experience has been that one fouling shot is sufficient. Another bit of experience is that if a barrel is not particularly oily, fouling shots haven't been necessary. Seems to vary among rifles, as near as I can tell. I've been pretty lucky on that.

For a three-shot group as a test of whatever--sight-in or load-grouping--I'm guessing no more than maybe thirty seconds between shots. I'll maybe stretch that out to a minute or so if I'm really serious with a five-shot or ten-shot group. So far, so good.

Probably the easiest way to get an answer for a particular rifle is to do normal cleaning, whatever floats your boat. Then go to the range. Shoot a group, noting the location of each hit on the target. If the first shot is off from the rest of the group, that would seem to say that a fouling shot is a Good Thing. If it's right in there with the other hits, fuhgeddaboutit.

I've done a "Let's pretend" at the benchrest, shooting for group at a rapid rate--pretending I missed Bambi with the first couple of shots. For three shots, it doesn't seem to matter. If my sight picture is righteous, the group is as good as with slow shooting.

If I start with a barrel which has been cleaned of copper, about all I do after any shooting is to spray WD40 on a patch and run it through a couple of times. Maybe two patches' worth. Then, I spray some gun oil on a patch, lightly, and run it through. That's it. Been doing it that way since WD40 first came on the market, whenever that was. I've mostly used RemOil, since whenever it was that they put it into spray cans. No particular reason for the brand, though.

I don't worry much about copper fouling until there's some degradation in the size of my groups, unless for some reason I decide to get nit-picky about it.

 

[nathan]

I also suggest try making the Ed 's Red , it cost less to make and last a long time. ANd it cleans the barrel really well.

 

[sansone]

I agree with the people who just rebarrel when shot out. I especially agree with the fella that says his pickup goes through tires but he just buys new ones. I don't shoot very many rounds through my 243, but when I do I want them to be screamin' and accurate (like everybody)

 

[HOOfan_1]

Anyone found that their guns are more accurate when the barrel is warm (about as warm to the touch as a black cat sitting in the sun).

I went out the other day, fired 5 fouling shots, the group was perhaps 1.5", this exact load had provided a sub .5" group the week before. Then I moved on to another load which had provided a .75" group earlier. I was planning to shoot 4 groups of 5. The temperature was about 40F-45F and I was leaving the bolt open for about 30 seconds after a shot, then an additional 10-15 seconds before pulling the trigger.

My first two groups with this load were horrible. 1.5"-2" The second two groups were right at .5"..those groups were also maybe a quarter of an inch higher on average than the first 2 groups.

It was a windy day, gusts of 30mph+ and swirling wind. Is it more likely the wind and my own poor shooting affected the first 2 groups, or could my gun just like a warm barrel more?