Barrel life

[Coldfinger]

So I have a .300 RUM and I know at best with the factory installed barrel I'm only looking at a 700 round barrel life. After I shoot it out I will go with a Shilen or something of similar quality. I will also try to alliviate some of the free bore when I do this but that will be 700 rounds down the road. Could take years at only 20 or so rounds fired a year..... So here is my question.....
Would the application of DynaTek bore coat extend bore life in a 300 RUM chambered R700? the practical me says NO, but the hopeful me wants to say YES. The stuff isnt all that expensive but that is money I could spend on bullets or primers or powder...... Any thoughts? Experience? Has this been discussed elsewhere and I missed it?

 

[sage5907]

Target shooter & varmint shooters wear barrels out, big game hunters very seldom ever shoot a barrel out especially a 300 RUM. My bet is that you'll move on to something else and that barrel will still be in good shape 20 years from now.

 

[dvdcrr]

Moly coated bullets?

 

[ford8nr]

Shoot reduced loads when full boats aren't needed. Saves wear and tear on the bbl and YOU.

 

[sage5907]

I just did some reading on the cartridge. It seems that Remington sells 3 different power level cartridges. Power level 1 duplicates a 30-06. Power level 2 duplicates a 300 Winchester Magnum. Power level 3 is the full power version. Interesting?

 

[ironworkerwill]

Moly coated bullets will not stop throat erosion. Moly will probably lessen barrel wear.

Throats are eroded by the massive volume of gasses that are thrust by it. It is worsened by the slow powders in the overbore RUM cartridges. Like others have said and I agree, unless you bench shoot it's doubtful that you'll shoot the barrel out.

As far a bore treatments go, I just don't know enough about it to give a solid answer. You know how marketing is, they'll come up with a gimmick to prove that bald men need hairbrushes. Usually if it sounds too good to be true....

 

[briansmithwins]

Barrels are consumables. High velocities and small bores just die faster.

BSW

 

[Capstick1]

Where do you get the 700 figure from? I thought that the .300 RUM barrel was normally good for around 2000 rounds. I've heard that the .26 Nosler is also prone to burning out barrels. I sometimes wonder if these large powder capacity "Supermagnums" are even worth it. At least you can get 8-10 thousand rounds out of a .308 Winchester or .30-06 barrel before it's time for a new one.

 

[sappyg]

Assuming the barrel is shot out at 700 rounds, firing 20 rounds per year for 20 years is roughly the half life of the barrel. So, if you're still shooting that 300 RUM in 40 years maybe then you think about a new barrel.

I would leave it alone.

 

[bowyer19]

Wearing Barrel Out

Target shooters wear barrels out faster than a hunter needs to consider because they have to be more nit picking about their accuracy unless you are going for extreme long range (1000yds +). I.5"@100yds used to be the gold standard for big game rifles. That well easily give "minute of deer vitals" to 500yds.

Gun writers pretty much killed the .264 Win Mag by saying it would shoot out barrels in 2000 rounds. Most hunters well never get near that if they just use their rifle for hunting. If you did wear out a barrel ,there are a lot of companies making very good barrels.

If you shoot the 30-06 level rounds for plinking, barrel life might well be 50,000 rounds.

Improper cleaning well wear out a barrel faster than anything.

 

[moxie]

Shoot the heck out of it. Replace it if and when it wears out. Meanwhile, enjoy it!

 

[FROGO207]

You are a reloader for heavens sakes.
Work up an accurate load at the lowest velocity node with a faster for caliber propellant and do not overthink this.:banghead:

 

[GooseGestapo]

What frogo207 said.

I have a Savage M110 in .300RUM. Though it's not a tack-driver, it's decently accurate at ~1.5moa.

For elk hunting, it has no peer. Very flat shooting and hard hitting.
My elk load is a 200gr Nosler Partition over 95gr of Retumbo or 90.0gr of RL25. Gets ~3,100fps.
Top 180gr load is 99.0gr of Retumbo for 3,350fps.

My 'shooter' load however is 83.0gr of IMR-7828. Gets 3,300fps with 165gr bullet or 3,100fps with 180gr bullets. Very accurate however as often gets ~1.0moa with 3-shot groups.

I don't shoot it a lot. Typically recheck the scope with 3rds before hunting season.
I guess it's got ~500rds through it and 10yrs from now "might" have 600rds.

No evidence of "lost" accuracy yet. I seldom shoot it more than 10rds in a outing. And then, I shoot 3-shots at most at one string.

There is "too much of a good thing" The .300RUM comes close to being poster child for the saying...
But the deer and elk hate it !!!

Only problem I've had with it is that it draws blood on both ends. EVERY time I've shot something with it, it's drawn blood on both ends (ie: "Weatherby" eyebrow...).

Accurate Powders lists a load of 60.0gr of #5744 for 3,000fps w/180gr bullet. Should be a good 'working' load where full power is undesireable. If .300winmag speed is "enough"... should be!!!

It's "understudy" is a Weather Vanguard in .257wbymag. I call them my "pawn shop puppies". No love!!! I bought them both for around $200 and change. No one wanted to "feed" them.
I bought 16lbs of WC-860 in 2005. Still haven't opened the second 8lb keg. Both rifles have a strong preference for RL25.

I'm only on my 3rd pound of RL25. The .257 is just such an "affable" rifle and cartridge. Most anything I feed it gets 1" or better accuracy, with Anthing Sierra or Nosler running closer to 1/2" for 3-shots.

Feed it a Hornady 100gr PtSpt over 73.0gr of RL25 and it gets ~3,600fps and recovered bullets (only 1 found), run 67gr, and perfect mushrooms. Sighted 1" high at 100yds, it's zero at 200 and 5" low at 300. Sight 2.5" high at 100, it's zero at 300 and -6" at 400yds.

Hard too beat. I'll hunt anything in N.America with it save Moose or Griz. For those, I have another "pound puppy"; A .375Ruger.
What a wonderful rifle/cartridge. (African "Hawkeye"). With 82.0gr of IMR4350 and 250gr Sierra BtSpt, it "thinks" it's a bench-rest rifle. Same charge under a 270gr Hornady Soft-point, It's up to anything on terra firma, except Dumbo, for him, substitue 80gr of H4350 and a 300gr Hornady DGS and you're good-to-go!!!

 

[Coldfinger]

Great points gentlemen. The 700 round figure is "interwebs" info. Likely 700 rounds of full power shooting. The barrel will very likely provide me with years of use, as I also own a 25-06, & 30-06. They get shot most with the accuracy edge going the way of the 25. I will save my time, money and effort and focus my efforts on finding a good load and just enjoy shooting it when I do. FYI is a Rocky Mountain ElK Foundation R700. So I dont want to change its configuration or shoot
it out. But I dont think at 10-20 rounds a year that will happen.

 

[redbullitt]

Wear it out and get a better barrel installed... And true and bed the action while you're in there... AND... well you know.

I would make sure to keep the barrel cool, no long strings. They are not necessary if it is a hunting style rifle anyway right? Load reduced loads for practice.

700 rounds sounds awful short to me. Like is the barrel supposed to be dead at that point? Or is it maybe starting to open up groups a bit? To save cash you could probably have a smith set the barrel back when you are no longer happy with accuracy in order to get a bit more life out of it without breaking the bank.

Short of shooting milder rounds I do not think you can "treat" that barrel to effectively extend life.

 

[win71]

Learn to shoot it

And don't worry, sight it in and hunt with it.
I bought a Rem mod 700, wood, blued, 26" barreled with iron sights when they first became available. I scoped it on quick detachable mounts. At the time brass was not available. I bought 5 boxes of Remington brand loaded ammunition with 180 gr. Nosler Partitions. I had some experience loading Partitions in a 270, 7m/m mag. and several 30 caliber rifles. Partitions, in my experience, were not particularly bench rest accurate. The factory boxes of Remington 300 RUM indicated 3300 fps.
First, the 300 RUM is a difficult rifle to shoot off of sand bags on a bench. The recoil is extremely fast. I found I had to reach past the sand bags and hold tightly to the forearm with my left hand just to control the rifle during recoil. I also had to hold my trigger hand tight and pulling back to seat the recoil pad onto my shoulder. This is not how bench rest or varmint shooters fire a 222, 22-250, etc., etc.

First time out I set up a chrono at ten feet and shot a bore sighted set up at 100 yards. Three shot groups were right at one inch. Average bullet speed for 3 shots was 3284 plus or mines. One shot was over the published 3300 fps. This was factory Remington ammunition. This was also not what I was used to with published fps information. The 3 shot groups were right at one inch.
My hunting partner, who had a similar rifle, had the same results. He decided not to reload.
Since there was no available brass or reloading information I called Nosler.
The Nosler rep gave me a max load used with their 180 gr. Partition. I never did get better accuracy or speed out of my reloads.

I have no idea where firing 700 rounds out of a 300 RUM will wear out a barrel. First off firing 700 rounds out of a 300 RUM will probably were your retinas or shoulder out first. And I'm not sure what "wear out" means. Loss of a half minute of angle wouldn't necessarily mean a 300 RUM was a worthless worn out hunting rifle.