Rifle life expectancy Qs

[Ughh]

Hi I was thinking about Ruger's new SR-556. Neat gun lots of Troy Industries, piston-driven operation, and Ruger's 'built like a tank' history. But it's expensive. If i invest around $1,500 into a gun I'm expecting to keep it forever until the whole thing falls apart, which is not likely. But what will go out eventually is the barrel right??

I've read somewhere that 5.56 rifle life expectancy is 20,000 - 30,000 rounds. About accurate?? So saying that, does different caliber affect barrel life (given it's the same barrel material/quality)? -- Well i'm assuming 5.56 is going to wear faster than a .22 lr rifle, but does 5.56 vs 7.62 vs 7.62 nato vs .30-'06, etc... make a difference?

Is this the only thing that will go out then--excluding some other rare problem?? So expect to replace the barrel eventually? I'm assuming the guts and everything else will last 2-3x longer than the barrel because of the beauty of piston-driven rifle... is this accurate assumption?

I welcome all knowledgeable expertise/opinion
Thnx
Andy

FYI: i've been shooting for just a year and i know it's unlikely that the average person will hit 20k-30k worth of rounds, but for the sake of knowledge, please advise

 

[TexasRifleman]

I've read somewhere that 5.56 rifle life expectancy is 20,000 - 30,000 rounds. About accurate??

No, that's not accurate, not generally speaking. There are Registered Receivers with hundreds of thousands of rounds through them and still running.

Barrel maybe at 10-12 thousand rounds, which is easily changed and a couple of hundred bucks.

Keep in mind also that at today's prices you are talking about $5,000 or so worth of ammo per barrel wear out.

The cost of the barrel fades to insignificance.

The "guts" should last a good bit longer than that outside of the random breakage which can happen to anything.

 

[Avenger29]

The cost of the rifle is the cheap part.

Is this the only thing that will go out then--excluding some other rare problem?? So expect to replace the barrel eventually? I'm assuming the guts and everything else will last 2-3x longer than the barrel because of the beauty of piston-driven rifle... is this accurate assumption?

That's a bad idea to assume that. A piston driven AR does not automatically mean more life expectancy or even reliability. And, to mention, you are buying a proprietary system, that only Ruger deals with. It's not a given...the claims of more reliability and longer life could very well only be marketing hype.

 

[CoRoMo]

I imagine that you'll probably have replaced a number of bolts, extractors, springs, charging handle etc. before you replace that first barrel.

 

[ny32182]

I agree with those who say that if you are shooting enough to break the rifle, the cost of rifle parts will be negligible compared to the ammo cost.

 

[Ughh]

I agree with those who say that if you are shooting enough to break the rifle, the cost of rifle parts will be negligible compared to the ammo cost.

Wow I never considered that when I began to think about this. The whole cost of ammo to rifle ratio.

Thnx Tex, you always seem to know everything.

 

[Ughh]

I imagine that you'll probably have replaced a number of bolts, extractors, springs, charging handle etc. before you replace that first barrel.

charging handle needing replacement? Is that likely??

 

[ny32182]

Not likely, but it could possibly happen...

If you just want to get a general "spare parts kit" (never a bad idea), get the following:

1) Lower receiver parts kit; about $75, has all the small parts in the lower (pins, springs, trigger parts, detents, etc)
2) Spare complete bolt carrier group (this will be unique to Ruger in the case of their piston gun, so you would have to source this from Ruger... they may not sell it, I don't know)

That should cover everything most likely to break or get lost.

Bolts and barrels, while being major components, are eventually going to become "wear item" replacements, but you'll need 5-10k rounds or more on each of those before they need to be replaced... and of course that means you would have fired an amount of ammo that costs well over the total original cost of the rifle by that time.

My advice is to get the common spare parts above, and spend the rest on mags and ammo. If/when you need to replace a component, you will just have to replace a component. You'll do it, and life will go on.

 

[T.A.Sharps]

I don't think you need any spare parts. Or need to worry about barrel wear.

If there is a failure with the parts of the rifle, chances are it would be something easily, and cheaply replaced. You can get a whole slew of spare parts, but I would imagine they would get shuffled and lost before you would need any.

If your rifle broke right after you got it you should send it back.

Also, chances are by the time you really wear out the barrel of a rifle you will be ready for a change, such as a new or better rifle, or just a new barrel for a few hundred $, and you would most likely be getting a superior barrel to replace it.

If you start shooting thousands of rounds a week the wear might be something to be concerned about for the future.

If I were hand loading for say a Ruger No. 1 chambered for 45/70, I might be concerned about higher pressure loads wearing out my barrel faster. Commercial loads are kept very low because of all the old 45/70's around. However there are 2 more higher levels of pressure better this gun can withstand. The higher pressures would also wear on a barrel more it will and loose accuracy sooner.

 

[chevyforlife21]

problem is, its gonna cost you $45,000 in ammo before the barrel might wear out

 

[Brimic]

I've read somewhere that 5.56 rifle life expectancy is 20,000 - 30,000 rounds. About accurate?? So saying that, does different caliber affect barrel life (given it's the same barrel material/quality)? -- Well i'm assuming 5.56 is going to wear faster than a .22 lr rifle, but does 5.56 vs 7.62 vs 7.62 nato vs .30-'06, etc... make a difference?

Accurate: no- if you are talking about match grade accuracy, AR barrels last about 5000 rounds before thye crap out, some chrome lined Colt barrels last a few thousand rounds more. I'm not sure about the stresses put on a piston operated bolt, but with DI systems you want to replace the bolt at 10K rounds (i'm assuming a piston system is going to be gentler), and might as well do the barrel at the same time.

Wear rate: In general, the more powder you burn, the faster the throat burs out of a barrel. (smaller bores with large case capacity tend to wear out much faster).

As others said, when you start wearing out barrels and other parts, ammo is going to be your major cost.

 

[Hatterasguy]

If Ruger nitride coats them insted of chrome I would expect 15k-30k rounds of life out of the barrel. Thats what Sig expects out of theirs.

The problem is that ammo is so pricey these days, replacing parts on the gun is the cheap part. Barrels are not that expensive, your going to spend $10k on ammo to wear our a few hundred dollar barrel.

 

[briansmithwins]

Small bore, high velocity cartridges eat the throats out of barrels.

5.56 is cartridge that's harsh on barrels. With heavy use full auto the throat can go at 5k rounds. Easy, semi-auto use where the barrel doesn't get as hot can see 20-30k rounds before the throat is eroded out. Chrome lining helps as hardchrome is more resistant to the heat and erosive effects of burning powder.

As far as other parts go: ARs are know for breaking bolts. They either break a lug off or they fracture at the cam pin hole. AR bolts are highly stressed and they just fail eventually.

I'm just not sold on the whole gas piston retrofit concept. I'm not convinced that it solves any problems and it has the potential to create new ones. You're also locked into a proprietary design that may not be supported in 10-15 years.

Ask the Rhino conversion guys where they get parts from.

BSW

 

[navyretired 1]

Most of the barrel life's mentioned in this post is based on full auto wear. A full auto barrel wears that fast as the throat is really abused getting 11-1200 degrees F were as semi allows a few milsec's for cooling. I have a used M-16 skinny barrel which I don't know what origanal round count was but bore errosion gage was 1 1/2 - 2. I've put couple thousand through it and bore errosion is right at 2. BTW Sarco sells milspec bore errosion gages cheep giving a good relative check on wear.

 

[ny32182]

I'm not sufficiently sold on the overall implementation of piston ARs as they exist today either, (not enough to buy one at MSRP at least) but I think it is pretty safe to assume that the bolt itself can last longer than the bolt in a DI due to the considerably lower level of heat it is going to see in any kind of extended shooting. That is the one piece of the concept I do fully buy in on. You won't get the hot gas dump straight on the rear part of the bolt with a piston.