I have talked to several serious Bullseye shooters who also shot revolvers. One, his customized K frame S&W, his 38 Special barrel was still shooting two inch groups at 50 yards with 600,000 rounds through it. The loads he used were 148 LSWC with 2.7 grains Bullseye. This guy had won multiple PPC championships with this K frame S&W. The other shooter had around 250,000 rounds through his S&W K frame revolver. Both said extractor stars wore at some point, their revolvers lost their timing, and they had to send their pistols back to S&W. I think cylinder hands also wore. One guy had a S&W hammer mounted firing pin break. I assume they replaced springs along the way. I was told that Colt revolvers were very rare in PPC as they got out of tune much earlier than the S&W. It had to do with the timing of the lockup. Colts locked up during hammer fall, S&W’s locked up before hammer fall. Colts were much more sensitive to wear in the cylinder hand and extractor star. The PPC champ said that rebarreling a S&W with a Colt barrel was fairly common as the Colt barrels were tighter and shot more accurately. He called the conversions “Smoults”.
The PPC champ had shot a competition where "major" loads were required and had cracked the forcing cone of a K frame barrel. I never asked, but I expect he was shooting easily a 1000 rounds a week in practice, probably more. He is so good he still gets free ammunition.
Barrels are going to wear out with jacketed bullets. I have no idea of the fatigue life of a barrel, they are a pressure vessel, I expect at some point they will rupture. A low pressure cartridge such as a 45 ACP I expect the barrel will never fatigue rupture before the rifling is worn smooth. Same for a 357 Magnum barrel fired with 38 Special loads. However, I am aware of a shooter who had a vintage 30-06 barrel rebored to 35 Whelen. The rifle barrel had gone through its normal service life, was old steel, and yet the barrel was enlarged internally, loosing about 3 ounces going from 30 cal to 35 cal, making it weaker. The shooter fired one factory 35 Whelen round and the barrel burst. The owner is mad at the barrel maker and posted this on social media. The barrel maker blames the owner and ammunition, the owner blames the barrel maker. My advice: never rebore a barrel that has been shot out. Unless you like loosing fingers, eyeballs, and maybe want a hole in the head.
I asked the AMU shooters shooting Bullseye pistol, with their 185 JHP they shot out a 45 ACP barrel in about 3 years. They were shooting around 7500 rounds of 45 ACP per month, and, probably the same 22 lr, 9mm and rifle ammunition. The amount of ammo these guys shoot is beyond comprehension. The service teams also have full time Armorer's because things break.
