Typical Barrel Life

[mmike87]

With an otherwise "stock" Remington 700 Police in .223 - what sort of barrel life should I expect from the factory barrel before accuracy starts to decline noticeably?

 

[NMshooter]

Probably 5000 rounds, that seems to be standard for .223.

Should still be shootable to around 10K or so.

 

[mmike87]

I had read a couple of posts claiming to toss the factory barrel at 1000 rounds and I thought that was a little ridiculous.

 

[NMshooter]

1000 rounds sounds more like .220 Swift.

Keep in mind that accuracy will degrade as you pass the 5K mark, but rebarreling is much cheaper than the cost of the ammo needed to get to that point.

It is fun wearing them out, too.

 

[mmike87]

The weather has sucked - I have not even had a chance to shoot it yet. I look forward to wearing it out. I topped it with a Zeiss 4.5-14x44 scope that I got a heck of a price on at E-Bay, NIB.

 

[1911 guy]

Twist rate?

My Rem. 700 has a 1:12 twist rate. Varmint rifle, obviously. If your rifle has a slow twist, also, it should last a little longer than say a 1:7 found in the M-4's

 

[mmike87]

My 700P has a 1/9 twist.

 

[30Cal]

You'll probably start to lose the razor's edge of accuracy at 4-6000 rounds, but it should still shoot very well out to about 8-10,000 before it really starts to take a dump.

Ty

 

[TABING]

If you reload and keep velocities down a bit, it should last longer than if you're shooting maximum velicities. I've found that 55gr. SP or HP @ 2500-2800 FPS kills Jackrabbits, coyotes etc. just as dead as @ 3200 FPS.

 

[NMshooter]

1/9 in a bolt gun, especially with a 24" or longer barrel means that with hot loads you may get good results with the heaver bullets, like the 75-80 grain stuff.

Will work well with the 69 gr. SMK and similar stuff, there are some interesting 60-64 grain bonded soft points and partition rounds out there too.

Hope you have a lot of fun with it!

 

[mmike87]

1/9 in a bolt gun, especially with a 24" or longer barrel means that with hot loads you may get good results with the heaver bullets, like the 75-80 grain stuff.

Will work well with the 69 gr. SMK and similar stuff, there are some interesting 60-64 grain bonded soft points and partition rounds out there too.

Hope you have a lot of fun with it!

1/9 twist in a 26" barrel.