Barrel Heat

[CamoCop]

just a question. what is everyone's take on barrels getting too hot and ruining the barrel? i have heard heating up a barrel will ruin it and i have heard it won't. last time on the range i was shooting next to a guy with a Ruger .30-06. he must have shot 200 rounds threw it without letting it cool down for more than a few minutes every 30 rounds (just long enough to change paper). i asked him about his accuracy and getting the barrel too hot. his response was it's basically bs. he said he has been shooting that rifle for years that way and his groups have never loosened up. i did look at his paper and his groups were all within 2".

also how many times does a barrel get "too hot" before the damage is done?

[eldeguello]

ORIGINAL: CamoCop

just a question. what is everyone's take on barrels getting too hot and ruining the barrel? i have heard heating up a barrel will ruin it and i have heard it won't. last time on the range i was shooting next to a guy with a Ruger .30-06. he must have shot 200 rounds threw it without letting it cool down for more than a few minutes every 30 rounds (just long enough to change paper). i asked him about his accuracy and getting the barrel too hot. his response was it's basically bs. he said he has been shooting that rifle for years that way and his groups have never loosened up. i did look at his paper and his groups were all within 2".

also how many times does a barrel get "too hot" before the damage is done?

I have seen machineguns fired until the barrel got so hot that the rounds started "cooking off" just from the hot barrel. After cooling, the barrels still were within specs. However, the more "rapid" shooting one does with a hotbarrel, the fewer shots total that can be fired through that barrel before accuracy begins to deteriorate - in other words, overall barrel life measured in number of rounds will decrease. You will need a new barrel sooner. The larger the case capacity in relation to the size of the bore, the faster this will happen.

Bores are not worn away by bullets, they are eroded away by hot gasses which melt off a tiny bit of barrel steel on each shot, and blow it away. Thehotter the barrel is on the next shot, the more steel gets melted off. A barrel chambered for a case like the .308 Win.can have an acceptable accuracy life of close to 10,000 rounds (for military-style match shooting) if it is allowed to cool between shots. If it is fired as you describe, that can easily be cut in half!

[CamoCop]

i appreciate the quick response. it's just one of those things you always here different opinions on.

[alsaqr]

Several years ago i watched a man ruin his .300 Weatherby barrel overfouror five range sessions. His rifle had a cheap scope on it. He had killed an elk with that rifle and it's cheap scope at over 400 yards. He installeda new scope and did not boresight the rifle.He came to the range on his lunch hour and was pressed for time. He would shoot two or three boxes of Weatherby ammo through it each session. Accuracy got worse instead of better.

The guy would not heed any advice. Finally one of the other shooters suggested that he had ruined the barrel. This was confirmed when the man took his rifle to the local gunsmith.

[eldeguello]

ORIGINAL: alsaqr

Several years ago i watched a man ruin his .300 Weatherby barrel overfouror five range sessions. His rifle had a cheap scope on it. He had killed an elk with that rifle and it's cheap scope at over 400 yards. He installeda new scope and did not boresight the rifle.He came to the range on his lunch hour and was pressed for time. He would shoot two or three boxes of Weatherby ammo through it each session. Accuracy got worse instead of better.

The guy would not heed any advice. Finally one of the other shooters suggested that he had ruined the barrel. This was confirmed when the man took his rifle to the local gunsmith.

That's amazing! How many rounds total do you estimate he fired before he had the bore checked and found it was ruined??

(If he'd started out to zero his new scope with the target set at 25 yards, I'll bet he'd have been zeroed before thge barrel was ruined.... Guess that bore was "broken in" so well it was totally broken....)

[alsaqr]

"That's amazing! How many rounds total do you estimate he fired before he had the bore checked and found it was ruined??"

He fired at least eight or ten boxes of Weatherby brand .300 Weatherby. That was on the days that i went to the range. Perhaps he was there at other times also. Not sure about the condition of the barrel at the beginning of his attempt to sight in his rifle. Must have been in pretty good shape to hit an elk at over 400 yards.

That guy was a US Army Colonel and would not take advice from anyone. Never met aman likehim before.

[eldeguello]

ORIGINAL: alsaqr

"That's amazing! How many rounds total do you estimate he fired before he had the bore checked and found it was ruined??"

He fired at least eight or ten boxes of Weatherby brand .300 Weatherby. That was on the days that i went to the range. Perhaps he was there at other times also. Not sure about the condition of the barrel at the beginning of his attempt to sight in his rifle. Must have been in pretty good shape to hit an elk at over 400 yards.

That guy was a US Army Colonel and would not take advice from anyone. Never met aman likehim before.

I've met a few colonels who wouldn't take advice either! Most of them remained colonels! By far,MOST of the Army people I've dealt with were pretty ignorant when it comes to guns-all except the Ordnance people (other than the truck fixers).For example, I once had a sergeant INSIST that one click on a Lyman micrometer sight at 50 feet on the smallbore range was good for a 1" change in adjustment. It actually took around 16 clicks for one inch at 50 feet with that sight (on a .22 match rifle). He was of course, thinking of the M1, and at 100 yards, not 50 feet! When I proved him wrong, he got highly excited!