Keep in mind these were heavy barreld varmint rigs. When a varmint rig will not keep groups under 1/2" and consistantly open up to 3/4" -1" groups, and you know the loads, brass, etc. are correct, then it time to supsect and inspect the barrel, or throat is gone away a tad to be exact. This can be expected any time after 4,000 rounds. When the throat starts to go away, I put in a fresh barrel. Yes, we do shoot them that much. I go through approximately 8,000-10,000 of various rifle rounds a year, just myself.

The steel of old Douglas barrels, of the 60' s, 70' s, even the 80' s, were on soft side, too soft in my opinion. They were just to soft to give any kind of long term barrel life. Reamers and cutting tools would go through them like a hot knife through warm butter. That is why I don' t and won' t use Douglas barrels anymore. Anyway, those old Douglas barrels have made many good muzzle brakes. A couple of our better old 6x284 barrels have had 2" of the chamber end cut off, re-threaded and re-chambered in .240 Gibbs. This cleaned up the old chamber, the old threads, and got back to fresh lands.