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.22LR VS .223 barrel life?

2.5K views 17 replies 13 participants last post by  Acer Ace  
#1 ·
Please post both, ball parks OK.
.22 is a Marlin 925
.223 is a H&R handirifle with heavy barrel

Thanks so much
 
#7 · (Edited)
Instead of looking at it in terms of "rounds per barrels", think of it in terms of "dollars per barrel"........

At 2 cents per round vs. 25 cents per round for .223, your 22LR has to last 10 times as long to be equivalent in $-per-barrel.

While we're on the subject of cost.....
Some people have shot a Million or more rounds through their .22's........
Where do you get that number? Do you realize that someone would have to spend 20,000 dollars to do this?! cheap ammo in today's dollars.

They would also have to shoot a box of ammo every day for about 60 years.

I don't believe anyone on this board has fired a million rounds through a single barrel. http://rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=165364 Especially since, if you're that into shooting, you probably own more than one gun.
 
#3 ·
As far as your concerned, forever. Your .22 firing soft lead bullets will outlast you. As for your NEF, they do burn hot, and an afternoon on a prairiedog town will heat up the barrel. Keep doing that, without cleaning the copper will burn out the throat and eventualy wear down the rifling. But I'm willing to bet you'll never put your rifle through that abuse. Besides, I owned a model 70 Varmint in .243 that I loaded 55 grain bullets close to 4000 fps. That barrel was worn out, but it didn't know it. It put 9 out of 10 shots into one nice hole. Keep them clean and you'll never have to worry about wearing out the rifling. On the NEF, you may notice over time the hinge pin becoming looser, but it's not a big deal. My buddies .243 has done it for years, and he still hasn't lost an eye.
 
#4 ·
Centerfires are much harder on barrels than .22s. Hard copper jacket @ 3000+fps vs soft lead @ 1200fps makes a big difference.

I say (just a guestimate) your .22LR shoud be good for let's say 100K-300K rounds before appreciable loss of accuracy.

Your .223 is probably good for about maybe 10-15K before drop off in accuracy. It should still be shootable, but only time will tell. On a single shot rifle like yours, it may be 30-50 years before you reach those kinds of numbers....:D
 
#5 ·
Actual barrel wear is generally not the problem with "wearing out" a barrel, it's throat errosion. This is a function of pressure... the higher the chamber pressure, the faster the errosion. When someone, usually a BR shooter or varmint hunter that shoots thousands of rounds a year, says he shot out his barrel, it's the throat that is bad. From what I've seen, a .223 is not in the catagory of rifles that is really hard on barrels.... yes, you could wear one out shooting really hot handloads, but we're talking several thousand rounds. Some older .22 rifles have throat errosion from old corrosive ammo, but you don't hear of it with todays ammo. I don't know if you could shoot enough .22 ammo in a lifetime to "wear out" a .22LR barrel.
 
#8 ·
I wont say a million rounds, litteraly. But doing the math, we can expend two bricks of ammo each, in a weekend during the spring from april through june. That works out to about 12000 rounds, fired in the feild, each spring, not including trips to the range. That's still alot of shooting, and I'll never worry about burning out a barrel in my .22.
 
#10 ·
barrel life

We all hope we shoot enough to wear out a barrel, but I don't think many of us ever do.

You can read alot of opinions on this, but alot of people think the biggest risk to a 22 bore is over cleaning it.

In the centerbore, you can wear out a barrel in a few thousand rounds if you shoot high velocities in larger capacity cases, e.g. 22-250's and 220 swifts. If you shoot a 223 with factory ammo or keep the reloads at a reasonable speed (35-3600 fps), you should be fine.
 
#12 ·
Is the cooling of the barrel between shots with a cf to protect the metal of the bore or to reduce the deposits from the bullet in the bore?
It is to protect the metal of the bore. Just think of how much easier it is to 'work' metal when it is hot.

I allow my centerfires to cool before they get hot. I have roughly 150~200 rounds through my 220 Swift and it still looks pristine. As good as NIB.

The exception is my 5.56 chambered AR15. I shoot the heck out of it, as fast as I want. But the bore is chrome lined and I don't expect match accuracy out of it anyway.
 
#18 ·
While we're on the subject of cost.....
Where do you get that number? Do you realize that someone would have to spend 20,000 dollars to do this?! cheap ammo in today's dollars.

They would also have to shoot a box of ammo every day for about 60 years.

I don't believe anyone on this board has fired a million rounds through a single barrel. http://rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=165364 Especially since, if you're that into shooting, you probably own more than one gun.
I recall reading that in a gun magazine some years ago (Shooting Times or Guns and Ammo?) about Anschutz rifles at the Eley ammunition plant used for quality control testing of ammunition that have had a million rounds down their barrels over several decades of use. Apparently the rifles were still turning in good groups despite the number of rounds down the barrel.