Useful life of a gun barrell

9100 · Feb 12, 2015

In a discussion of the design lives of things like lawn mowers, someone commented that the useful life of navel guns is only seconds. They spend decades sitting in turrets intimidating people, but the actual working time, when a projectile is traveling up the bore, is very short. In shoulder held firearms, if you have a rifle with a 24" barrel, a muzzle velocity of 2000 FPS, and assume constant acceleration, the bullet would only spend 2 milliseconds traveling in the bore. Since acceleration is not constant but falls off near the muzzle, the actual time is less than that. That implies a use of less than 1 second per 500 shots. Divide the number of rounds before the barrel is shot out by 500 and you get working life in seconds. That of short guns is even less, even with their lower velocities.

Bill

Scottl · Feb 12, 2015

I wonder if anyone has ever calculated the useful life (in seconds or minutes) of a black powder muzzle loader. I'm thinking traditional patched ball, not a modern inline.

paracongo308 · Feb 12, 2015

Depends on cartridge and what your expectations of accuracy is. A Anschutz match 22 rimfire rifle can easily last 50,000 to 100,000 rounds. A juiced up 220 swift maybe 600 rounds.

akajun · Feb 12, 2015

Scottl said:
I wonder if anyone has ever calculated the useful life (in seconds or minutes) of a black powder muzzle loader. I'm thinking traditional patched ball, not a modern inline.

It has, it's been estimated 3-5 seconds, depending on caliber , powder, etc.

paracongo308 said:
Depends on cartridge and what your expectations of accuracy is. A Anschutz match 22 rimfire rifle can easily last 50,000 to 100,000 rounds. A juiced up 220 swift maybe 600 rounds.

This, I gor about 2500-3000 rds from my m1a barrels shooting in competition before I notuced off call shots. I got about 7500 rds from a Douglas ar barrel before it gave up the ghost.
As for .22 anschutz I have a 54 needing a rebarrel that has an honest 100,000 rds through it, it shoots ok, but will give flyers into the 8 ring , you will never win with it.

Scottl · Feb 12, 2015

Scottl said:
I wonder if anyone has ever calculated the useful life (in seconds or minutes) of a black powder muzzle loader. I'm thinking traditional patched ball, not a modern inline.

akajun said:
It has, it's been estimated 3-5 seconds, depending on caliber , powder, etc.

I'm going to have some fun with that one. "Wow, a couple grand for a custom flintlock that wears out in a few seconds!"

GGaskill · Feb 12, 2015

I would imagine that black powder barrels would have a longer life, assuming the wear is only from shooting and not bad cleaning practices, because the pressure/temperature of firing is significantly less than a smokeless barrel.

akajun · Feb 12, 2015

Not really, remember they are loaded with a wooden or iron stick, and must be cleaned after every shooting session. I've always believed more barrels are worn out with cleaning rods than shooting .
However I have also read that old Appalachian gunsmiths would " freshen" the bores of long rifles as the mild steel/ iron they made barrels from did not last long. They would ream and re cut the rifling every so often, how often I don't know.

Butch Lambert · Feb 12, 2015

akajun said:
Not really, remember they are loaded with a wooden or iron stick, and must be cleaned after every shooting session. I've always believed more barrels are worn out with cleaning rods than shooting .
However I have also read that old Appalachian gunsmiths would " freshen" the bores of long rifles as the mild steel/ iron they made barrels from did not last long. They would ream and re cut the rifling every so often, how often I don't know.

So they made their bullets larger in diameter each time they freshened them or did the bullets rattle down the bore?

paracongo308 · Feb 12, 2015

The bullet will rattle down the barrel without the patch, a example is a 50 cal with a .500 bore and the rifling at least on my 50 is .016 deep per side. I use a .490 ball and .018 patch. Way back then when they recut the bore & rifling they would make a new ball mold to suit the bore.

9100 · Feb 12, 2015

Freshing out was common. I have heard it claimed that soft cleaning rods did more damage than shooting because they picked up grit. I don't know how abrasive cloth patches are. Some things are much more than you might expect. In one of my incarnations I was involved in developing drafting pens. Paper is amazingly abrasive. We experimented with glass capillary tubes for pen tips and found that they quickly wore at an angle. You need something like hard chromium or ruby.

The soot from black powder probably doesn't help.

Bill

paracongo308 · Feb 12, 2015

I have well over 1,000 shots on my 50 cal. Hawken with no noticeable wear that can be felt ramming the patch & ball down. I use a 5/16" brass range rod for ramming.

jakefreese · Feb 13, 2015

It widely varies. My ftr barrel has almost 2000 rounds of 308 down it and still shoots match quality. My fast twist 22-250 is approaching 1000 and accuracy is suffering, I will set that one back soon and hopefully get another 1000 out of it, but 500 is more likely. I just need minute of varmint out of it...... Now the 22x55 Swede I had built only got about 500 out of it, but what do you expect from 55 grain bullets at 4000fps....

akajun · Feb 13, 2015

paracongo308 said:
I have well over 1,000 shots on my 50 cal. Hawken with no noticeable wear that can be felt ramming the patch & ball down. I use a 5/16" brass range rod for ramming.

It also has a modern steel barrel, probably 4140, old barrels were basically soft iron/ mild steel

paracongo308 · Feb 13, 2015

It's not 4140 the barrel was made by Sharon back in the late 70's and is made of 12L14 (leadloy). Not much stronger then the low grade steels they used in the 1850's-60's. Most rifles back then used steel/iron ramrods which did wear the bores, but rifles like the Hawken's used wooden rods.

GGaskill · Feb 13, 2015

... what do you expect from 55 grain bullets at 4000fps....

And how many grains of powder? :-)

keydiverfla · Feb 13, 2015

I just put all my guns online for sale as "wore out". Some I have had more than a few seconds. What a dissapointment on my end

Now back to your regulerary scheduled programming

sealark37 · Feb 13, 2015

The only parameters that matter are the number of rounds fired and the accuracy of those fired. The actual elapsed time of projectiles in the barrel is a curiosity at best. Regards, Clark

Spyderedge · Feb 13, 2015

As a serious smallbore/air 3p shooter, from my observations a barrel will last years upon years for the average competitor. My barrel has seen thousands of rounds, and I expect it to last several years before I have to replace it.

On the flip side, Matt Emmons shoots his Annie 2013 so much at the Olympic Training Center (Tenex supplied free) he gets a new barrel annually because accuracy starts to drop. But he shoots a Bleiker now, so that's never going to be an issue anymore

(Shooters joke....)

It all depends on how clean the ammo is, corrosive priming compound, barrel quality, and honestly if you can notice it or not. If your shooting great scores with an old barrel, keep it.

9100 · Feb 13, 2015

sealark37 said:
The only parameters that matter are the number of rounds fired and the accuracy of those fired. The actual elapsed time of projectiles in the barrel is a curiosity at best. Regards, Clark

True, it's just another of those useless facts to go in a book along with how long flying squirrels copulate.

Bill

jakefreese · Feb 14, 2015

GGaskill said:
... what do you expect from 55 grain bullets at 4000fps....

And how many grains of powder? :-)

Only like 45 grains of VARGET...... I did get them faster but couldn't keep the jackets on them at that point. Bullet drop what bullet drop?

Useful life of a gun barrell

Diamond

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Titanium

Stainless

Titanium

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Diamond

Banned

Hot Rolled

Stainless

Banned

Titanium

Cast Iron

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Diamond

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