Barrel life on 308 Winchester

Camo

Camo

New member
I own a Remington 660 in 308 with the stock barrel on it, and was wondering how many shots I can run through it until its done. The rifling still looks pristine, and it cant have more than 400 shots through it. What do you guys think? And if anyone knows where I can buy a new barrel for it that would be great. You probably wont find anything on account of it being an old gun though.


Thanks guys
-Curt Keith
 
Have you shot it yet? And, if it shoots good, stick with it. My friend has about 1,500 rounds through his .308 win and it shoots just as accurately now as it did when he first bought it. The .308 win's lower velocity helps with barrel life.
 
Unless you are shooting competition or colony varmints with it, it would be extemely unlikely that you would ever shoot out a barrel.
 
I used that exact rifle and cartridge for years. Now my son uses it. What would you define as a burned out barrel? Not sure I would know. A friend in Mont years ago had a 264 win mag he got rid of because he though it was burned out. To him, it had opened up his groups from 1" to just over. Somebody got an awful good deal on a rifle that probally just needed the copper cleaned out good!
 
Rifleshooter magazine did a test on the HS Precision tactical rifle a few years back. They wanted to see how long the .308 barrel would last.

The rifle held 1/2 MOA average accuracy up until 5000 rounds, and by 7500 rounds it was running right at 3/4 MOA. This opened up to just under 1 MOA by 10,000 rounds.

Keep in mind that this was Winchester factory 168 grain match ammo. With handloads, the groups would probably tighten up even after 10K rounds.

So basically, you don't need to worry about wearing that .308 barrel out. It'll wear you out first. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Dan
 
Back when a lot of people shot the M1A in competition, most got 6-7000 rounds per barrel. And you have to remember that includes a lot of rapid fire stages where you are shooting 10 rounds in 60 seeconds.

Jack
 
I have a Rem 700 308 that I bought in 1977. It was my primary do everything gun for about 8 or 9 years. I know for a fact that it has over 8000 rounds through it. Just checked my logs. It was a 3/4 inch rifle in '77 and it will still stay under an inch today.
 
as stated above i suppose it depends on your accuracy requirement.

I should last at least 8,000 rnds and maintain MOA at 100 yards.

If you start shooting 2 and 3 and 4 inch groups at 100 almost immediately, I'd check all other components first before the barrel. Like scope being tight, different ammo, a cleaning needed, etc...
 
Test for accuracy. If your old loads are less accurate try seating the bullets out further tward the rifling. You will probably gain some more accuracy back seating out farther if you already had a good load.
 
I burned up a 700 30-06 barrel, close to 6000 roounds through it. I used it for hi power competition at the gunclub. Groups opened up to 2" so I had it rebarreled.

JD338
 
A 308 under similar use will last quite a bit longer than a 30-06. Same size hole but the 30-06 burns more powder. The bottom line is that the more powder you burn for bore size, the less barrel life you will get.

Barrels do not "wear out" they burn out.

Jack
 
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