How long to wear out a 22 rimfire?

W

Woodrow

New member
The specific rifle in question is a heavy barreled (26") bolt action 22 rimfire. Roughly how many rounds would it take to wear a barrel out assuming the rifle is well taken care of and hasn't been abused?

Obviously there are many factors to consider, so all I can expect is a rough guesstimate. Thanks!
 
I shot an Anschutz 1807 for several years in smallbore competition that my brother used previously. He won the state junior championship with that rifle. He got it used from a previous state champion winner, who got it from another state champion winner. Conservatively we figured there was over a half million rounds fired through that gun and it still puts them through the same hole off a bench. That rifle was carefully cleaned after just about every match. Most .22s are damaged by never being cleaned (which allows the fouling, & dirt to absorb moisture, etc) or being improperly cleaned, or improperly stored. They rarely are "worn out" from shooting them.
 
Poor cleaning techniques will wear out a 22lr before shooting the barrel out.

To be honest, I've never seen or heard of anyone shooting out the barrel of a 22lr.

If there is I'd like to know how many rounds were fired before the barrel went. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
If I ever wear out a 22LR barrel I'll let you know /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif . I've worn a couple Marlin actions until they were so sloppy that it affected accuracy, but to my knowledge I've never worn out a 22LR barrel.

The easiest ways to wear out a 22LR is from improper and/or overzealous use of a cleaning rod, or carrying around ammo in a dirty pocket and then shooting the dirt, leaf, and lint covered bullets down the barrel.

To wear out a bolt action 22LR's barrel just from shooting, I figure you'd be well into the hundreds of thousands of rounds.
 
Art Cooke, the old Olympic gold medal winner, wore out a 22LR barrel in about 2 million rounds. However he was able to reuse it by cutting an inch of the muzzle and 2 inches off the chamber end. With a new chamber and crown it shoots as well as ever.

I don't know how exact the 2 million figure is but Art said he was sure it was close.

Jack
 
I read somewhere, don't know where or when, that the negative effects of cleaning a 22LR are more damaging than to just keep shooting it.
 
I heard the same thing about cleaning .22 RF barrel wears it out more than shooting it. The Lubaloy coating on the bullet actually protects the barrel from rust. How true is that, I have no idea, but I know my old Marlin had at least 10,000 rounds through it the last 30 years and I could not tell if there is any wear to it. It still shoot just as good as when it was new 30 years ago.

Howard
 
Most production 22 barrels need cleaning because they are not real good quality and have rough spots which can cause leading. High velocity ammo can also cause leading. Top end match barrels shooting match ammo do not need to be cleaned. A lot of people, even top competitors do clean but Art Cooke does not clean his match rifles. He cleans the actions and chambers but never the barrels. It works for him because he has won an awfull lot of matches over the last 60 years. He did lots of testing and claims that it takes about 100 rounds to restore top accuracy to a 22 barrel after cleaning. And if a brass brush is used many times that.

He talked me into not cleaning my match 22s about 20 years ago and none have been cleaned since. They are all at least as accurate as they were 20 years ago.

Jack
 
I don't know about wearing one out, I have an 80+ year old Remington M24 that still shoots pretty good, it was made in the early '20s, and is a .22 short gallery gun, and apparently was shot pretty hard, since they were made for shooting galleries! It still putters along pretty well, but the magazine spring is weak, and it usually gags on the last shot. They hold up pretty well, since they use pure lead for the bullets, and that's a lot easier than any jacketed bullet, on the barrels.
 
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