Questions regarding barrel life

Kermit

Kermit

New member
I've been considering buying another rifle. I plan to use the rifle to shoot prairie dogs, coyotes, bob cat, but also would like it to be capable of handling antelope and white tail deer. The calibers I'm considering are the .243, the .257 Roberts, and the .25-06. I handload so factory ammo isn't that big a concern. I've heard that the barrel life of the .243 is short...maybe only 1000 rounds. That seems pretty short if a person was going to use the rifle for varmints mainly. On a prairie dog shoot I go through several hundred rounds in a weekend. I'd hate to buy a new .243 and have to have it rebarreled in just a couple of years. I'd appreciate any advice or opinions on barrel life of these calibers, and which you think would be the best and provide the best service life. I've been wondering if the .257 Roberts would be a good compromise, but I'd like to hear from others. Thanks. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
You are expecting quite a bit from the calibers you are suggesting. They will all kill deer sized game. It's the Varmint hunting, especially PD shooting that will kill your barrel. The 257 is probably your best bet, but even the 257 won't last long in the prairie dog fields and it will tear the heck out of a fine bobcat hide.
 
Boy what a tough question. It seems like your planning on doing some PD hunting and that can be a barrel killer if you put several thousand rounds a season downrange.

I do believe that given good barrel care and not letting your barrel get to hot it will last well more than a thousand rounds. I've got one 243 with an excess of 2800 rounds that's showing no signs of loosing accuracy yet.

It's really not the amount of rounds, but how hot you get a barrel that kills them given good cleaning procedures. I'm not saying that you won't wear out a barrel, but for PD shooting you'd be better off with something in the 204 Ruger,223, or 22-250 class.

One thing you might give thought to is getting a Savage in 22-250 then getting a 308 Barrel from Midway along with a barrel nut wrench, barrel vice and a go headspace gauge for each cartridge. It takes about 15 minutes to switch out barrels. That would answer your problem of having a coyote/squirrel gun and a deer/elk gun on one action and stock at a reasonable cost. I think Midway had barrels for between 130 and a 160 bucks.

I'd be glad to send you the directions from Brownell's web site on how to change out barrels if you'd like to see how easy it is.
 
I went to wallyworld today and saw some savage package guns for $350. unfortunatley they were 30/06, 243 and 7mm. The guy behind the counter said that they could not even order this package gun in a 223????? Anyone see and 223 savage guns at there local wallyworld???
 
243 would not be a PD rifle in my book but the short barrel life is with the fast twist barrels shoot matches. Bullets for the 243 will be expensive as compared to .22 cal bullets as well.
 
I probably should've added in my post that I already have other rifles in .204, .222, and .17HMR that I use for prairie dogs and varmints. I thought (wrongly perhaps) that might be a good idea for the rifle I'm looking at purchasing to be able to do double duty. The new rifle wouldn't do a tremendous amount of prairie doggin' but might get a couple hundred rounds a year put through it. Some friends and I are looking into going on an antelope hunt in Montanna. I may also try my hand at a white tail here at home. I don't own a deer or antelope rifle and so was hoping for one that could do double duty if needed. Don't know if that made my thoughts any more clear or not.
 
I'd realy look at a Savage in 7mm-08. For deer and antalope it would be perfect and you could get a 22-250 or 243 barrel from a take off or from Midway for under $150 and change out barrels that you wear out.

I'm using a Savage 11 in 223 for predators with a extra barrel in 25-204 for deer hunting. I hope to getting a Savage in 7mm-08 and do the same thing.

AWS
 
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If you are only going to shoot a couple hundred rounds a year, don't worry about barrel life. It will last a long time.

Jack



I agree with Jack. My .243 is a dedicated gun that I have had for about 20 years. Still shoots .5 with the 80grn. bullets. Just won't shoot the super lights 55-58 grns. But now with the 3 others it gets rotated out and really only comes out on the long dogs. It will be a project to rebarrel in the next year or so. I bought it used 20 years ago for $350. Not bad, 20 years use out of a used .243. Sounds like you would probably be safe with your plans, I think you would get a lot of years use before you had to do anything. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
the number of rounds a year has nothing to do with it. IF,...IF,...IF you keep the barrel/throat cool and do not overheat them, then the general rule is this:......

40lbs of powder will usually do in the barrel.

therefore, the more powder a round burns relative to bore dia, the sooner it will erode. I.E. 7mm rem mag will erode before a 280rem,..given that both are a similar bore dia,..but one is burning more powder in the bore. Take your charge weight in gr's, then figure how many you will get from a pound (7000grs) then multiply that number of rounds by 40 (40lbs) and you will have a rough idea of the number of rounds before enough erosion takes place to degrade accuracy below acceptable levels.

if you shoot them hot enough to brand cattle,...you can easily do decades of damage in only 1 afternoon.

keep them cool,..and keep them clean.
 
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buy the 243 package and get a 223 barrel.



This is the best idea so far.



Wouldn't that also require 2 different bolts as well since they both use 2 different bolt faces? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
 
Bolt faces are able to be changed out on Savage bolts.
Neat package idea.
A whole bolt cost was a bit less than $100 last time I checked so if you were going to change it out more than once a year a second bolt assembly would probably make more sense.

On the original question, you would probably be better off getting a rifle for things other than prairie dogs since you already have a couple of useful dog rigs. Once you do that, your options open up quite a bit.
 
After reading the replies, and some thought I think that I probably do have the smaller varmint type calibers covered fairly well. I'm leaning very heavy toward going with a rifle chambered for the .257 Roberts. It seems like an interesting round, and should suit my needs pretty well.
 


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