Barrel life span?

[Quickbeam]

What do you guys think is the approximate lifespan of a gun barrel, excluding manufacturing defects and inappropriate ammo. With regular cleaning/oiling, of course.

Do you think this length of time might be affected by the duration of each shooting session, or purely round count? Like, will a hot gun be less affected by the stress of a fired round or more stressed?

I find that as I enjoy shooting more and more, I am afraid of wearing out my new(ish) Beretta.

[CessnaDriver]

My guess is I think it's more about what you consider the accuracy necessary to be considered still useful over time.

It could degrade but to such a degree it's not a big deal.

How often do barrels truly fail from use?

Someone slap me into reality on this.

[Quickbeam]

I am sure you are right that as the bore wears down incrementally, the accuracy would drop off. To be more pointed, I suppose my question is this, how long does it take for the accuracy to degrade to the point where it becomes a reliability issue?

[Splinter]

Handguns have an insane lifespan. Rifle barrels that are cleaned regularly and shoot screaming rounds will degrade much sooner. I have seen range guns with 100k rounds through them still shooting fantastic. Dont think you will be hitting that anytime soon.

[sammy]

You will not wear out the barrel. The frame will wear out quicker than the barrel. The highest roun count gun I own is a 1911 with about 16,000 rounds. Still super accurate, never had to replace a part except the springs. sammy

[Dark Mod]

Lifespan in round count is probably well over 100k rounds. Im sure some of the berettas we used for training in the Corps had well over 300k. At 25 yards i doubt you will notice any innacuracy even if it is present. Most people will not shoot 100k rounds out of a gun in their lifetime.

If your shooting 9mm your gonna spend at LEAST $20,000 in ammo before you the barrel needs to be replaced. Plan on a replacement barrel costing about $300.

or to put it another way, 100 rounds at the range every single week will take you just over 19 years to wear out the barrell (could even be twice or three times that).

Just shoot the hell out of your gun, its meant to be enjoyed, the barrel wearing out is probably one of the last things you should worry about as a shooter.

[MongooseV8]

You simply cant afford enough ammo to wear out a barrel.

And if you could, the cost would outweigh that of the firearm itself by many times

[Mr. Beretta]

My 1985 Beretta 92F barrel has at least 100,000 rds. down the tube.

Shoots good as ever.

[oghl888]

quality of steel used to make the barrel matters a lot
temperature (operating) matters a lot, a barrel under rapid fire wears much faster
ammo type matters a lot, hot ammo/weak ammo, hard jacket/soft lead, etc. a 357 sig barrel will endure less rounds than a 45ACP in general, for example.
type of powder matters a lot, corrosive vs. non corrosive

It is not possible to generically say that a barrel will last x number of rounds. However, I do agree with the concept that if you can wear out a barrel, the replacement cost shouldn't matter because range time/ammo cost will dorf the barrel replacement cost.

[diving_tbd]

I owned a Beretta with over 30,000 rounds on it (I bought it new), and it was still going fine when I sold it. In the Air Force, we had range guns for training that had something like 3 to 4 times what I put on my own.

You will wear out before the guns does.

[Quickbeam]

Good to know, thanks everyone!

[9mmepiphany]

I suppose my question is this, how long does it take for the accuracy to degrade to the point where it becomes a reliability issue?

This doesn't quite track for me, but it might just be me. How would degrading accuracy of a barrel affect it's reliability?

Did you mean, how many rounds would it take to make the accuracy unacceptable to reliably hit a target?

I think what you'll have to define what you consider acceptable accuracy. If the gun used to shoot 1.5",at 50 yards, when new, I wouldn't be too concerned if it degraded to 2" at that distance. But I'd be a lot more concerned it it opened up to 3"...which would be double what it started at.

My minimum acceptable accuracy would be 4" at 50 yards...but there are guns that won't do this when new

[ParanoidCivilian]

I believe a novice shooter can expect a barrel to last at least a lifetime give or take a year.

[rdmmdr]

Real hot rifle rounds will kill a match barrel in a couple of thousand in a 243. I have shoot out varment barrels in a summer. but most are still good for deer up to the 4000 count but after I hit 3 inch groups it is time to change. Backing off on the rounds helps alot and letting the barrels cool between strings. besided you can always rebarrel with a 308 and then never have to worry about the barrel again.

[SuperSet]

Glock barrel going TU:

http://www.kyledefoor.com/2011/04/shot-out-glock-barrels.html?m=1