Barrell burner?

[thegiff]

4 or so inches. After that the barrel looked like this.



My load started off at 42.7 gr H4831SC and 2950fps. Then I upped it to 44.0gr H4831SC and 3150 but the velocity would drop really fast, I'd lose 50fps in 100 rounds then it would stabilize around 3100. This was with sierra 107 gr match kings. I chased the lands the whole time, and eventually switched to Berger 105 hybrids for a little while, but started printing 1" groups with them when I couldn't chase the lands anymore (magazine fed). So I switched back to the Sierras.

I forgot to mention, I ran it for 2600 rounds, but it was throwing fliers before that.

[JMP]

thegiff, if you do the same thing, I'd like to see how your 6CD compares when it is ready to be retired. The nice thing about 6mm barrels is that you can always find a good replacement in 1.25" blanks, so I think it generally pulls in an unwarranted amount of concern. What makes a big difference in cost is whether or not you are installing a brake. On big heavy rifles with big heavy barrels, a brake isn't necessarily needed on 6 shorts. That saves over $100 in gunsmithing costs. If you are shooting for a high degree of precision, the ammo will not be cheap, and it doesn't really make sense to continue to use a barrel that is yielding sub par results.

This is one of the reasons that I do not recommend 6mm shorts for novice shooters. You should generally rebarrel after about 1,500 rounds (I may be conservative). Therefore, it's best to be efficient in your load development and have the same reamer used when you rebarrel. You do not want to use 30% of your barrel trying to work up a load. You should be able to do this in fewer than 50 or 100 rounds. This is why the 308 Win is a very solid choice for novice shooters.

If you do like to tinker a lot with your loads and cannot live with a 308 Winchester, then go to a 7mm-08, 6.5 Short, or a 6BR as those should last longer.

[killshot44]

No doubt about it. Buying your own reamer and using the same bore/twist and barrel maker eliminates most load development time and cost, making barrel replacements less expensive in the long run.

Mine go +-1,300 before they won't hold the X-ring and become useless to me.

1,300 Berger/VaporTrails cost much more than a new barrel, anyway.

As soon as a new one goes on, order the next one.
Don't get attached, they won't love you back....

I've seen sectioned .260s with around 1k rds that had no lands for 3". No free lunch.

[LynnJr]

Powder burning produces around 4000 btu's of heat per grain. The faster burning powders are slightly higher and the slow burning powders are a little bit less.
The 308 6.5 Creedmoor and 243 all use the same parent case so the main difference between them is the bore size. If your burning roughly the same amount of heat the larger opening of the 308 in theory allows it to get down the bore with less restriction. In a nutshell you are not concentrating all the heat to a smaller area so the 308 lasts longer all else the same.

[Noonanda]

Not saying that people don't but I think comp and BR guys shoot a cartridge that is more tailored to that style of shooting. Yes in theory 243 is over bored , with that said I still have my grandfathers 243 that he got in 1930 and I watched that man kill more deer with a 75 grain cast bullet than anyone I have ever seen. The rifling is still very strong and holds a 2 inch group at 100 just fine.

While I dont doubt you have a rifle that was your grandfathers and that said rifle may have been built in 1930, it was not originally in .243 Winchester. I can say this because the .243 Win round is 1) based off the .308 Winchester which was developed in 1952, and 2) the .243 Winchester round was not produced until 1955.

So there is no way it wears the original barrel.

On a separate note, I love my .243 Win that I built on a Mauser 98 action. My daughters love it too

[6mmintl]

The good thing about a remington .243 is that take off 24" sporter barrels in VG to new condition can be bought for about $50 and 95% of them will headspace correctly

[Spyder]

Hey Lynn, killshot, and you other folks that I love reading your knowledge...just a random curiosity, but do you have a ballpark idea of how many rounds you fire out of your main rifle in a year? 1500 rounds, doesn't seem like very much time if you're practicing and as good as you guys are!

[LynnJr]

Spyder
We only use our match barrels on match day. If we are practicing we use a no longer competitive barrel as our baseline barrel.
We used to practice with Sierra 107" s at night time on north Cow Mountain near the water tank but they patrol that area now so we had to stop. We left a running jeep at the target and shot off of a portable bench that is still up there giving shade to a rattlesnake. The only downside was the Coleman lantern and headlights would draw in every bug for 15 miles.
We would normally put 50 rounds downrange through each of the four rifles plus all the outlier rounds in the spare lightgun once a week.
Because we live in California we probably shoot more than the east coast shooters who don't have a range on there own property but many do.
Killshot shoots a 6 Dasher as do many of the top dogs and our standard load is 33.5 grains of RE15 Lapua brass CCI 450 Magnum primer and a Clay Spencer which is now Vapor Trail 103 bullet set at 2.510 inches with our particular comparator. The seating depth is set for a chamber with 0.104 free bore. I have used Lilja Brux Hart Shilen Krieger and Bartlien barrels and the load has never been tweaked. They like 3050 fps out of a 30 inch tube and 8-8.5 twist at sea level.

If you want to improve your shooting set up a portable bench in your house or garage and cycle the gun during TV commercials until you never have to lift your head off of the stock. If your lifting your head your gear isn't in the same place each time and your wasting time that could be better spent getting a round downrange before the conditions change.
On bench type guns your rest set up needs to be the same each time. If the rear rest isn't in alignment with the front rest the stock will bind and give you vertical in your groups. Most average shooters set up too fast and are forced to rely on there windage adjustments to correct for improper rest set up.

[Spyder]

Always good reading. Thanks!

[JMP]

Spyder, the other thing you can do is shoot a cartridge like 308 for practice and recreation. As many ranges don't accommodate longer ranges. At shorter ranges a 308 is a great cartridges for a very long barrel life and good accuracy. It's a cartridge that is pretty much impossible to screw up reloading for.

If you can shoot a 308 well, it's easier to adapt to a cartridge with better ballistics than worse ballistics. Or, if you are a one-gun guy, it's common for folks to split the difference between the 308 and a 6mm by getting something like a 6.5CD or a 7mm-08. These won't be as ballistically as good as a 6mm, but they do give you quite an improvement over a 308 with less barrel wear than a 6mm. So, it really depends on what your goal is. But, your point is absolutely a good one in that folks nee trigger time, so you do need to have a method that suits your needs best. For everyone, it's a little different. But, if you can't shoot, the best ammo and rifle in the world aren't going to hit the target on their own.

I probably shoot more cartridges than most, but I still shoot 308 and 223.

[thegiff]

Hey Lynn, killshot, and you other folks that I love reading your knowledge...just a random curiosity, but do you have a ballpark idea of how many rounds you fire out of your main rifle in a year? 1500 rounds, doesn't seem like very much time if you're practicing and as good as you guys are!

I'm stepping up on practice and comps, 1000 exactly 6mm creed, approx 300 308, approx 300 pistol, so far this year. And just got an anschutz 22. I'm spending more effort on the skills I'm not good at, wind reading, long range, and positional.

[w210838]

@noonanda
You are correct sir I just looked at the rifle and it was re barrel not sure when and have no idea what the original caliber was? I said 1930 cause it's what is on the action, now I'm interested to find out what it orginally was ! Guess I'll have to ask my pops!

[Noonanda]

@noonanda
You are correct sir I just looked at the rifle and it was re barrel not sure when and have no idea what the original caliber was? I said 1930 cause it's what is on the action, now I'm interested to find out what it orginally was ! Guess I'll have to ask my pops!

what kind of rifle is it? There are some really knowledgeable members on here who probably could help based on the Model and possibly the Serial #