SmallCaliberCentral

I was looking around at some different AR uppers and barrel combinations and gave shilen a call directly and on their 416 barrels they have a "prime accuracy" of 800-1000 rounds. just to make sure i called the right people heres who i talked to

http://www.shilen.com/contact.html

after that, they said the groups start to open up and how much depends on the caliber.

wow. just wow.

i then called RRA and they told me they use Wilson barrels and they have a life of a "few thousand" before they start to lose accuracy.

whats the expected barrel life of a "normally used" 204 ruger barrel?

I have a Cooper rifle in .204 (with Wilson bbl) and just turned over 2944 rounds thru it after our Aug prairie dog shoot. Before I left, I shot some groups at 100 yds-.243", 200 yds-.399" and 300 yds-.710". I put 474 rounds thru the gun on this trip, and plan to shoot and evaluate the gun to consider a rebarrel.....or just shoot it. One of my last shots was a pd at 468 yds, first shot kill, so it must be shooting pretty good. I would be interested on others round counts and how their accuracy has held up.

"prime accuracy" is purely subjective. It absolutely depends on which shooting discipline you are involved in. We all have different accuracy windows that we need (want) to stay within. A bench rest competitor might have a 800 - 1000 round barrel life (maybe less). I shoot NRA metallic silhouette competition and because we are shooting from the standing position completely unsupported we have a little bit lesser demand on accuracy. If our rifles go from 1/4 MOA to 1/2 MOA it really is of no consequence. Our off-hand hold at 550 yards is probably around 3 to 8 MOA anyway. I just rebarreled my Rem 700 after around 4,500 to 5,000 rounds. The last 500 rounds the barrel went downhill FAST!!

So that is why I say that "Prime accuracy" is subjective. There is no definitive "barrel life", there is only acceptable levels of accuracy.

I would have ZERO problems buying "shot out" bench rest barrels to use in my silhouette rifle. If only 7mm-08 was a common BR caliber.

What Trent said. Adding to the mix are other factors such as steel quality and how the barrel is shot. More heat...less-life is a fairly sure bet.