Interesting info on Barrel life

[raider1v1]

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?

[Keith in Ga]

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.

[Trent]

"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.

[Jim White]

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.