300WM....a barrel smoker?

[garandman]

Trying to decide whether to go 300WM or 338LM on the next build.

I've heard rumors 300 WinMag smokes barrels pretty fast. True?

Is it kinda a trade off thing, cheaper 300WM ammo, but more barrels over time?

 

[crumpett]

Not true. Treat it right and it will last.

 

[RyanScott]

Reports from knowledgeable people have been barrel life of anything from 1200-3000 rounds. In any case, the 338 will have a longer barrel life, if not by much.

 

[sandwarrior]

Either one will eat barrels if you push the loads as hard as you can. Back off a bit, let the bullet do the work, and your barrel will have decent life. The Navy was reporting that with A191 (190 gr. loaded to 3100 fps) the .300 WM was eating throats at a rate of .005" per 100. Which didn't make for long barrel life. With the newer 220 gr. SMK, being pushed to only 2900, the barrels are not disappearing so fast.

Initially the same thing was going on with the .338 Lapua. Initial factory loads, loaded to 5.56 pressures it seems, were going only 600 rounds before losing accuracy. A change in powder, velocity and bullets now has this load going over 1500k with required accuracy.

Something to think about here. Just because a throat is eroding doesn't always mean accuracy is going to fail. I had a 30-06 that had a good inch of the lands eroded. I could not seat a 208 A-max to the lands and have it stay in the case. In fact, it was over a quarter of an inch out of the case. Yet, at 300, 500, and 800 yds, this rifle shot 1 to 1.5 MOA. Hits on steel were never a problem @ 1000 and 1200 yds.

IMO, it is because of the slightly lower volume and pressure of the 30-06 that when it got hot there was never pressure enough to "blow out" chunks of the throat like a blowtorch. Same with a .308 IMO.

Keep your pressures reasonable with either the .300 WM or .338 and you won't torch your throat. An evenly eroded throat can still give required accuracy. If your choice is the .338 stick to .50 BMG powders and you won't see bad erosion. Std. slow rifle powders for the .300 WM.

 

[GUNNER10]

not really, i think the 2010's at work are rated for 2500-3000 before needing a rebarrel. i shoot around 240 rounds a quarter, so that works out to about three years of shooting for me. and even then, as long as it can hit man size targets out, out to a thousand i am going to keep running it till it shits the bed.


i believe a member here got close to 5500 rounds out of his rifle before he had it pulled. i believe when the barrel was cut up at the end they said it still had a good bit of life left.

 

[Hawk45]

The 338LM is like shooting a $5 bill every time you pull the trigger. That's $500 every 100 rounds, about the cost of a good barrel. Just perspective.

 

[JB02]

You may be interested in the 300 Norma Magnum. It has the 338 LM ballistics using 30 cal bullets and cheaper brass. It's more of a barrel burner than 300 WM, but probably not too much worse if you don't push it hard.

If it was me, I would go 300 WM because it could shoot it more often.

 

[shooter1054]

The 338LM is like shooting a $5 bill every time you pull the trigger. That's $500 every 100 rounds, about the cost of a good barrel. Just perspective.

If you reload (like I do) you can get the cost to under a buck not including the cost of the brass. It costs me about $0.85-90 per round. In comparison, the 300 wsm costs me about $0.70 a round to reload.

 

[coues7]

I'm at 280 rnds running the 190smk at 3050fps. Hoping for at least 1500rds