Is this barrel dying?

[LapuaBob]

Before I purchased my Savage 111LRH 338 LM, I had two major concerns one was that I would prove I was no good at ELR marksmanship. Not to toot my own horn but... I am vary good at it, you all get allot of credit, I have been reading here for years.

The other concern I had was something I had read in lots of places. "Large overbore magnums like the 338 Lapua Mag have a barrel life of about 1000 rounds."

Well I just had to retire 50 of my Lapua brass cases, each shot 10 times. The other 50 have been shot 6 times. I also have sent 100 rounds of factory crap through my baby.

So as I retire this brass I think oh no... 900 rounds.

You guys have shown me that most of what people say about this discipline of shooting is bullshit, so please do it again.

Is my barrel dying?

 

[poison123]

Is it slowing down? Is the accuracy degrading?

Those are what you need to worry about.

 

[Killswitch Engage]

Have you kept track of the throat with an oal gauge? Something I think benefits magnums and any caliber really is a fresh crown every 1000rds or so. You might be surprised what happens

 

[bax]

The normal sign for a shot-out barrel is bigger groups.

Try pushing resetting the seating depth to match the new throat length.

Look at the throat with a borescope. If you have "crocodile back" checkering in front of the chamber then you have to set it back and rechamber. Your barrel gets shorter so you need to work up a new load. Even if you decide to rebarrel it, don't throw away the old barrel. Use it for fireforming.

If you don't have checkering in front of the chamber then you may have to recrown it.

Also try some new brass.

Shot out stainless barrel make great tomato stakes.

 

[LapuaBob]

The gun still shoots half moa. It has not given me a reason to worry. I guess I'm asking am I really around 100 rounds away from a problem?

 

[Bender]

1000? That is it? Another reason to keep my .308.

 

[bkw1911]

Velocity at this point I think would be your first signs. You can still have good groups but start to lose 100fps or more before it really starts to be unusable

 

[bax]

No. When the round counter ticks over at 1,001, the gun will still shoot. Shooting out a barrel is a process, not an event.

 

[creids98292]

338 Lapuas will have better life than that, and you will be looking for scaling in the throat. It will be visible with your eye when it gets really bad. Most barrels that come through here that are shot out have around 5-8" of erosion. The thing you will notice is erratic rounds when you shoot your barrel out. Look for shots dropped way out or huge groups for no reason. Most of the time they will crawl slowly forward then you will have a very noticeable change and thats when everything goes south.
Chris
Benchmark Barrels