Rate of throat erosion?

[Ammo Junky]

I have a win stelth in .223. It has about 500rd threw it. The col needed to touch the rifling is .010" longer than it use to be. I have also started using sweets the last 4 - 5 times I cleaned the rifle and the bore is much cleaner and cleanes of copper much more quickly than the first time or two. The catch is, I don't know if I have eroded / pushed the throat .010" in 500rd or I just cleaned out the copper that was in there or both. How fast does a .223 throat tipicaly push? Is .010" in 500rd possible? What should I expect in 1,000? If the typical life of a .223 bbl is 3,000rd, how much throat push do most people see in 3,000?
Thanks :)

[amamnn]

Are you using the same bullets all this time? If you are measuring tip of the bullet to rim, you are not getting the information you need to have in order to accurately seat to the lands. The COL does not necessarily tell you where the bullet's ogive will contact the lands, as the taper may be much more pronounced from bullet to bullet type.
At 500 rounds I would not expect erosion to even be on the radar as problems go, assuming you bought the rifle new. However, if you are getting a lot of copper fouling you might be pushing your load a bit too hot. Backing off the powder charge might help by not only slowing down copper fouling, but throat erosion too. A lot of us got caught up in the velocity quest and learned the hard way that the hottest load is not usually the most accurate.
Good luck

[Ammo Junky]

am, I should have bee more clear. I am using a stony point col guage and yes the same bullet. The gun probably had 300rd before I used the sweets. Come to think of it, I has a simmilar expereince with my .243 after starting the sweets also. I do not push loads particularly hot. I am usualy 1 to 2 grains below max. I pick a load that appears in the middle of the accuracy curve for powder charge and bullet jump.

[amamnn]

It would be hard to purposely erode the throat to that extent in 500 rounds, I would think. Also it seems unlikely that you would have that much buildup in the throat after 300 rounds.
If you are getting a lot of copper deposited, that might be a clue. I suppose it's possible that your chamber/barrel concentricity might be out enough to cause what you describe. It might be worthwhile to bring this problem to the attention of the manufacturer before going to a gunsmith or trying any extreme testing of bullets to check for stripping.

[918v]

Thats how my 22-250 throat eroded in 500 shots. If you load hot, your throat will erode faster than if you load medium hot :D

[Buckythebrewer]

If im understanding you correctly,I would say its just tool marks wearing off properly:)I bet you will find that it won't wear rapidly anymore..you should find good accuracy to at least 5000rnds or more if you have a stainless or chrome barrel in 223.Some see usable life to 18,000 rnds from what I have read in the book called BLACK MAGIC on the 223 ar15..

[Ammo Junky]

bucky, you have a good point. I get a rifle, work with it till I get a good or as good as I think I am gona get load for that rifle then move to the next. Most of my rifles see a low rnd count after that, becaus I am on to the next rifle and I only get to shoot about 3 days / mo. I am a loader first, colector/shooter second and hunter third. The .243 I had troube with (turned out to be copper fouling, thats how I discovered sweets) so it saw 200 to 300rd. The .223 was a pd gun and I have tired three or four powder and four to five bullets for it and it was shot about 250 rd before I started loading 3yr ago. The .223 and 243 showed col growth in the .010 to .015 around the 400 rd mark and after several sweets cleanings. I hope the change is the result of machineing marks and the copper the marks held. I expect about 3000 rd from the 223 and 2000+ from the 243 before groups start to grow and double that before the coyotes start to laugh at me. :D

[Buckythebrewer]

I was very carefull breaking in my barrel using the 1 shot and clean method.My high production dpms 24" stainless bull a3 upper can fire (I just counted my target 5 shot groups that I shot in one session)over 50rnds without cleaning and still hit under M.O.A. @ 625yrds..It is very smooth and doesn't foul easily.The break-in makes the difference IMO,,Maybe not every time, but I will always do the slow (pain in the ass) technic from now on..(also I use a bore guide and One piece carbon fiber cleaning rod)