lefteye claims:
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Varmint shooting and competitive target shooting are very different in the their effects on barrel life.
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I disagree. So do other top classified competitive shooters. Especially those who are also avid varmint shooters who have their hunting rifles built to the same accuracy level as their match rifles.
Years ago I also thought there was a difference. Then I learned that Sierra Bullets' ballistic tech got the same barrel life in his personal match rifle barrels as the barrels he used to test bullets for accuracy. Both barrel types were from the same company and made to the same specs. Testing for accuracy at Sierra's indoor range, he would grab 10 bullets as they came out of the pointing machine (at about 80 per minute), seat them in full length sized, primed and charged cases, then shoot them 10 to 15 seconds apart (sometimes faster) in their benchrest type rail gun. Then back to the pointing machine, get 10 more bullets then load and test them for the entire production run of bullets lasting a couple of hours or thereabouts. Those .308 Win. test barrels fired 4 to 8 times a minute got the same barrel life as his match rifles in .308 Win. fired 1 shot per minute; about 3000 rounds.
It's not the rate rounds are fired in bolt action rifles, but the amount of powder burned through the chamber's throat per shot that wears out barrels. Hot, over max loads wear out thoats faster than normal max pressure loads. This aside, 30 caliber machine gun barrels firing 8 shots a second (or more) do wear out a lot faster per shot. Hence, the quick-change feature their barrels have. But they're not capable of 1/3 MOA maximum groups at 300 yards, either.