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Old March 10, 2013, 07:47 PM   #1
Ruger480
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Barrel life

I never hear any one talk about barrel life on handguns. Why is that?
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Old March 10, 2013, 07:57 PM   #2
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I don't know but I've been told...that barrels are burnt out by excessive burning powder forced down behind the bullet at supersonic velocity. In rifles, that's easy to accomplish with 4000fps bullets and super mega magnums. In pistols, well, there just isn't enough room to fit the powder needed to torch the barrels quickly. Possible exceptions might by your 460XVR and 500SW high pressure, high capacity rounds, but typical service calibers are very far down on the charts as far as burning bores. Especially if you shoot unjacketed projectiles and don't clean needlessly, the bores will last pretty much forever (unlike slides, springs, and firing pins )

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Old March 10, 2013, 08:05 PM   #3
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The two main reasons are:

1. Not many people shoot enough to wear out a handgun barrel, and many of those that do have a number of guns so they don't shoot that much through any single firearm.

2. Those who can afford enough ammo to wear out a handgun barrel, don't usually have a problem paying for a replacement barrel.
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Old March 10, 2013, 08:10 PM   #4
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Ok then. Good to know. I feel better about buying used handguns now
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Old March 10, 2013, 08:20 PM   #5
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In [IFast and Fancy Revolver Shooting][/I] Ed McGivern has pictures of one hole machine rest targets fired out of 1920s vintage S&W K-22s with over 200,000 rounds apiece. Barrels in Browning designs-and many other semiautos are easily replaced. Perhaps cheaply made handguns-say Spanish off brands of the 1920s and 30s and Khyber Pass copies are made from low grade steels that will wear quickly but it seems all the major and many of the minor US-and European-manufacturers use proper alloys. Also I think there is some evidence with some of the hotter rifle calibers-220 Swift,e.g. that stainless steel holds up better than carbon steel,and stainless has to alarge extent displaced blued steel in modern manufacture.
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Old March 10, 2013, 08:26 PM   #6
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Probably for the same reason you don't hear about the life of shotgun and .22 rimfire barrels.
Lower pressure = lower temperature and less throat erosion.

Another thing to remember is the definition of "worn out". A quarter minute of angle degradation in accuracy is most likely unacceptable to a competitive rifle bench rest shooter but will barely be noticed by most pistol shooters or even people who shoot rifles non competitively, deer hunters and such.
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Old March 10, 2013, 08:35 PM   #7
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Quote:
A quarter minute of angle degradation in accuracy is most likely unacceptable to a competitive rifle bench rest shooter but will barely be noticed by most pistol shooters...
Good point. I would go so far as to say a quarter minute of angle degradation (about a sixteenth of an inch at 25 yards) in accuracy is essentially undetectable when assessing pistol accuracy by any common methods.
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Old March 10, 2013, 08:45 PM   #8
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I keep a log book of my guns and round count for each one. My Ruger .45 Colt Blackhawk (I call it a Super Blackhawk as I have set it up as one) is approaching the 20,000 round milestone with no apparent loss of accuray nor any other malady. Most of my guns all are in excess of 15,000 rounds fired, including a couple of .44 Magnums with very hi-mileage use of heavy loads with H110 and #2400 powder.

As was pointed out I shot a lot in times past, but spread my shooting over many different revolvers, so no one revolver gets very heavy shooting.

Reduced income of retirement has indeed put a crimp in my shooting agenda.

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Old March 11, 2013, 10:53 AM   #9
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I would not worry about a used gun's barrel being shot out UNLESS it belonged to an IPSC shooter. We wear barrels out.
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Old March 11, 2013, 11:24 AM   #10
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Wonder if # of shots fired per session and between cleanings would affect barrel life.
Same pistol & caliber, but one owner shoots 50 - 100 rounds a session then takes it home to clean vs a different owner that shoots 200+ rounds a session and dislikes cleaning.
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Old March 11, 2013, 12:58 PM   #11
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Quote:
Wonder if # of shots fired per session and between cleanings would affect barrel life.
Same pistol & caliber, but one owner shoots 50 - 100 rounds a session then takes it home to clean vs a different owner that shoots 200+ rounds a session and dislikes cleaning.
Yep, it would make a difference. Proper maintenance extends barrel life and helps to maintain accuracy.

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Old March 11, 2013, 01:07 PM   #12
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It's fairly easy to see in a longgun or handgun if the barrel has run it's course. You can usually see this with the unaided peeper and a bore light helps.

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Old March 11, 2013, 02:50 PM   #13
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I talked to a guy at my club a couple of years ago who had replaced barrels in a couple of 45 glock or springfields at around 40-42000 rounds as I recall. He was retired and shot 5 days a week, using bulleats that he cast.
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Old March 11, 2013, 03:25 PM   #14
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A lot of varialbles. A .357 revolver fired only with .38 Special lead bullet wadcutters would probaby last about forever. But the same revolver fired exclusively with the hottest jacketed bullet .357's the user can load might not last 5000 rounds. There is more to it than velocity and powder. For instance, heavy jacketed bullets (e.g., GI .45 ACP) won't expand to fill the grooves at any pressure that is safe in the gun, so burning gas shoots through the gaps and erodes the barrel steel. Not a concern to the military, of course, but maybe to target shooters using the .45 or 9mm military loads.

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Old March 11, 2013, 03:39 PM   #15
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Another factor is that if enough rounds were fired though a handgun to erode the rifling. Chances are the other moving parts would have worn out by that point.
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Old March 11, 2013, 04:20 PM   #16
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Firstly, it's wayyyy too costly for me to wear out a handgun barrel. Second, I'd have to shoot the same handgun versus rotating with different handguns. I do try to maintain my barrel in hopes that it will preserve barrel life. If I ever did wear out a barrel at 40,000, I wouldn't mind dropping a few bucks for a new one at that point.
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Old March 11, 2013, 06:12 PM   #17
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A lot of it depends on the bullets being fired and how hot the barrel gets while firing. The US Border Patrol found that @ 20,000 rounds of hot 40 S&W the accuracy began to rapidly degrade in H&K USP/C's and P2K's. I had 15,000 through mine and it was starting to go. I would think that lead bullets in a S/A revolver it should last forever.
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Old March 11, 2013, 06:18 PM   #18
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With ammo as expensive as it is now, a barrel should last forever.
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Old March 11, 2013, 06:26 PM   #19
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Another factor is which web forum you post in. . .if you post in Glocktalk, Glock barrels last for 3,000,000,000,000,000 rounds. If you post in handgun benchrest forum, they are only good for about 3000 rounds.

Yes, this is posted tongue in cheek, but it has a real side to it.
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Old March 11, 2013, 07:36 PM   #20
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I had a boss that shot competively for a while

He had a colt Official Police in .38 that he tuned up for a comp gun. He said that somewhere north of 50,000 rounds the rifling got so worn down that it would sometime fail to stabilize the bullet upon exiting the muzzle and keyhole.
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Old March 11, 2013, 09:39 PM   #21
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+1 regarding ammo, if you can afford to shoot enough ammo for your barrel to wear out, you neednt worry about buying a new one
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Old March 12, 2013, 03:37 AM   #22
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Quote:
With ammo as expensive as it is now, a barrel should last forever.
^^^^ THIS!

I've seen only two barrels in my life time that I KNOW were worn out and that was from 2 different glocks that had some insanely high round counts probably more in each gun then i've fired in all my years of shooting.

Helps when someone else pays for your ammo from what I hear.
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Old March 12, 2013, 08:08 AM   #23
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A handgun barrel should last at least a minute.

That is considering the bullet doesn't spend more than about 0.0005 seconds in there at a time.
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Old March 12, 2013, 09:50 AM   #24
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Quote:
A handgun barrel should last at least a minute.
ha! I see what you did there!
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Old March 12, 2013, 01:26 PM   #25
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Recently I have seen some agencies having to replace barrels when they train allot with frangible ammunition. One agent I spoke with said it was after 20,000 rounds.
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