Barrel Life of a 223

[xring]

For you gents that shoot a lot ..... here's a Question : Can you get over 10,000 Rounds thru a 223 and still maintain Accuracy of say less than one inch ( minimum of 4 shots ) at 100 Yards / Bench / ideal conditions ?

[georgeld]

Had a L461 in .222mag, same thing as near as possible.
Shot 100 factory first thing, Then always a light load of 55gr/25.0gr 4895
and got a bit over 6000 before it wouldn't hit a p/dog at 60yds.

It had always kept 'em in less than a dime whenever I shot paper to check.
Funny thing though, those same 100 cases lasted the whole trip.
At the end, I'd crushed two in the press, split one neck and lost two in the field. Ended up selling those 95 and some .223's I'd fire formed to a guy that had just built one in the same .222mag n needed brass. He sent a note after loading n shooting them twice that he was tickled with 'em and still working fine.

Good luck on 10,000 rnds. IF n when you make it, I for one would like to hear about it.

[Bill K]

None of my 223's have reached that area yet, but I would say, with the loads most of us shoot, you would be hard pressed to get and maintain good accuracy ( less than MOA) over the amount of about 5000 rounds. Just my thought/guess. Bill K

[Daryl]

I have no personal experience with the .223 - at all.

However I shot with a lot of BR shooters who also shot 3-positon. They retired their match .222 Rem. barrels after 3,000rounds and their BR barrels after 1,500 rounds - quite regularly. That was back in the 70's with that era barrels. once a match rifle will not hold 3/4" benched, the barrel is retired. 3/4" would just barely hold the Xring of the target we used at that time, thus prone that barrel would still shoot 100's, but just barely.

[Rick in Oregon]

Originally Posted by xring

For you gents that shoot a lot ..... here's a Question : Can you get over 10,000 Rounds thru a 223 and still maintain Accuracy of say less than one inch ( minimum of 4 shots ) at 100 Yards / Bench / ideal conditions ?

I shoot colony rodents alot, and not being an expert, but having much time in the field behind a rifle (223's since 1968), I'd opine that "no", you will not get any acceptable degree of accuracy from a 223 barrel after 10K rounds downrange.

I usually rebarrel mine when they won't hit a ground squirrel at 250 yds, and that's usually around the 5,000 round mark or sooner, depending on how hot the barrel was allowed to get during epic shooting conditions in a target-rich environment. My 223AI has just over 5K rounds through it, and I'm feeling it's time to retire that Pac-Nor SS Super Match next year. That barrel was new in 1998.

Others experience may differ, but that's what I've found so far. HTH