.17 mach 1V Barrel life.

[BangPop]

Originally Posted by xring

BangPop ....just curious ..... what Brand / Brands of Barrels are you guys using ?

The barrel on my rifle is a Shilen. I agree that there are a bunch of barrels out there that the owners assume are worn out that are really not that far gone. In the case of the barrel that I have it clearly is well down the road to being scrap. I can bore scope it and not see much of anything that would resemble rifling for quite a ways down the tube. I have barreled several Mach IVs for a gentleman and those barrels all seem to be pretty well used up (by borescope inspection) by 4k to 5k rounds.

[hornetboy]

Thanks fella's. Hey, that was good documented evidence, Bang Pop. Well done. 3000 plus is to be expected then.

[BangPop]

You should get a good 3000 of usable barrel life or more. I will try and give you a thumbnail sketch of the barrel life on my rifle. The biggest problem that they have is the simple fact that they are indeed .17 calibers (I know DUH!) and as such the depth of rifling is significantly less than larger calibers. The minor diameter on the barrel on my rifle was .169 as measured with a gauge pin at the time I chambered it. The major was .172 of course. That is .0015 PER SIDE..... not a lot of steel there to start with. .22s have .002 per side and 6mms about .003 per side. There are exceptions to these numbers but they are generally accurate. The land width is narrower as well on the .17s. Add those numbers together and the total amount of steel that is the rifling is significantly less in a .17 barrel than in the larger calibers and it's logical that they will not last a long because of that fact.

I broke in and did some tuning on the barrel which ended up being a couple hundred rounds. I loaded 500 rounds and went p-dogging. I am not one to burn down a barrel in a dog town and have enough rifles that there is plenty of cooling time. So all is well after 700 or so rounds. Chase the lands to retune the rifle and shoot a hundred rounds goofing off until the next dog trip. I won't waste your time with every detail so I'll say that after about 2000 rounds I couldn't touch the lands anymore with what had started out a zero freebore chamber. Since that time tuning has been simply get the chronograph to show me 3850 load em up and shoot them. It has been a wonderful barrel and continues to shoot pretty well considering the condition of the throat. I hope this hasn't put you to sleep and is of some value to anyone wondering about the subject.

[BangPop]

Originally Posted by Bill K

I read a article recently (can not remember where) that made mention of how so many barrels that people feel are shot out, are not. It is in the throat area being wore. The article went on to advise and how they set the barrel back, clean the throat area/smoothed up, made sure the crown was good and went on to use that same barrel with it's own known accuracy and allowing more life. Something worth checking out. BIll K

Bill. Somehow I missed your post until now. I have set back lots of barrels on my dog guns and the article you read is accurate. BUT you have to have a barrel that CAN be set back in order to do so. In the case of my .17 it is not possible to set it back and make any meaningful improvement since it is a #4 taper and has about an 1.250 long cylinder section. The barrel would need to be set back close to 2.000 to find any rifling which wouldn't leave enough diameter for new threads. I just set back a HV taper barrel 2 inches on my .223 AI and brought it back to life. Thanks

[Bayou City Boy]

This is just my opinion formed from playing with 17 caliber rifles for over 40 years, but +/-3000 rounds that Bangpop threw out is probably very realistic for a smaller cased center-fire 17. For a bigger cased 17 like a 17 Remington, if you still get good accuracy after 3k rounds, the barrel owes you nothing and hasn't for some time. As he explained, in a 17 caliber barrel there is not a lot of meat generally left to set a barrel back and be good to go again.

Definitely, as we all well understand, individual barrel life is affected by individual shooter habits and tendencies, but the grooves and lands in a 17 caliber barrel are very shallow to begin with.

The much larger estimates tossed out I feel are just that - estimates not based on reality or experience.

Again, just my experience and opinion.

-BCB

[ramos]

BCB, you are correct. My early estimate was only a SWAG! This has, however, turned into a pretty interesting thread.

[Daryl]

I think what is absolutely amazing is that the .17 cal. barrels last as long as they do.
When I bought my Pac-Nor for the .17AH, I had them give me a 4" parallel section before the taper and a 26" bl. I figured it only a matter of time before we wouldn't be able to get good barrels up here, so I planned on setting it back a couple or perhaps more times over it's life - probably out last me now - as long as I don't ruin it wiht a cleaning rod.

[hornetboy]

Great replies, men. No wonder I like this site. Thank you so much. I'm guessing , then that a 17 REM would expect 2000'ish?? given good care.

[BangPop]

From what I have seen I would think you should get a bit more than 2000. I think 3000 would be a reachable goal without much trouble for a .17 Remington. Thanks for the good discussion gentlemen.

[georgeld]

All good to learn for someone just about to get into the .17 games.
With any luck at all maybe this summer I'll be able to get out and fix up
some p/dogs too. Won't be for awhile I know, but, summer has barely
started here. Might be starting to cool down a bit by the time I get out there.
Looks like I'll miss going during the heat of summer for once.

BangPop: What velocity do you feel will make a barrel last longer? I see you mentioned 3850, what about 33-3500?