.17 mach 1V Barrel life.

[BangPop]

I thought of something else that might be worth throwing out there and this is probably as good as any place to put it. How does a person keep track of how many rounds through a barrel? I was never able to add the number of rounds into a log book with enough reliability to make any sense of it. I figured out that the only way I could ever keep up with it was to keep track of the primers I shot. They come in nice round numbers of 100 per box so all I had to do is keep track of the boxes. I use what I refer to a barrel boxes, that is a plastic storage tub that everything that goes with a particular barrel is in that tub. The dies, bullets, powder, brass and primers all stay together in that box. When I start with a new barrel I put a carton of primers is the tub and number the primer boxes sequentially as I open them. If, for example, I see primer box number 15 in the tub I know that I have shot 1500 rounds minus anything loaded or primed that has not been shot. With my Mach IV I'm on box 42 with a bunch loaded to go p-dogging in a month or so. It's simple as dirt and is amazingly reliable. It an easy way to keep track of how many rounds are through a barrel. I hope anyone who is interested in better managing their rifles finds this a usable tool.

[BangPop]

Originally Posted by 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?

George, No doubt that lower velocity will yield longer barrel life. Heat is the enemy and velocity equals heat. I wouldn't even want to guess how much more barrel life we are talking about, but I'll bet it's more than a guy would think. I say that using the logic that is demonstrated in the larger calibers. A .22-250 might give you 400 fps more than a .223 but it will do so at the cost of 50% less barrel life. Daryls .17AH might last forever.

[sicero]

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

I have been fighting with my AH for a year now, trying to find out why it just quit shooting. It's a factory CZ barrel with maybe 2000 rounds thru it.
I cut 3/4" off the chamber end and rechambered to 17 HH.
I did a chamber cast of the new chamber and the rifling looks good, right up to the chamber.
On second thought, I wish I had cast the old chamber before I cut it off.
It now shoots the factory loads 1/2" and less.
I still don't know why it quit shooting as a AH. Kenny

[BangPop]

Kenny, In my experience when a barrel quits shooting suddenly it usually is one of two things. The brass has gotten tired or you have gotten hold of a crappy lot of bullets. Forty years ago I had a .22-250 that quit shooting. Being pretty inexperienced, I assumed the barrel was shot out and had it rebarreled. I'm sure now that my brass had gotten all screwed up since I knew nothing about brass management back in "the dark ages." I'm sure there are many, many other barrels that are replaced every year that there is absolutely nothing wrong with them. A borescope is our friend.

[malahini40]

Back in the early 70s I had to do a lot of killing of feral goats, pigs and deer in Hawaii. Tough job but someone had to do it. As these were on Government property records were kept on EVERY animal killed. We started off with weight, sex and on and on. That was later altered to date/time/sex/conditions. It was truly a wonderful way to try different calibres/bullets for performance etc. I kept pretty good records of my own on the performance of the various calibres [penetration, distance and meat damage]used and such. WE were given 308 and 30-06 L.C. NM ammo to use but I tried a lot of different calibres. Mostly 6.5 and .25 with others scattered in according to terrain and distance factors. I barreled up a 700 Rem in 264 Win Mag as my "go-to] and used a 23.5" #2 McGowan XX CM barrel with special throating to seat the Sierra 140 Gameking out to make full use of the case capacity. When all was said and done--the count was over 5700 kills and the barrel would still produce a 1-3" group for the first three-four shots but was all over the place after that. It was cleaned after every hunting day and well cared for. Subsequently rebarreled with identical barrel. ALL of these loads [except for 60 or so used for Africa] were 73.5/H-870 . To me McGowen makes a great barrel and and accuracy was always MOA. I want to add one thing. The animals killed were given to needy people [myself included]as much as was humanly possible. A VERY few were lost over cliffs and in lava tubes but VERY few. Needless to say my meat bill for many years was nil.
Aloha, Mark

[squirrel_slayer]

question for you guys. do you feel heat is a bigger killer than velocity? I'm considering a .17 mkIV but using a faster burning powder like aa1680 as I have tons of it. should generate less heat i'm thinking and granted velocity will be slightly less versus a slower powder.

[Alan in GA]

a note on setting back a high round count barrel: not everyone wants to run an expensive reamer into a hardened firecracked bore. 17 reamers have skinny enough pilots but if you've gone the live pilot route it gets scary reaming even with a new bore! Between friends we have 3 17AH reamers. Mine and one other were sent to be reground and ground [new reamer] to specs AND be ground to have live pilots. When you look at the little itty bitty [technical term] piece of steel left that holds the live pilot you really get nervous [or I do] running it into a new barrel. So far so good, maybe a half dozen done with live pilots [guess] and no.... 'tink'....sound yet. That....'tink'...sound would cost about a hundred and a half, maybe more nowdays.

I'm wondering what the life of my 17 Mach IV will be. Right over about 1,000 rounds now, all loaded with a dash of Benchmark powder, and never heating the barrel up to where I can't keep my hand on it about midway. It's a PacNor SS Super Match 3 groove 9" twist and I've only shot 25 gr Vmaxes so far but I may load 20 grainers just to test the splat factor. I load 20s I the 17AH so felt the Mach IV was just right for the 25s [or 30s, got a few around].

So here, think of this: I used to worry about wearing out a rifle barrel, now I want to : )

[sicero]

I had more than one pucker on the rechamber and you can feel
that little reamer twist.
I am thinking of a 3" round wrench to hold the reamer so I can get
a better feel of the reamer and be able to let loose. Kenny

[BangPop]

I don't even want to think about breaking one of those little reamers in a barrel. I'd say things I wouldn't want my mother to hear.