30BR barrel and brass life? What's your experience?

T

TonyinKY

Guest
I've read about 7000+ rounds but I'd like to hear more.
Has anyone here actually wore out a 30BR barrel?
1. How many rounds down your barrel?
2. Do you use a bullet coating?
3. How often do you clean?
4. How many firings on your brass?
5. Do you anneal and if so how often?


Me:
1. 2700 on 30BR Long (shoulder forward .083)
2. yes, Danzac
3. at end of the day (130 shots)
4. 130 pieces @ 20 times each (I've just lost several necks)
5. yes, once at 15 firings
 
My favorite 30BR barrel has about 2500 rounds through it, the last 100 yard group it shot in competition was a .126. Mike Stinnet, who is very good with his 30 based on the Grendal Case, swears he has 7000+ on one barrel that he would not be afraid to shoot in a match tomorrow.

Brass life?? I have cases that I started with over two years ago, and they still shoot. I have no idea how many firings they have on them. I have never annealed a case, I do, however, make them by blowing them out rather than necking them up. I have never lost a case, aside from dropping it on a concrete floor.

I do try to use fairly new brass for matches, but that is the Benchrest Shooter in me.

No to bullet coatings.

I do not clean untill the end of the agg. At Seymour last week end, I did not even clean it between yardages, the first 200 yard group was a nice .567 in some terrible conditions, the 3d best group of the 1st match.

The lot of 4198 that I have shoots at it's best at just a tad over 3000 fps with the 112 BIB. I try to leave it there and tune with the tuner.

...........jackie
 
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Tony, I've seen one 30 shot out. I was the third owner of the barrel. Rick Fox, the second owner put 3000 rounds though it and I put another 5000 on it....neither of us knew how many the first owner put through it. 8000 acoounted for. It went all at once. It went from shooting great to shooting in the 3's and pulling copper badly. The last brass that I trashed had 40+ firings on it(30 Major). --Mike
ps--good luck tomorrow. I better stay here and work.
 
I don't believe 7,000 is average

I have about half a dozen 30BR barrels at this point. My original 17 Krieger has lost it's competative edge but it has at least 7000 rounds on it. I really believe the 30BR barrels do tend to last at least 3 or 4,000 rounds I am not at all sure about 7,000 for the average barrel, some barrels yes. The most extreme I know of was owned by Dean Breeden the year he won everything in sight for shooter of the year he was using a rifle he bought with 3,000+ rounds on the barrel. This barrel reportedly started giving up the ghost at over 11,000. I believe I heard borescoping it showed firecracking way down the barrel at that point and the throat was mostly washed out for several inches.

But I think 4 or 5,000 is more typical than 7,000 for average life.

Dick
 
Regarding Brass Life:

I am still using some of the brass I started with back in the early 2000's. A lot depends on on how hard one runs their rifle. I bought a lot of 500 pieces of used brass last summer and have been busy the past motnth or so. Whomever had the brass before me didn't run it hard at all. Only one primer pocket too large so far. I trimmed it to length, opened the flash holes, full length resized the brass with a Small Base die , turned the necks to a uniform size ( they sometimes grow in thickness as well as length) and annealed the neck/ shoulder area. I have now 400 pieces all alike in 100 rd boxes dedicated to two rifles, I have plenty to have 300 rounds for each rifle so when I go to a three yardage shoot I have 300 loaded for each rifle, loaded in my Air conditioned loading room, Powder weighed to a few hundreths and each OAL measured where the bullet will touch the lands as near to exact as I can get them.

I lost a lot of the necks on my older brass before I learned that the neck sizing bushing is suppose to free-float a bit. No problems since.A small o-ring under the stem cap will give one the float they need.
 
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I am the 4th owner of my rifle. The original barrel resembled a gravel road for 6-8" from the throat area, a large crack in the bottom when the barrel was installed on action that ran through the rifling 3 inches or so. Per my Gunsmith before removing it. The final match shot 2 years ago at 300 yards was a 247-6x last 100 yards of a 250 - 19X . 1-15 twist. Barrel had around 6000 rounds estimated by the last 2 owners when purchased, accounted for and more that were not acounted for from the original owner. I shot it 1 and a half years and did not count rounds. I shot the same brass that came with the rifle for those 1.5 years, it had been shot over the previous 2 seasons, Not sure how many reloads that is, but if averaged 50 rounds per match myself loaded 36 matches including a few club matches + 1800 and many hours practicing and learning flags and just trying to tune atleast another 1000 shots. That would be for 50 cases. So thats around 56 times reloaded by me ? I think .. thats easily over 100 reloads. And certainly conservative on the round count as I shot it a bunch the first year and no idea how many matches those previous 2 years. Im sure I didnt rotate all of them in any sequence. Never had issues, except I'm sure some points were lost in the last season due to it. They were never F/L sized by me, and they fit the rifle well and did not take much effort to close the bolt on. I have now gone away from that and F/L size every time. Bolt face has been opened up from ppc. and can make my own now easilly. New brass for big matches and have 2 barrels now, one with less than 400 and the other 1040 rounds. So cant say yet how long those will last, hope awhile.. I have shot only coated bullets except for break in and 1 match with different bullets than I typically use. I over clean from what I hear, not sure what that means ?, 2 wet and 2 dry, 1 lightly oiled and a final dry patch between rounds. JB after 100 rounds and a good brushing after every match and then the typical routine of patching out. I dont borescope, have turned down several who have offered and dont really care whats going on in there as long as the bullets come out after it goes bang, thats good enough for me. I have played with annealing, dont really see much difference other than I need to bump the shoulded pretty hard to get my thousandth. I'm not convinced that annealing is really needed as long as good annealed brass is used to form the case originally. I will aneal my 270 brass to be expanded for my .338 - 06 and it works great. I do know some who swear by it, and some who have never done it or would ever. I see it as one more thing to take away time from shooting. My opinion only .. So to try and answer the round count question, I'd say Dick is in the ball park with the 4000- 5000 and accasional up to or over 7000. Were I was a new shooter, it still shot better than I could steer it the first year.
Andy B
 
Lasts forever

If you are losing brass at 20 firings-there is something wrong with brass or prep methods. I have some that has over 200 firings and has NEVER been annealed and still works great.

I agree with Dick on his assessment of barrel life.

Jim
 
I do not have a 30BR; however, I do shoot a 30HBR pretty hot @ 3080 vel., 42.8gr of 135 behind a 136gr BIB. I think a 30 is a 30. Here's my experience as applies to your question:

1. 6020 rounds through my Shilen 1/15 barrel.
2. No coating
3. Clean: once per agg. (two patches Sweet's, eleven passes with a Butch's boreshine soaked brass brush, one dry patch, one Kroil soaked patch followed by a dry patch.)
4. I have some brass (Rem & Win) from 1997. Hard to say how many firings.
5. Do not anneal.

I now have a Krieger four groove, 1/15 barrel as backup when the Shilen finally goes. It shoots the same tight groups as the Shilen.

Good luck...virg
 
Tony,
1. My barrel has about 4000 rounds since I bought it used. It isn't shooting like it used to.
2. Started using HBN last year. It hasn't helped accuracy, but the bore seems to stay a little cleaner. Last summer I shot a couple of 50-5X on the last target at 200 after not cleaning all day, so I am convinced cleaning is not necessary during the match.
3. After each match. After getting a bore scope and seeing how bad carbon had built up, I will definitely be using a brush from now on. Not sure how often I will JB, will let the bore scope tell me when it's needed.
4. My "new" brass has about 35 firings. The used brass that came with the gun has more than that. Haven't lost any yet. I neck size about half the neck and use moderate tension (0.326" bushing on a 0.329" loaded neck in a 0.331" chamber). Only FL size when I get several clicks on extraction during a match, about every fifth loading.
5. Not yet.;)

Funny story, a new guy asked me what kind of cases I was using, and I told him Lapua. "Are they brass," he asked. "Yes," I said. "Oh, they are so dark, I thought maybe they were steel!"

Cheers,
Keith
 
This thread should be put up as a sticky!!!!

Now if folks would just realize IF YOU CAN DO IT WITH THE 30BR YOU CAN DO IT WITH OTHER CASES!

(I've got blown out 338 Lapua cases run HOT with over 30firings on it. "It's just gettin' good!"

There are many shooters on this board who'll SWEAR it's impossible and argue the issue to the point of risking serious haemorrhaghic rupture
 
alinwa said:
Keith, that's awesome!

I've got blocks of brass like that

LOL

al
Click to expand...

I was so embarrassed I had to clean them. :rolleyes:

Read in PS that the Llewellyns are shooting brass that has 50+ firings without annealing. They are currently 2nd and 3rd in Score Shooter of the Year. It seems to be working for them.
 
I have only been competing since 2002 so my experience is limited although I have had some successes to go with the many disappointments. Barrel life...I think that no shooter should go to the line of a match of any importance with a barrel with fewer than 2500 rounds down its tube.....except me. Maybe a barrel lasts 7000 rounds as I would not know. Most of mine are firecracked before half that number and so I don't use them for match purposes. Can I still shoot them? Of course, but I don't have the means to set back the throat every 200-300 rounds as some do so my thought is: If I am going to have pay to have a barrel chambered, it will be a new barrel, not a used one.

I treat my brass similar to barrels. I turn in lots of 20-40 at a time and use them until the seating pressure seems to be erratic or an important match is coming. I try to have a new set of brass whenever I am shooting at a championship of some kind. I use several different makes of bullets and of different ogive. I sometimes turn a different amount depending on which bullet I am shooting thus I hesitate to mix my brass. Will my old brass still hold powder, primer, bullet an go bang. Yes. Do I think my old brass shoots as well as new brass. No. With old brass, I have to change my sizing if the spring back is causing little sizing and a hard closing of a bolt. I would rather not have to do that at an important match. I try to limit my variable so I know the screw-ups are my fault without wondering if the cause is something else. Just my thoughts but barrels and brass last a long time but are they cutting edge all of that lifespan. Life is too short to go to important matches with anything but the best you have. At least that is my approach. Randy J.
 
A few years ago I bought a used 30PPC barrel from the world famous Jackie S. That crazy thing has won me more wood than any barrel I've ever owned. When I bought I was told it had about 1000 rounds through it.:confused: I would now guess I've added another 2-3 K. The way this thing shoots I would guess its good for anther 3-5K.Guess I should have bought 2 used barrels from the world famous Jackie S.
 
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