.243 AI used barrel

[chino69]

I recently gave a 1 in 10" used Douglas barrel chambered in .243 AI to a friend of mine. The barrel had over 1500 hot rounds through it, I have other barrels to screw on and figured it was time to retire it. It has the Savage varmint contour and screws on my Savage single shot varmint rifle. My buddy recently retired and is an avid hunter, shooter, and reloader. He sent me a photo yesterday of a five shot group that he shot @ 200 yds. that measured .277. This has been the third one shot group he has shot with that barrel. The load is 53.0 grn. RL19 with Hammond's 68 grn. bullets. My buddy has put at least 300 rds. through this barrel bringing the total to 1800 rds. The throat is gone and the bore looks like a dry lake in Africa during the summer drought season.

We are both anxiously waiting to see when this barrel will give up the ghost as it has been driven hard since day one. Anybody else out there have an Ackley chambered barrel last this long, or is this a rarity?
Chino69

 

[CHeetahman]

Old Hart Barrel

I have a old hart barrel that was chambered for a 219 Donaldson Wasp grew bored with it and had it rechambered for a MKI CHeetah. The barrel is just like your old one. To borescope you would want to throw it away and start fresh. Throat is gone, firecracked and all that jazz. I switched to a longer bullet to get them out a little further and it won't burn little bug holes anymore but it will still put up 1/4 groups on a very reg. basis.

 

[vicvanb]

What you describe is not unusual, but the small group at 200 yards is impressive given the degree of throat erosion. It forces us to re-think what erosion really means. I agree with someone who posted here that a bore scope is not all that helpful sometimes--maybe it's better not to look??

Most of my experience is with 220 Swifts. Some of them can look like what you describe and still shoot well enough to hit varmints--as long as they are kept clean.. Throat erosion and carbon/copper fouling combined are not a good thing!

Years ago Jim Carmichael wrote about a Swift with 5000 rounds through it that was still shooting MOA groups.

But the thing is, badly eroded barrels may quit shooting at any time. You never know when that will be.

 

[chino69]

Throat erosion

But the thing is, badly eroded barrels may quit shooting at any time. You never know when that will be.

That is what we are both waiting for as I thought it would have occurred long ago. You're right about the borescope not telling all.
Chino69