It depends on your intended use of the barrel. For highpower competition most barrels are worn out around the 5-6K mark because the throats have eroded to the point that the gun won't hold the 10 ring on the 600 yard target. You will never see it at 100-300 yards at that point.

For general use you should easily expect 10,000 rounds and for just plinking/goofing around double that. Stainless steel is a good barrel material and the durability of various barrel materials 4150, 4140, 416R is the subject of a lot of debate on the internet but the truth is very very very few people actually wear out barrels AND the truth is if you can afford 10,000 rounds of ammo at $3,500-4,000 that it takes to put a hurt on a barrel spending $200-300 on a new barrel is no big deal. In short...debate all the features of different barrel steels all you want...doesn't amount to a hill of beans in the real world.

 

Generally speaking, stainless steel is softer than carbon steel because there's less carbon in stainless steel and carbon is the primary element that makes iron hard and turns it into steel. More carbon, more harder.

Big Bird pretty much covered everything else.

If you don't shoot a lot and never wear either types out, then it's a moot point.

If you shoot a lot and wear the barrel out, but then having to spend $5000-$10000 on ammo, then a $200-300 barrel is minimum cost.

 

AR barrels are cheap,

PSA AR-15 16" MID-LENGTH STAINLESS STEEL 5.56 NATO 1/7 BARREL WITH "5.56 NATO 1/7 FREEDOM" - 48209

$ 79.99


http://palmettostatearmory.com/16-m...mid-length-stainless-steel-5-56-nato-1-7-barrel-with-5-56-nato-1-7-freedom.html

Get the tools to do the job and shoot three or four of them
for accuracy. Keep the best best ones for the good stuff
and shoot the crap out of the less accurate ones.

I have had very good accuracy with them.

 

Thank you all. That's all I was wondering.


I'd heard everything from 10,000 service life to 2,500 rounds.

 

Thank you all. That's all I was wondering.


I'd heard everything from 10,000 service life to 2,500 rounds.

I can't tell you how many rounds your barrel can
take before your accuracy standards are exceeded.

That's why you need more than one or two barrels.

Know this, how fast you shoot it, different kinds
of powder,,, can make a difference.

See this for some good info, take note of the
accuracy deterioration, some ammo is much
worse than others.

http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/brass-vs-steel-cased-ammo/

Here is some good info too,

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_3_118/...count_AR_M4_s__over_100_000_rounds__and_how_they_have_handled_on_our_range.html

 

Thank you for that!


I believe my 416R barrels will be good to go at this station.


I'm still going to choose my 4150V Nitride barrels for my work AR though.... maybe.

 

I do shoot a lot and I have worn out several barrels and Big Bird is generally correct.

If you run mag dumps, your barrel will not last as long. If you run slower and hotter powders, especially near max loads, your barrel will not last as long. If you have a .223 Chamber (as opposed to .223 Wylde or 5.56 Nato), your barrel will not last as long. The shorter the gas system, the shorter your barrel life. The range might be from 3K (abusive) to 15K (gentle).

I shoot Nordic and Stretch16 barrels and I get about 10K from stainless barrels. My Nitrided barrel went back after 9700 rounds, and no cleaning and was still 0.5MOA. My current melonite barrel is pushing 20K and may have just drifted up a tad from .4 MOA to .5MOA, or this batch of ammo is not as good. I shot out a 416R barrel in about 3K after abuse similar to what I put on the 9700 round Melonite barrel.

For several years, I would put about 5K on my match rifle and then sell the complete upper for about 75% of what I had in it, mostly to friends who were plinkers. They got a good deal and I built a new upper every year. But my current match rifle is headed into its 3rd season with 8K on it and I am sure it will make it through until September. Next year will be a new one for sure.

 

Safe to assume you aren't seeing the groups open at all?

 

Not at 5K. On the Nordics, I saw groups start to open at about 10K and they could not hold 1 MOA after 12K. The Stretch16 is fine so far, but these are stainless and I do not know where they start to open up yet. The one with 9700 on it was melonited.

 

Thank you

 

Thanks for the reply.

I'm confident that I'll be good to go for well over 5,000 rounds and still maintain Under a 3-5MOA barrel.

Which I think is fine for a 50-150 meter rifle.

 

Thanks for the reply.

I'm confident that I'll be good to go for well over 5,000 rounds and still maintain Under a 3-5MOA barrel.

Which I think is fine for a 50-150 meter rifle.

Ohhh easy...

Throat erosion only really affects long range accuracy--at least early on. The throat wears unevenly for lots of reasons and the bullet no longer enters the rifling in a perfectly centered position. This induces a teensy tiny amount of yaw to the bullet that gets worse the farther the bullet travels down range.

I've not shot melonited barrels to this point but lots of stainless and chrome moly barrels and the all tend to go south about the same round count (say within a couple hundred rounds or so) at 600 yards. You'll break a shot with no wind and find the bullet in the 9 ring when you called it in the 10 ring. Then it happens again...and pretty soon you begin dropping points in a match below your averages and you can't explain it...then you know its the barrel. Its very subtle and takes a good shot to notice it early on...if you aren't competing at master level you'll probably take some time to notice it.

 

Most of my barrels are on 3Gun rigs and frankly, I see issues with the gas port erosion on stainless barrels before throat issues. But then I don't use Varget and I run my 55s a bit soft.

While I shoot them to 600, I rarely take them past that distance.

 

I think I found my answers on LW carriers/buffers on some 3-gun sites.
Thanks

 

It depends on what you want the rifle to do and the ammo you run. I have them set up with standard carriers and H-buffers with XP springs down to low mass carrier, empty buffer and reduced spring.

John Noveske made some great stuff, and I was honored to have talked to him in person several times about ARs...but he came from a place of battle-ready rifles with suppressors, not fast shooting berm match gamer guns. There is a LOT of real estate between the two.

Shooting an AR at anything past about 300 yards, there is benefit in tuning the system to the load for the best accuracy. The thing to remember is that it is a system, YOU, the gun parts and the load are a system and each part affects the whole. Most people run ARs that are WAY over-gassed, and some people tinker to the point of failure.

 

416R seems to be commonly underrated and often misunderstood... http://faxonfirearms.com/blog/4150-carbon-steel-vs-416r-stainless-which-is-right-for-me/

 

That is a good link about 416r. Thanks.

 

...about 5 seconds.

That's according to Zidecker.

 

Interesting thread! Safe to say then, if long barrel life is desired, then go chrome lined?
For greater accuracy, go SS 416..?

 

Interesting thread! Safe to say then, if long barrel life is desired, then go chrome lined?
For greater accuracy, go SS 416..?

That and melonited chrome-moly is what I'm hearing.