Is 243 winchester a barrel burner?

rebrick99

New member
I recently saw a post where someone made the comment that the 243 winchester was a barrel burner. I'am loading my 243 with 75gr. v-max bullets at 3,160 fps. This velocity doesn't seem so high as a 22-250 with 50gr. bullets going 3700 fps. Could someone please clarify on this.
 
The point at which a barrel is gone is a matter of personal objectivity and had been discussed here quite a bit. I have changed a few .243 Winchester and AI barrels because they were no longer performing the way I wanted them to. For me it normally has happened at around 1200-1500 rounds. For me this is when I start blowing up the occasional bullet or cant reach the lands with the bullet. I tend to think of barrels as expendable quantity rather than something that will be with a gun forever. Your load does not look very hot at all; I would suspect you are going to get quite a few more rounds than I do. Hopefully someone will chime in about their 22-250 barrels.
John
 
I have never burned out a 22-250 tube. Not yet.

As for 243, I had one that I sold that had a good 1500-1600 rounds down it and was still going. I shot mostly middle of the pack loads. Nothing real hot like some of the ones I shoot now......
 
It is slightly overbore, but for a responsible shooter its not a problem. Now if you want to launch 50 rounds in 15 minutes, and keep on shooting when the barrel will burn you if you touch it, then yes it will be a barrel burner.
 
I used to shoot a fast twist 243 in competition, used up 5 barrels in 4 years. The most rounds I ever got from a barrel was 900 before they started blowingf up bullets.

Jack
 
Load:

47.0g of IMR 4350, Win primer, 70g Nosler=3600 fps

Great coyote load.

Shooting fast is what burns out barrels=keeping the barrel hot.
 
Look at your load data and see what will do what you want to do with the lowest pressure and it will last for quite a while. (to me)

Load it to max pressure and it will go away sooner, pretty simple. blue
 
Pcammo - To chime in on the barrel life of a 22-250, from what I've read and been told by various people in the know, the average barrel life of a 22-250 is around 1500 rds. After that they say, you will see a decline in accuracy. Now I'm not counting rounds per se, but I am looking at any accuracy drop off in my Ruger M77 22-250 that I don't shoot all that often because of burn out issue. So on the average, I probably shoot about 50 rds a month using 50+ weight bullets and 34.9 gr or RE15 or Varget. I figure that probably in two years, I'll have to replace the stock barrel and go for another cycle before we do it again. I guess it's just the nature of the beast.
 
I shot the 243 Win for over 25 years and only once did I ruin a barrel.My hunting pard and I would start warning up when the coyotes fur was prime, so we would practice every weekend in Sept. and most of Oct. We had a real nice range that went from 25 yds. out to 600yds. The first 243 I owned was a new Rem 700BDL, and I loaded my rounds cooking and shot a small bullet, after the practice for the thrird season you couldn't kit the 400yd target and couldn't group at 200 yds, I didn't think it was possible but I had washed out the throat and most of the rifling.I went and bought a new Ruger #1B in 243, changed my whole reloading of that round. I slowed it way down started shooting the 85gr Sierra HPBT at 3250fps. for the 20 years I shot it, it would shoot MOA, best group I ever shot with it was a 5/8" at a 100yds.I do think that you can ruin a good barrel with a combo of many things.
 
Many good points on this string. As far as barrel burning calibers go I believe there are three kinds...one will eventually burn out the throat one day in the not too terribly distant future no matter how it is treated. Both the 220 Swift and the 204 Ruger are examples. The next one will burn out and can do it rather quickly if you shoot it one round right after another. Many calibers are one of these. The third is one that you hardly ever see with a burned throat, 45-70 or 30-30 for example.
I tend to look at things a little different than the rest of the world having barreled many rifles over the years. My question is; of these so called "cooked" barrels how many actually had a borescope dropped down the bore to prove it??? Obviously if the bullet was seated to touch the lands and no longer does something is going on and its probably a scorched throat. My experience is that more guns have been rebarreled, more scopes replaced, more rifles abandonded or sold, and more calibers blamed for being barrel burners just because the bore was fouled due to improper cleaning. Two out of three rifles brought to me to be rebarreled do not have burned throats at all. Most are either copper fouled because the owner thought he was doing a good job cleaning or in the case of high velocity small bore rifles have a hard carbon ring just ahead of the chamber. Both cause accuracy to fall of and give the same symptoms of a burned throat. Kinda like the ignition coil on a lawn mower when it wont start, they sure sell alot of 'em but they are almost never bad.
 
I do think that a good bore scope is an important investment. I know that many members here use them. I have a .243 Winchester right now that the throat is .20" longer than when I first started loading for it. Accuracy is still near MOA but I am starting to see quite a bit of the fire-cracking in the lands just ahead of the chamber. I think this rifle is going to become some kind of .270-08 creation.
John
 
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