17/223 barrel life?

204 AR

Well-known member
I'm curious what people are seeing on the faster 17's. Mine has opened up, I'm thinking around 1500 rounds just judging by how many bullets I think I've gone through.

I did a thorough cleaning, without a bore scope it's pretty hard to tell what it looks like in there.
 
When my .17 Rem started going south it would occasionally still group 3-4 shots fairly close together then throw a keyhole. I'd clean the snot out of barrel but of course that would do no good. And yeah- it is hard to tell when a .17 caliber bore is toast aint it? When I had the barrel replaced the gunsmith doing to work was astonished that it was shooting as well as it was. He cut off about 4" of my barrel (chamber end of course) and showed it to me. Not a hint of rifling in it. Oops.

I dont keep good count on my total number of shots but I know that it was way more than a couple thousand. I dont (OK, rarely) shoot my .17 Remmy hot so that may have helped. Got a Lilja on there now and boy howdy does it shoot. Come springtime (will it ever get here?) I plan on launching a few hundreds ground squirrels with it again this year. Sure a lot easier to do with a new barrel on it.
 
I remember you posting about yours going south. I worked this one over pretty good, with Bore tech eliminator, jb paste and bore bright, concentrating on any carbon rings. The first group I though I had it, then it fell apart again. We are talking moa 3 shot groups at 200 yds, some bigger. It looks like I had some keyholes from before I cleaned it up. I couldn't believe it and thought at first they were chips off of a steel plate close by I was shooting, but steel chips rarely take the shape of 17 cal vmax lol. I did get it pretty hot once last summer.

I'm going to miss my feathered creature exploder! Can't decide on another 17 or a 20 of some sort.
 
Originally Posted By: 204 AR

I'm going to miss my feathered creature exploder! Can't decide on another 17 or a 20 of some sort.

Not sure if you are aware if it, but now it's perfectly fine to have both a .17 and .20 caliber centerfire! Even more if you want! Praise the Lord!
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I guess that I could give up my .204 before I could my .17 Remington. But I will admit that for an all around gun the .204 makes more sense. It's just that after closing in on 40 years of owning a .17 Remmy that does tend to make one pretty fond of them. At least me anyway.
 
I was shooting some hp varmageddons the other day. It would still kill a coyote at 200 yds, but it wouldn't hit a bottle cap like it used to. Ironically there wasn't much copper, even after an all night soak with Bore tech, followed by Barnes cr10.

I'd be happy to send it to you for evaluation.
 
You don't indicate what velocities you are loading, but if you are reaching near, or above, 4000 fps, I'm guessing that your throat is pretty well toast...You can spend some bucks on a gunsmith or put those dollars toward a new barrel...All depending how important it is to hit that bottle cap...
 
Originally Posted By: RustydustOriginally Posted By: 204 AR

I'm going to miss my feathered creature exploder! Can't decide on another 17 or a 20 of some sort.

Not sure if you are aware if it, but now it's perfectly fine to have both a .17 and .20 caliber centerfire! Even more if you want! Praise the Lord!
w00t.gif


I guess that I could give up my .204 before I could my .17 Remington. But I will admit that for an all around gun the .204 makes more sense. It's just that after closing in on 40 years of owning a .17 Remmy that does tend to make one pretty fond of them. At least me anyway.

Man it is a tough call. Now that I'm running suppressors, I may skip the AR thing and go with bolts. In fact I just ordered a RAP 204, I hope it shoots like the same rifle in 6.5 creed I have. Just stupid accurate, much less for a $400 rifle.

The really bad thing is my heavy barreled 204 AR that has been murdering pdogs the last 8 years is going bad also. Maybe moa at 200 yds, and copper fouling badly. But it's seen at least double what the 17 has. My hot-rods are wearing out!
 
Originally Posted By: OldTurtleYou don't indicate what velocities you are loading, but if you are reaching near, or above, 4000 fps, I'm guessing that your throat is pretty well toast...You can spend some bucks on a gunsmith or put those dollars toward a new barrel...All depending how important it is to hit that bottle cap...

Oh yeah, about 4200 with 20 grainers.

The thing with 17's, they have to be precise. They are just no fun if you can't hit the small targets.

Yeah I've shot out several barrels. At this point you're just wasting powder trying to save it, and even if you improve it somewhat it won't last long.
 
Mines not a 17-223, 17 Fireball with 20gr Vmaxs @ 4025fps with a 16 tube, but i have put 1000 rounds thru mine in 2 days shooting sage rats 3 years in a row (3000 rounds) and i have shot a bunch of PD's and other varmints, Buy the end of this may I will have over 5000 rounds thru mine and i don't have a issue hitting Sage rats @ 300/350yds but there not bottle caps either
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Have you played with your loads/seating depth? with only 1500 rounds thru it you should be able to tweak it some to get the Bottle caps back!
 
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