When is it time to invest in a new barrel?

[Alan]

At what point does a drop in accuracy make you think about replacing a barrel? How many rounds did you fire before you made that decision? Also, please mention the caliber and what you plan to use it for.

 

[Loneranger04]

Different calibers , of course, wear barrels differently. Generally speaking the .22 centerfire barrels running bullets at 4000 fps or there abouts eat barrels pretty fast but barrels are eaten up by heat. Hotter powders, rate of fire and faster speeds. If you’re talking about long range rifles like 6mm or 6.5 they’re usually changed in the 1800-2200 round range where the older slower and more ballistically challenged .308 will last twice as long or longer. If you’re talking about pistol barrels or say .22 rimfire barrels then poor maintenance procedures destroys way more of them than wear.

 

[cp1969]

I had an early Remington 700 .22-250 that was a tack driver. It had been shot a lot when I got it and I, too, shot it a lot. I really have no idea of how many rounds went through it. Somebody have me some factory ammo and it tumbled but would still shoot about a 2" group at 100 yards. But my handloaded ammo would do a lot better than that. I used 55 grain bullets in it.