Noveske barrel life?

[greene]

How is one to judge the life of a barrel? As far as the stainless barrel goes if it starts off more accurate than a chrome lined barrel is it considered worn out after it stops shooting x size groups? How do you tell when it's time to change it out? If it's already more accurate than the chrome lined barrel wouldn't it just start shooting groups closer to the size of the chrome lined one? Any input on these stainless barrels is appreciated. Thanks...

[Belmont31R]

It depends on your personal needs of the barrel.


If you shooting some type of matches where accuracy is a must a barrel could be considered worn out after less than 5k rounds.


Others may consider it worn out when it starts key-holing rounds which will be significantly more than 5k rounds under normal shooting circumstances.


My Stealth upper was still shooting sub MOA groups with match ammo at around 7k rounds. Lucky for us 223/556 is actually pretty easy on barrels. Some of the super mag type rounds will wear a barrel out in the 1k round range.

[greene]

Thanks Belmont, but do you know if these barrels will start key holing rounds first after a certain amount of rounds or does the group size just open up? I recently purchased a recon barrel and am hoping to make a long lasting 200 yard laser beam upper with this barrel. It will be shot a lot, and now I'm second guesing my barrel choice and thinking I should have just got another chrome lined recce upper from him or for the price went with the BCM middy. I mean this barrel isn't going to just shut down after a certain round count it will keep spittin' rounds out and hitting 6 inch plates if I do my part right?

[OneUp]

I'm going to assume that we're talking about one of Noveske's stainless barrels. If so, John claims that the design of the rifling gives a very gradual transition at the end of the barrels life. Here's an interview where he discussed this (about 3/4 the way down)...

http://www.defensereview.com/noveske-rifleworks-n4-light-recce-carbine-john-noveske-interview-part-one/

[Colt6920]

Thanks Belmont, but do you know if these barrels will start key holing rounds first after a certain amount of rounds or does the group size just open up? I recently purchased a recon barrel and am hoping to make a long lasting 200 yard laser beam upper with this barrel. It will be shot a lot, and now I'm second guesing my barrel choice and thinking I should have just got another chrome lined recce upper from him or for the price went with the BCM middy. I mean this barrel isn't going to just shut down after a certain round count it will keep spittin' rounds out and hitting 6 inch plates if I do my part right?

As long as you are not just burning through ammo like its free that barrel is gonna last you a long time. I have searched on this subject alot over the years and have seen reports of stainless barrels of all types[noveske, larue,douglass ect] lasting way beyond 10,000 rounds and that is the typical quoted life of a chrome lined barrel, so I would'nt second guess it just enjoy the hell out of it. I only have about 900 rds through mine right now but I dont worry about how long it will last anymore after some of what I have read.

[Belmont31R]

Thanks Belmont, but do you know if these barrels will start key holing rounds first after a certain amount of rounds or does the group size just open up? I recently purchased a recon barrel and am hoping to make a long lasting 200 yard laser beam upper with this barrel. It will be shot a lot, and now I'm second guesing my barrel choice and thinking I should have just got another chrome lined recce upper from him or for the price went with the BCM middy. I mean this barrel isn't going to just shut down after a certain round count it will keep spittin' rounds out and hitting 6 inch plates if I do my part right?

There is no one round count number where the barrel will just give up and start key holing. It all depends on your shooting schedule and ammo you use. 556 burns hotter, and degrades barrels faster than plain ol 223.

You could potentially wear a barrel out doing FA mag dumps in a couple thousand rounds but that goes for many barrels not just SS.

I would not feel short-changed getting an SS barrel. It takes many more thousands worth of ammo to wear one out than the barrel itself costs.