What can damage a SS barrel?

[gt40]

Such an epic pain in the ass if you shoot a lot.

For a .338 bolt gun, completely worth it. For a .223 gas gun? I did it for a while, but I'd rather just cough up the dough and save tons of hours of my life.

I have a Dillon XL-650 with an electric case feeder and load more than 600 in an hour easily.

[elephantrider]

Yea I figure if I'm able to shoot out a barrel I can buy a new one and throw the old one up on the trophy case. I just don't want to screw it up being ignorant.

The BCM uppers are an excellent price but I'm not a fan of the shiny finish. I've read you can have it bead blasted, who does work like that and would known what they're doing?


Where can I find that? Ive been seeing that stuff for about $50 a box.

I think the only ammo that might "damage" the barrel might be the cheap Russian steel case stuff. In that case it may not even be damage so much as just accelerated wear from the jacket material and powders that they use. Some really cheap copper bullet jackets can leave behind excess copper fouling that negatively effect accuracy until it is cleaned or shot out.
The most likely culprit for damaging a barrel would be improper cleaning technique, or tools, or cleaning to frequently. Probably more barrels damaged or worn out this way than being shot out.

Bead blasting can be used on a barrel to take the polished SS finish down to satin, or even dull grey depending on the grit of bead media used. Aluminum Oxide can also be used to make very dull finish that is also the perfect prep for paint. Bead blasting is simple for anyone with a blast cabinet, air compressor, and some sense. It gets a bit more complicated if this is an assembled upper that needs to be disassembled and reassembled. A stripped barrel is super easy to do. I could easily do it for you.

Thats a lot cheaper than I was thinking high quality ammo would be!

Can you use the Birchwood Casey gun blue on the Stainless barrels instead of paint it? I've never seen anything mentioned about that.
I may just cerakote the whole thing but I doubt ill go that far with it.

Cold blues, or any type of blueing, would not work on a stainless barrel. There are some "black" treatments out there but they either aren't for the DIY type projects, or just don't work very well. Personally I think a $200 Cerakote job is a little silly on an AR. I like to strip my guns down and do a DIY job with Aervoe rattle can if I want something other than black or stainless. If I want the gray stainless look, I'll just bead/media blast.

[Koshinn]

I have a Dillon XL-650 with an electric case feeder and load more than 600 in an hour easily.

What's the average group size you get out of your Dillon? What's the muzzle velocity SD?

[gt40]

Koshinn,

My Colt M4 Lower with a Geissele SSA-E trigger and a WOA 18" Varmint Fluted upper with a 1 in 7" twist consistently groups much smaller than a dime with 69 grain Match Kings at 100 yds. which I reload with my XL-650. Even with factory ammo it will group 1/2" or less. It is a real good shooter. I have a Bushnell AR/.223 Tactical scope with 4.5-18x40mm zoom and at 18 power I can see my bullet holes at 100 yds. I do not know what the velocity is, but I use CCI BR4s with a maximum load of Varget.

Look here at Post #10 to see the rifle:

https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread...recision-AR-15

[bp7178]

I have a Dillon XL-650 with an electric case feeder and load more than 600 in an hour easily.

Loading isn't the problem. Case prep is.

[gt40]

Loading isn't the problem. Case prep is.

OOPS, I do prep all my cases and have never had a hiccup.I put the cases in my Dillon vibrator with the cleaning media and run them through their spinning strainer and then spray them with Dillons paraffin lube and then after they are dry I dump them into the case feeder. For me the case prep is the easiest.

[Koshinn]

Loading isn't the problem. Case prep is.

Truer words have never been spoken.

[bp7178]

Don't get me wrong, I had a load using LC 09 brass bump sized for my rifle that with 55 gr Hornady FMJ-BT bullets, IMR 8208XBR powder and Tula primers would hover just under 1 moa. It was ridiculous how much precision you could squeeze from even low cost bulk bullets. Everything had to be pretty meticulous to pull it off. I liked having absolute QC over my ammunition. But, in the end I'd rather pay more and enjoy my other hobbies.