7,500 rounds down a .223 barrel

[Mordamer]

I bought a Remington 700 SPS Tactical in 2010. Since then I have put approximately 7,500 reloaded rounds through the barrel. Most of those rounds were 69 grain Sierra HPBT bullets loaded with 25.5 grains of Varget. Lately I have been using 25.5 grains of IMR 8208 XBR with the 73 ELD-M. Accuracy is still very good at about 1 MOA.

Bore scoped the barrel for the first time and this is what the rifling looks like right at the throat:


Not so pretty.

This is about halfway down the bore:


For comparison this new unfired Bartlein 5R rifling:


I thought it was interesting how bad a barrel can look and still shoot 1 MOA. I plan to keep shooting the crap out of it. Prairie Dogs and Coyotes won't know the difference.

Since I am uploading pictures here are a few more:

.223 throat on a Remington 700 5R with about 5,000 rounds fired.


Hawk Hill 6.5x47 Lapua with 800 rounds fired:

 

[NWnewguy]

Cool post. Are these pics with the Lyman borescope deal?
Either way pretty interesting. Don't calculate how much money it cost to shoot 7,500 223 rounds with 69gr Matchkings and 25grs of Varget. It could scare you.

 

[308pirate]

Run some Tubb TMS bullets through that and I bet it will improve.

 

[Mordamer]

The pics were taken with the Lyman borescope.

 

[Niznac]

Here are some pics of the Throat area of a Chrome-lined AR with aprox 4000rds reported through it. The rest of the barrel was perfectly smooth(except for the gas port).

 

[cageli]

1 moa for most people shooting matches is no go, but fun range time always yeah even 2-3 moa

 

[steve123]

What I notice first when a barrel is going is flyers at distance and the 100Y groups aren't what they used to be, well a flyer at 100Y is why it's a 1+ moa rifle now vs what it was 100 rounds before. I just had this happen last weekend but saw the same thing on my last barrel. For some reason I can't stand retiring a barrel early, lol.

I've had 3 barrels do this exact same thing, "literally"!!! two of them did this at the same two day match exactly 1 year apart, one with 2400 rounds through it so I thought I was safe with 1500 rounds through the next, but no. On day two of that match at the 100Y paper stage, both those barrels went from sub moa on Saturday to 2 moa on Sunday, and it was confirmed when I got home to test them.

The one from last weekend went from decently tagging a 16" wide steel at 1900Y on a Friday to only scaring it the next day in similar calmish conditions, I couldn't hit the same target and I fired 20 rounds at it. Then at 1122Y as test a few days ago the vertical was almost 2 moa with flyers. Fortunately I have another barrel in a different cartridge I can screw on after I shoot these last 25 rounds.

Over 1 moa for anything precision related is ghastly.