BTM

My M70 Stealth has about 2500 rounds down the pipe. I haven't had time to take it to a 'smith, so was curious how many rounds you think that carbon barrel is good for. What's been your experience?

Also: What SS barrel would you recommend when I need to get a new one?

Roskoe

Although it has a lot to do with how hot the rounds were loaded, how heavy the bulletsare,and how much the barrel was heated up as rounds were fired through it; I would say you are getting pretty close to the end of the accurate life of the barrel. If you know a gunsmith or gunshop in your area that has a Hawkeye bore scope, you could see how much wear has been imparted in the first couple of inches of the rifling. Bottom line is that if it still shoots OK, keep on shooting it.

There are a lot of good stainless barrels out there. Many Douglas and Shilen barrels are plenty accurate enough for varmint hunting. The more expensive ones - like Hart, Krieger, Lilja, etc - tend to be even more accurate and are easier to clean. But each barrel is its own little DNA molecule and you really don't know how they are going to shoot or what bullets/loads they are going to like until you start playing with it.

BTM

Thanks, Roskoe. The loads are pretty hot. Will have a 'smith look down the pipe.

Hairtrigger

Shooting at paper should tell you as much as a gunsmith will.
I have an old Sako in 22-250 that the throat looks like hell but it still shoots well enough to consistantly hit woodchucks at 350 yards

Vapodog

Darn right.....forget the smith...let the gun tell ya!!!!!!!

BTM

The reason I posted is that lately I've been missingsome squirrel shots that should've been dead on. Will punch some paper this weekend and see what it says.

RustyOlRanger4x4

run a light down it and look your self you can usually see anything wierd with it, other then that take it out and do some shooting from a good rest and you`ll see how its doing.

superslam

Find yourself a gundealer that has an airgauge to check the bore and the rifling.also try some lapping compound and a good cleaning kit if you havent tried that already .HOPE THIS HELPS By the way,Rusty, according to your pic you need help dude.......LOL

DennyF

When it no longer prints acceptable,repeatable groups atthe range, it's time to worry about atrip to the gunsmith.

My oldest 22-250 probably has wellover 3,000 bullets down the barrel in the past 28 years and still groups very well. It's never seen more than a handful of maximum loads and those were back when I was still working up loads for it, when I first bought it.

Accuracy is fine with less than max powder charges, case life is great and the woodchucks don't know the difference between a3600fps Btipand a3700fps Btip anyway. ;O)

Had a buddythat rebarreled his M700 varminter in 6mm Rem. many years ago,when it would no longer put five in one raggedhole @ 100yds. Think the groups had "opened up" to adreadful 3/4" when he spent about $300 for a new 26" SS Douglas. Several years and thousands of rounds later when the Douglass groupsopened to about a half inch, asked him is he was gonna buy himanother barrel. He said nah, ain't as fussy as I was back then and the 'chucks are still flying through the air.