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Posted: 1/12/2006 6:41:23 AM EDT
| How long can I expect a chrome lined, Bushmaster barrel to last in semi-auto fire? I'm thinking of buying one with 6-8,000 rounds fired. Can I expect another 20,000 rounds before I need to replace it? |
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MTBF for the M4 is 9600 rounds... barrel life is dependent on heat probably more than anything (granted, most barrels are killed by users that just treat them wrong) so the difference between slow fire, rapid fire, substained fire and full-auto fire has a large impact on this. The barrels that last to 20K are out there, the ones that I know of are made from grades of steel that are not common or are on guns that live an easy life of casual shooting and proper care. Without any knowledge of how a barrel was used and cared for, I would consider a barrel with 8K to be nearing the end of its service life... but this also depends on what you expect as far as accuracy goes? You may want to gauge the barrel and check it that way? |
While CLP is good enough for expediate cleaning for a job like this I'd use a serious bore cleaner like Sweets 7.62, (be sure and follow the directions as this is not some mamby-pamby bore cleaner but serious stuff). FWIW, I use this to clean my ARs and rinse the Sweets out, (prior to lubing w/ CLP) using the non-methanol SuperTech 2000 carb cleaner sold at Walmart, (works well). Mike E.T.A - FWIW, as to the original question, I'm with PASS crowd, (too many rounds down the tube, under un-known conditions....) |
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