I just picked up my first .308 a few days ago, and I finally took it to the range yesterday. After firing about 8 rounds through the rifle, the barrel was almost to hot to touch. I let it cool for about 10min. before I ran a few more rounds through it.

What's the rule when it comes to a hot barrel? How hot can it get before you need to let it cool?

By the way, the rifle is a CZ 550 Varmint Laminate heavy barrel

If you had a FAL I would say get it as hot as you want, but since you have a precision bolt gun I would say take it easy on it.  Abusing the barrel will reduce the life of it and you will have a quicker fall off on accuracy.

BTW Useless without pics!

You haven't seen hot until you've dumped 10 20 rd mags out of an fal in in under 3 minutes.

Barrels are going to get hot, don't worry about that.

10 rounds won't be enough to alter accuracy, hell I run 800 rounds through my HBAR AR-15 within a few minutes and my accuracy hasn't altered even a mm.

Now, I suggest you take a little more care of your bolt but don't worry about 10 rounds heating your barrel. You're supposed to shoot on a warm barrel for accuracy anyway!

If you appreciate accuracy heat is a worry. Weakining the barrel due to heat to increase vibration is not the worry, throat errosion is.
If you shoot a light barrel bolt gun shoot a few rounds then pick up the other rifle you brought to the range. If I am shooting my hunting rifles I rotate them to allow one to cool.

Thanks for the info guys.....here are some pics

nice looking rifle imq


I need to get a .308 bolt gun

nice rifle !!

is the action hard to work on that one ??

Quoted: I just picked up my first .308 a few days ago, and I finally took it to the range yesterday. After firing about 8 rounds through the rifle, the barrel was almost to hot to touch. I let it cool for about 10min. before I ran a few more rounds through it. What's the rule when it comes to a hot barrel? How hot can it get before you need to let it cool? By the way, the rifle is a CZ 550 Varmint Laminate heavy barrel

A large part of it is also what was the ambient temp, were you shooting under a cover in the shade, etc. All of those will influence how fast the barrel heats up.

Being a new barrel, I suggest you do the proper break in procedures for it. It will take you awhile, but will be worth it as far as accuracy goes in the long run.

Quoted: nice rifle !! is the action hard to work on that one ??

No, it seems pretty smooth. My buddy has the exact same rifle in 22-250, and his bolt seems a little smoother though.

Quoted: Quoted: I just picked up my first .308 a few days ago, and I finally took it to the range yesterday. After firing about 8 rounds through the rifle, the barrel was almost to hot to touch. I let it cool for about 10min. before I ran a few more rounds through it. What's the rule when it comes to a hot barrel? How hot can it get before you need to let it cool? By the way, the rifle is a CZ 550 Varmint Laminate heavy barrel A large part of it is also what was the ambient temp, were you shooting under a cover in the shade, etc. All of those will influence how fast the barrel heats up. Being a new barrel, I suggest you do the proper break in procedures for it. It will take you awhile, but will be worth it as far as accuracy goes in the long run.

Can you give me some more info on this "break in procedure".

I've heard lots of people tell me the complete oposite when it comes to breaking in a barrel.  Some say "clean it, and shoot it.....there, it's broke in".  Others say "run 50 rounds through it,cleaning in between every 5th round".  

What's the right way....if any ?

Touch is not a good way to determine temperature.

140°F is too hot to hold your hand on.

A black object sitting in the sun will easily get this hot.

Leave a shiny chrome wrench lying in the sun and you can't pick it up.

I use Microlon Gun Juice.  Clean the barrel, swab it with Gun Juice, shoot one round, repeat for 10 or 12 rounds, or when shots stop rising.  I just got a CZ 550 American in 6.5x55, that's how I broke it in, and how I did most of my rifles.

Can you give me some more info on this "break in procedure". I've heard lots of people tell me the complete oposite when it comes to breaking in a barrel.  Some say "clean it, and shoot it.....there, it's broke in".  Others say "run 50 rounds through it,cleaning in between every 5th round".   What's the right way....if any ?

Clean
Shoot & clean after every shot for 10 shots
Shoot 3 and clean after every 3 for 9 shots
Shoot 5 and clean after every 5 for 10 total shots.
Have fun.

In my bolt gun, I usually stop when the barrel is too hot to grab and hold on to while shooting from the shade.

Worrying about your rifle barrel getting hot is like worrying about your car's coolant gauge at 190 degrees.

Quoted: Worrying about your rifle barrel getting hot is like worrying about your car's coolant gauge at 190 degrees.

Thanks....I'll remember that

Honestly, you are not going to be able to fire that bolt gun fast enough to make heat a problem.

You really should do a break-in though.  Mine is a bore swab with Sweets 7.62  after every round for the first 100 rds.  Wet patch followed by dry patch.  

Quoted: Honestly, you are not going to be able to fire that bolt gun fast enough to make heat a problem.

you guys can't be serious.


that maybe the case during winter,   how often do you go to the range during the summer

Quoted: Quoted: Honestly, you are not going to be able to fire that bolt gun fast enough to make heat a problem.   you guys can't be serious. that maybe the case during winter,   how often do you go to the range during the summer

The difference between summer and winter here is 30 degrees at the most.

Seriously.  it's a 5-shot bolt gun. Heat only really becomes a problem with barrel erosion or warping.  How in the hell is he going to maintain that rate of fire? Do you know anyone that fires a bolt gun at a rate of over 60 rounds a minute?  That's pretty much what it would take.

Lots of folks shoot bolt guns in highpower matches. No one sees a heat problem there.  

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Honestly, you are not going to be able to fire that bolt gun fast enough to make heat a problem.   you guys can't be serious. that maybe the case during winter,   how often do you go to the range during the summer The difference between summer and winter here is 30 degrees at the most. Seriously.  it's a 5-shot bolt gun. Heat only really becomes a problem with barrel erosion or warping.  How in the hell is he going to maintain that rate of fire? Do you know anyone that fires a bolt gun at a rate of over 60 rounds a minute?  That's pretty much what it would take. Lots of folks shoot bolt guns in highpower matches. No one sees a heat problem there.

It's around 90 here in the summer, and about 30 in the winter....so that's way more than a 30 degree sweep.  All I know is that after shooting 10 rounds through my .308 in about 5 min, the barrel was so hot that I could not hold my hand on it more than 2-3 seconds without it starting to hurt pretty bad. My 7mm RM was the same way...it heated up really fast.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Honestly, you are not going to be able to fire that bolt gun fast enough to make heat a problem.   you guys can't be serious. that maybe the case during winter,   how often do you go to the range during the summer The difference between summer and winter here is 30 degrees at the most. Seriously.  it's a 5-shot bolt gun. Heat only really becomes a problem with barrel erosion or warping.  How in the hell is he going to maintain that rate of fire? Do you know anyone that fires a bolt gun at a rate of over 60 rounds a minute?  That's pretty much what it would take. Lots of folks shoot bolt guns in highpower matches. No one sees a heat problem there.   It's around 90 here in the summer, and about 30 in the winter....so that's way more than a 30 degree sweep.  All I know is that after shooting 10 rounds through my .308 in about 5 min, the barrel was so hot that I could not hold my hand on it more than 2-3 seconds without it starting to hurt pretty bad. My 7mm RM was the same way...it heated up really fast.

You should never fire more than 10 rounds if you want to hold your barrel for more than 2-3 seconds and not hurt your hand.

If you want to avoid hurting your rifle, you should never figure out away to make your bolt gun fully automatic and feed it with a belt.

Automatic weapons usually fire from the open bolt because an automatic weapon can get sufficiently hot to cook off a round if it were put in the hot chamber.

Your rifle has a heavy barrel, it will take slightly longer to get to temperature than a hunting rifle without heavy barrel.  Once your rifle gets to temperature it will stay at temperature longer due to its substantially greater mass than a hunting barrel.

Touch is not a good indicator of temperature.  If you are really concerned, get an infrared thermometer and check the temperature.  

Metal objects transfer heat very well.  If you left your rifle out in the hot sun, without firing it at all, the barrel would get hot enough that you couldn't touch it for more than 2-3 seconds.  140°F is hot enough that you can't hold a metal object at that temperature for more than 2-3 seconds without feeling pain.  

The number of copper jacketed rounds fired is not a problem as far as heat is concerned.   The rate that you fire them will determine the temperature that your barrel will reach.

Manufacturers of semi-automatic weapons will often give a sustained fire rate that you need to stay below to avoid problems.

I am not sure whether a bolt gun would have such a rating published by the manufacturer,   but bolt guns are not typically fired very fast anyway.

You might get better answers from people by asking how many rounds per hour do they fire through their bolt guns.

When I first bought  my 300 RUM there was no reloading data available so I decided to work up my own.  Even though I had been reloading for  a lot of years, I asked this same question because I knew I would be shooting a lot more than usual and didn't want to burn the rifling out of it too quickly. (Think of a cutting torch flashing down the bore each time you pull the trigger)

I didn't really like the answer I got  but followed it anyway.  A minimum of 2 minutes between shots to allow the heat from the chamber/bore to equalize thruout the barrel and no more than 5 shots in  a string.  I know, I know.... but I was Developing loads, not blasting rocks.

These days I only shoot it while hunting  but that sendero now has over 2500 rounds thru it and still holds a bit less than 1 moa with a variety of bullets ... I'm fairly sure I
didn't consistently over heat the barrel.

FWIW, I put a thermometer down the bore when it was 90F+ at the range and the temps seemed to stabilize at about 113-115F for the next shot  when following this routine.

I don't think match shooters worry about it because barrels are expendable for them.

YMMV, but a 308 will probably heat your barrel less than that 300 .