barrel life

[Rocky Raab]

What kills barrels is heat. Get the throat steel too hot and it burns, plain and simple.

How it gets that hot can get complicated.

The more powder you burn, the higher the heat potential of the burning gas, so heavy-charge loads create more heat.

The faster you shoot (rounds per minute) with any charge amount, the more heat gets deposited n the throat.

The lower the expansion ratio (volume of cartridge case plus bore volume compared to cartridge volume alone) the more pressure -and hence heat- is concentrated within the bore for longer times. This one may be difficult to imagine. But the bottom line is that big cases with small bullets create more throat damage than small case/larger bullet combos.

In this particular instance (a 40-gr bullet at a moderate 3600 fps from a .22-250) the load is not particularly intense. Pace your shots and you needn't worry about burning the barrel out for years and years.