What to do with a burned out rifle barrel

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Jan 3, 2019
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A friend of mine recently got a high end custom rifle that he was handloading for. Ended up only getting roughly 25 rounds through it before the barrel (presumably) burnt out.

He was loading his ammo as hot as he could and it is out of a .264 win mag. He noticed significant loss if velocity (from 3400 to 2100) and his bullets were hitting lower at 100 (proving it wasnt chronograph error).

Now he is looking at getting another barrel for his rifle.

Is there anything that can be done with his burnt out barrel? Or is it just trash that cant be rechambered? It seems unfortunate because its a nice carbon barrel too.

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Oct 27, 2018
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Super hot overbore cartridges still last 300-400 rounds. Something is certainly going wrong there.
 

woods89

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He was loading his ammo as hot as he could and it is out of a .264 win mag. He noticed significant loss if velocity (from 3400 to 2100) and his bullets were hitting lower at 100 (proving it wasnt chronograph error).
Any details on his load and loading process? I don't have any experience with a 264 WM but someone here will have.

I'd certainly advise not shooting it until you get something figured out.
 

Mojave

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I burned out a 7.82 Warbird in 200 rounds.

25 seems kind of BS to me.
 
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How did he work up to find the "max" with only 25 rounds? Or was this 25 rounds after finding max? When I work up loads 25 rounds would only be 5 different charges of one powder. I would still be trying find a powder bullet and primer combo that my gun likes then I still need to play with seating depth.
 
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a_noob_hunter
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No he has only shot 25-30 rounds. Not much at. All these were loaded really hot, too hot sometimes with pressure signs with a couple times the primer blown out.

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a_noob_hunter
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How did he work up to find the "max" with only 25 rounds? Or was this 25 rounds after finding max? When I work up loads 25 rounds would only be 5 different charges of one powder. I would still be trying find a powder bullet and primer combo that my gun likes then I still need to play with seating depth.
He reloaded his rounds going off of reloading books. He had 5 different books to base information off of and just tried different powder combinations. Havent played with seating depth at all yet.

"Max" was found by judging how much pressure signs there and by playing around with different powder loads.

I too have a really hard time believing that its burned out, especially since its hardly even broken in. Break in procedure was followed precisely, yet somethings wrong since it's losing significant velocity and dropping off significantly.

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Scorpion

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What kind of scale is he using to weigh his charges? Double check with a verified and calibrated scale?

The barrel should be able to be rebored to a larger diameter caliber but I am skeptic that it is “burnt out”, even with a max charge.
 

def90

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Whats the twist rate and bullet weight?

No way a barrel is burnt after 25 rounds unless he's shooting proof rounds.

You're friend isn't following a reloading manual if this is the case.
 

Wrench

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Super hard carbon ring is my guess. Bore scope it before you spend the $$.

You're probably looking at a no fun cleaning session and then a few hundred rounds of happiness after that.
 
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