Is It Possible To Wear Out A Barrel?

[marks]

The current discussions about no more barrel importation got me thinking... Is it even possible to wear out a tommy barrel? How many rounds would it take? Assuming the barrel was new could you even erode a throat too make a difference or make the barrel BER during normal use? How else could you wear one out?

 

Was just wondering.

[21 smoker]

Marks,...if you shoot lead bullets,not in your lifetime would you wear a barrel out...jacketted is another story...a little common sense in regards to barrel heat..let the gun cool off in between drum dumps..hth.. http://www.machinegunbooks.com/forums/invboard1_1_2/upload/html/emoticons/wink.gif

[marks]

I do shoot all jacketed stuff but don't lean on it like I'm inclined too on other guns. 50 rd L drum dumps are about the most between cool downs.

[PK.]

Barrel erosion (particularly in the throat) is primarily a function of temperature, pressure, and the volume of gas available to do the work. The 45acp has little of any of these and is notoriously easy on barrels.

 

While I have not conducted any melt down tests, I do not believe that you own enough drums to heat your Thomson barrel up to damaging levels. I don’t think even Mike (fullauto45) has that many drums.

 

I agree that lead is easier than guiding metal, but am not worried. One reason is that barrels are relatively cheap.

 

Shoot the heck out of it and enjoy it. If it starts keyholing, we’ll stick a new barrel on.

 

 

 

[Z3BigDaddy]

Hmmmm.... My first thought was..... If you have enuff cash to buy all the ammo it would take to wear out a barrel, why should the cost of barrel replacement be a concern? YMMV and jmho

[JimFromFL]

Wearing out the barrel has two meanings.

1 - rifling is gone

2 - point of aim is off.

 

You will tend to do more damage by doing multiple drum dumps and more than likely the point of aim will change before you actually wear the barrel down.

 

I experienced this with the repro barrels, but also know someone with a 1921 and an original barrel that shot high and to the left.

 

This is why i have 3 barrels on hand ready to be swapped out.

[Glen Whittenberger]

http://www.machinegunbooks.com/forums/invboard1_1_2/upload/html/emoticons/sad.gif Yes !!!

WH barrels are only good for 15,000 rounds of ball. Military barrels are good for 20,000 rounds of ball. I had some barrels carbo-nitriated, they lasted about 35,000 rounds of ball ( not cost effective, but saved changing so much ).

I have used 8 barrels in 225,000 rounds in my WH. http://www.machinegunbooks.com/forums/invboard1_1_2/upload/html/emoticons/wink.gif It is still running !!!!

[Zamm]

Phil,

Great idea. I would be very curious about the amount

of wear and tear WH's can take compared to Mil specs.

Glen could sure cue us in along those lines.

Z

[Merry Ploughboy]

Would this be the famous "welded up and re-welded up WH receiver" Glen W.?

[john]

The barrel on my '28 has over 12K through it by me, and probably another 3-4K from the previous owner (a friend) and it' s still very consistent, with good rifling. I try to run a brush and a few patches down it every 4-5C rounds at the most, so it never gets too grubby. It's the carbon residue that's abrasive, so even if you just run a patch down the tube every couple hundred rounds you'll get many rounds more through it. http://www.machinegunbooks.com/forums/invboard1_1_2/upload/html/emoticons/tongue.gif

 

john