Anyone here actually wear out a PCP barrel?

[mtnGhost]

Curious if anyone here has actually shot a PCP barrel enough to wear it out to the point of lost accuracy. I also can't help but wonder how many shots a PCP with moderate pressure (~140 bar or so) shooting harder slugs would take before wearing down the throat / bore to such a point.

I can't even guess to what that number would be. 50K, 100K, 1 million?

 

[vdwb]

IMHO I cannot imagine a PCP barrel ever wearing out with the low pressures, soft lead, no copper jackets and no heat as opposed to burning powder and very high chamber pressures. Just my opinion, I'm not an engineer.

 

[rangur1]

interesting question , i would think an fx barrel with it's small groves with minimal friction on pellets would last long. LW barrels if made same as for firearms would last almost forever since no heat or powder used to corrode the barrel. lead buildup is only issue besides rust for airgun barrels as far as i can see. 

 

[Airgun-hobbyist]

I would think that if you were careful not to contaminate the bore with any abrasive materials and only shot soft pure lead (or close to it) then the DOM steel would last quite a long time, and especially if you used lubed projectiles. After seeing video of the Texan shooting copper recently I was wondering how a soft copper projectile would effect barrel wear over the long term as well.

 

[bucketboy]

Yes, someone I know shoots 500pellets through his gun 5 days a week and goes out hunting evenings and weekends with his .22 rapid. That’s 10000+ pellets a month, 120,000 a year. He changes his barrels every 4 or 5 years. The breech and choke are the worst worn areas. He keeps a log book of every day and every pigeon and rabbit he shoots, last time we spoke (about a year ago) he had shot something like 20,000 pigeons, almost as many rabbits and 2 million pellets. Not surprisingly, he is the best off hand shooter I have ever met.



Bb 

 

[Arzrover]

Hard for me to see how it would wear out, even at 120,000 a year. Did he document the accuracy decrease?

I've shot a couple of rifles well over 100,000 but not what he may have done before a barrel change. The ONLY one I've ever seen with signs of wear was a CR94 that had a documented 102,000 through it at that point with the wear being at the muzzle from him pulling a patch through after every 50 shot session. I trimmed off .100" and it was back to the same accuracy 

It's an interesting question though. AG barrels are typically softer steel than firearms..... even rimfires. Tom at AAA is using firearm barrels cut to AG dimensions as an additional level of longevity, last I knew. 

 

[John "spysir" Blount]

 Know of only 1 person who "wore out" a barrel on an airgun however I believe it was much as bucketfellow's example. It was a career 707 .25 long rifle. May have only had 100,000 shots, world class shooter and the accuracy was gone. Off to AZ for re-barrel & pickle & good as new (naturally it had never even needed an oring replaced as thing used to be).

Turned out after removing a small amount from the muzzle end (which would not allow re-use on a career) that barrel was still "golden". Had it been a different style rifle it would'nt have been "worn out" just needed a touch up, and likely from it being clean SO much as well as the 80 or so fpe every shot with hard Korean ammo.

Otherwise, nope they dont "wear out".



John

 

[Kinetic45]

Doubt a barrel would wear out but other parts of airguns sure wear out. I've seen some aluminum breaches worn by the steel bolt to the point they had to be replaced. Hammers that wore where the sear held them, brass valve stem guides wore till they leaked. And a few trigger components that wore out too.

Took a lot of shots but wear and tear happens eventually. And airguns are not made of the 'best' materials, some are made cheap but all are made of light weight materials that are more prone to wear, even the expensive guns.

 

[mtnGhost]

Doubt a barrel would wear out but other parts of airguns sure wear out. I've seen some aluminum breaches worn by the steel bolt to the point they had to be replaced. Hammers that wore where the sear held them, brass valve stem guides wore till they leaked. And a few trigger components that wore out too.

Took a lot of shots but wear and tear happens eventually. And airguns are not made of the 'best' materials, some are made cheap but all are made of light weight materials that are more prone to wear, even the expensive guns.

Yeah, it goes without saying that other major components will wear out faster than a barrel (especially things like hardened steel bolts in aluminum threaded pieces).

The topic here though regards barrel life and wear. Nothing lasts forever, and I just can't see PCP barrels being excluded from that. I'm beginning to believe that 100,000 shots isn't out of the realm of possibility, and it might actually be a good conservative, general estimate (and probably even longer for harder steels).

It's an interesting question IMO!

 

[TiredRooster]

Interesting subject. Yes, everything has a useful service life....everything. But I think it would be safe to say that the overwhelming majority of air gunners will never reach the end of their barrel's service life. Always exceptions of course......but it's nothing I think most would need to be concerned about. Other parts I am sure would fail far sooner than the barrel.