Henry Rifle Forums

Curious, how many rounds can you shoot in the same barrel before..? Like any metal, assume wear is happening in there. There's a lot of old guns out there that still shoot fine I am guessing. Thoughts or experiences?

Way to many variables with the barrel and ammunition to even attempt an opinion.

Lead is a lot softer than steel and even jacketed bullets will not cause excessive wear. When primers were still corrosive and some of the gun powder burned with a flame cutter effect, barrel life , most likely on target rifles that were shot a lot , could have been a concern. Now I would think that careless cleaning would be an enemy of good accuracy.

my experience is based on hunting rifles/revolvers .... I'm pretty sure that it may not apply to precision/long range firearms .... the faster the bullets, the faster the wear .... our Remington 700 chambered for 300 WBY Mag spits 180 gr Noslers out at 3,200 fps .... I have no doubt that she ain't as accurate as she used to be but she's still much more accurate than I am .... I bought it for big game hunting and I don't have to be able to put its bullets all in the same hole to put a critter down .... with all the memories tied up in it, there is no way I'd ever want to let it go .... if necessary, I'd rebarrel it .... our Henry BBS 44 Mag has had untold thousands of round fired through it at roughly half the fps of the Weatherby and if its barrel is worn enough to influence its accuracy, I certainly haven't noticed .... in thinking about it, I hope to be able to shoot it enough to where I had to worry about having the barrel replaced ..

That is a good question. That is one of the reasons that I lean towards a new firearm. Below is a short and long answer that I have came across:

Short:
https://www.accurateshooter.com/technic ... 0or%20less.

Long:
https://youtu.be/hxRSPSWmkz0