A frlitive of my wifes has a .222 Rem. that he bought in 1960. Since then it has rode in his pick-up and fired 1,000`s of rounds of ammo. Acouple of years ago he told me it just would shoot any more. I took it home and run 50 patches of Sweets 7.62 through the barrel and the last was as blue as the first. He had never used a copper soulvent on the barrel. Since I was tired of swabbing the barrel I took the gun out and shot it. I fired a 1/2 moa group with it and said that`s good enough for who it`s for, took it back in the house and put a coat of finish on the stock and took it home. I`ll get the rest of the copper out of the barrel when it quits shooting again, in another 20 years.
I`ve never seen a .222 barrel that was shot out, or for that matter a .223 barrel. If you don`t reload the .223 is probibly the round that you can find ammo for more places than any other round.