myth busters???? barrel eatn 25/06

[Evan03]

i noticed some think or possibly know the 2506 will have shorter barrel life when compared to other calibers. the 2506 is overbore and does have the potential to be a burner.

from my exsperinces with reloading the caliber and shooting countless numbers of pills down range and at varmits im going to say that it cant be all that bad.

ive loaded alot of 75rgr vmaxes bout as fast as youd ever wanna take them, 85gr nolser bts to theyre limit and 100gr bts, not to mention tryin some 100gr partitions, (didnt care for them)

back when i started reloading i for the 2506 i had this crazy idea of getn 75gr vmax to fly at 22/250 velocities, 3800fps plus. with the thought of breakn 4000 in the back of my head. wich never happend. though i did come close and soon realized acuracy want there with the full tilt loads so i bumped er down, load ended up if i remember right in the high 37's

i did the same with the 85 and 100gr nosler bts. pushed them as fast as theyd acuratly go. after trying nolser most acuarate pet load, wich is where i think i ended up with these.

i had things all set up to burn out the tube. being young and dumb i wanted speed and little more. the 2506 has taught me alot when it comes to reloading and shooting in general. id actualy say this gun got me to where im at now. loading lower velocity 270wsm loads is where im at today.

anyways im gona try and get rough figure on how many rds ive put through the 25/06 im also figureing this for 3 years time but i think ive had it for 4 years now. ill figure 20rds a week for 3 years.

comes out to 960 rds a year, 2880 in a 3 years time. well round that to 2800.

this number im almost certain is about half what it should be. alot of times i was going through 20 rds in a day, 80 or so in a weekend, plus hunting and punchn paper ever day after work.


in my opion the rifle is shooting better than it did when new, acuracy hasnt faded in any aspect.

i dont belive the 25/06 to burn barrels.

what do you guys that have worked with the caliber have to say on it. im only one person it would be cool to get a kinda list going of the 25/06 calibers performance.

lets hear the opions on the caliber if you guys dont mind

thanks
Evan

[Ken14]

I have owned a .25-06 since '96...bought a 700 Sendero brand new. Just about all that has been shot through it is 100gr Ballistic Tips at maximum velocity. Just glancing through my loading log I see probably 200-400 rds per year for the last 9 years...this does not count any factory box ammo i have burned up...and that is a bunch. Bottom line...my .25 is as accurate today if not more so than in '96....so I have to agree with you.

[denton]

There is no way that a 25-06 can have barrel life as long as the 30-06. The 25-06 has as much gas, in a smaller volume, hence at higher temperature, with less vessel surface area, than the parent round.

Now, will it last long enough to make you happy? It obviously has. Will it last as long as a 30-06, being similarly treated? Can't happen. Basic physics forbids it.

A well treated 30-06 barrel could be good for as many as 8-10,000 rounds. Browning published some data showing 22/250 burning out in 750 rounds, extended to 1500 by chrome lining the barrel. Where does the 25-06 fit in that range? Don't know. Apparently, it is a lot better than the 22/250, but I can guarantee it is not as good as an 30-06.

If the 25-06 goes in 4-5,000 rounds, and a barrel replacement costs you $350, the round is still economically practical, and a darn good round. But the barrel will fail sooner than the 30-06.

[Cal Sibley]

Having recieved a Remington 700BDL in .25-06Rem for Christmas I've been following this thread closely and feel a little more relieved now. I think there are a lot of exceptions to the rule. I currently reload for 13 different calibers. The only rifle barrel I found to burn out too quickly was the .243Win. That one surprised me. Maybe it shouldn't have. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

[denton]

Cal, I would certainly expect short barrel life out of a 243 (and I have one). It's got a small bore, and whole 308 case behind it.

Even the 270 is slightly overbore. Experiments have shown that a 270 bullet will do very nearly as well out of a 308 case as it does out of a 30-06 case. The 243 is way overbore.

People on this board actually take their guns to the range and shoot them between hunting seasons.

For those who don't, and who take 2-3 seasons to go through one box of factory ammo, a barrel burner like the 22/250 or the 264 Mag will last a lifetime.

My theory is that we should all have as many guns as possible, thus splitting our range time between several guns, and not wearing too much on any one.

I am also relieved to hear a couple of posters put up some actual numbers about their 25-06 barrel life. It's better than I had expected, and that's a good thing.

[Evan03]

i shoot factory ammo to. i think i should be a part of remingtons 100gr core lockt department.

i kinda got my numbers with a good educated guess on how much ive been hunting and punchn paper. realy 2800 doesnt sound far off. when you break that down to 900rds a year its doesnt seem to be enough. splecaily not when your pushn alot of rds down range into paper testing home brewd loads and factory ammo. its very very easy to burn a hundred rds in a few days time.

i plan to get alot more research into this 2506 barrel burning myth. ive got a lifetime left and will from now on watch closer at how many rds im burning. just yesterday i pushed 7 rds down range.

[skeet]

I had a Ruger 77 in 25-06 years ago. I shot approx 40 lbs of Hodgdon surplus 4831 out of that bbl. Didn't weigh the powder...Just filled the case to a little past the base of the neck and put in a bullet(usually either an 87 gr Sierra or a 75 gr flat base. Got good accuracy out of both with the 87 gr being a bit more so. Also used a bunch of factory loads along the way. I must admit when I got rid of the gun it was showing a good bit of erosion in the throat and accuracy was suffering some. Still do an inch occasionally but at it's best it would do half that most of the time. The fellow I sold it to still uses it some..mostly for deer and it still shoots minute of deer for him. I would say it has had 7500 rounds through it and somtimes they were fairly close together....got a little warm. Literally shot over 2500 groundhogs with it...as well as a few deer and foxes(couldn't sell those hides though). 11 foxes in one day for a farmer! His ducks loved me!!

BTW the guy I sold it to brought it to me one day with the bolt frozen. He was loading it a bit hotter than I did and used some IMR 4831 and i guess the burn rate on it was a bit faster. He said he had been having a little trouble with if for a couple hundred rounds(well, DUH!). We got her freed up and he still has it. Shoots factory now though.

[Evan03]

skeet.

at 7500rds shes still shooting as good as some brand new out of the box rifles.

will it still consistently shoot 1.5" or better or do you know. cause thats well under minute of deer acuracy.

im just curious mines the m77 MKII,

im not one bit worried about barrel life. acuaracy seems to be getn better everytime out, lol maybe im just now get those bures smoothed out of the bore.

[Hi Ball]

Barrel Life of a 25-06 I really don't know!

However, I can tell you that I once upon a time ran over 4500 rounds through one (mostly 100 grain bullets) and the day I got rid of it, to a friend who wanted to own said rifle, it still shot 3/4 inch groups from the bench at 100 yards. That same rifle he gave to his son, who is now using it for coyote hunting. This was over a 16 year period. So go figure shooters.

[Evan03]

yeah id defiantly say the myth has been busted.

anyone lookin at the caliber needent be worried about burning out the tube

[Andy L]

I dont worry about barrell burners. I like speed. Fast small bullets kill.

It takes a while to burn a barrell. Barrells arent that expensive. Shoot one out and screw on a newer better one.

Andy

[Evan03]

me to

[fabsroman]

Andy,

I agree with you. I have yet to not buy a rifle because I was worried about how many barrels I would go through in my lifetime.

[bulletpusher]

I've got my .25-06 in a Ruger M77MKII sporter. Best rifle and caliber that I've ever found for what I hunt down here in the Republic of Texas.

The more that I shoot this rifle the better it seems to shoot. The groups are very consistant. With an average of about 3/8" at 100 yrds. The best group so far is about 0.118" for 3 rnds and the baddest is about 3/4".

I've shot about 400 factory loads thru this rifle and about 700 + handloads of verying bullets and powders. I haven't shot it for a while because of working up new .45 Colt loading for my handgun and levergun but every time I hang it up for a while and then drag it back to the range the first round from a cold barrel hits 2 1/2" high and about 1/8" right every time no matter what the conditions at the range or the weather.

I think that spells of good rifle and load combination. I've pushed em from the 2,600 fps range to about 3,200 now and it just keeps on shooting.

Just my thoughts.
Bulletpusher

[Rocky Raab]

Lots of these "barrel eater" reputations got started way back when we had far fewer powder choices than we do today.

Back when Neidner was necking '06 cases down to .257, about the slowest powder around was 4895. Today, we call 4895 a medium burner. It was and is fine in the .30-06, but use it in that same case necked down, and it's just flat-out too damed fast burning. That burned barrels.

So with those powders, the .25-06 WAS overbore. Not so today.

If you use my formula for determining overbore (bore diameter squared/1000) you get a maximum case capacity of about 66 grains of water for a .257. That's very near what the '06 case holds.

With today's cooler, slower powders, it's NOT a barrel burner.