Green Mountian Barrel Wear Out

[FishDFly]

This question is not asked to start arguments nor insitigate a riot. It is plainly asking what is is thought to be factual information from match shooters on barrel life.

Assuming a 1" Green Mountain 45 cal roundball barrel (1 in 66 twist) is used in a T/C and cleaned between shots, using teflon patching for the ball and only used for match shooting, what would you consider the life of the barrel, total number of shots before match quality accuarcy is lost.

Match quality is defined as shooting in Phoenix and Friendship and winning your fair share of the matches entered.

A. 200 shots
B. 1,000 shots
C. 5,000 shots
D. 10,000 shots
E. 45,000 shots

RDE

Thanks

 

[CoyoteJoe]

Man, that's a tough one, not being a match shooter myself I really have no idea. I've never seen a ML barrel that I would say was "worn out" but I've sure seen a lot that were rusted out. :grin:

 

[roundball]

Hopefully 'rabbit03' out of Texas will see this and respond...anybody can answer with an estimate of course but without hands on experience to base it on, it would mostly be meaningless speculation.

There may be other members who live on the competition trail so to speak that I'm not aware of, but 'rabbit03' is the only one that happens to come to my mind right now who could answer your question with conviction.

 

[flintlock75]

I cant speak to the Green Mountain Barrels.
I shot compitition with my .54cal T/C New Englander, I recored all my shooting over a 9 year period at the range, I fired 10,000 rounds from that barrel, I began to notice that my groups were begining to open up quite a bit. Upon close looks down the barrel I found that about 6" of rifleing was almost non-existant, worse at the muzzle, I dont know if it was from shooting or the fiberglass loading rod i use, same rod since day one. I purchased another barrel from T/C and it went right back to 1 hole groups. I for one believe you can wear out a barrel, maybe a wooden rod would put less wear on the muzzle. Dont know.

 

[paulvallandigham]

The problem is rarely the rod used. If you use a rod guide, or " muzzle protector : on the rod, to center the rod in the barrel while protecting the barrel's lands, you should see no appreciable wear. Its the silicates that become imbedded in those fiberblass rods, and sometime in the wood rods, and aluminum rods, that grind and polish away the lands. Now, if you clean the rod with a new, clean, cleaing patch with a good solvent between shots, so that you are not running gunk down the barrel to act as both its own abrasive, and a glue to carry foreign matter as abrasives, even the use of the fiberglas, wood, and aluminum rods should not be of concern. It has everything to do with how clean you keep your tools, and if you actually consider your ramrod a " Tool ".

 

[JWP]

I've shot with three guys that do Friendship all the time. These fella are serious about their shooting.
They use Green Mt. barrels - there sponsered by
them. They've told me they shoot on the average of 300 shots a week. I don't know if they use a range rod and teflon patching. They go through a GM barrel about once a year (from what they've told me). All I know is - my body and wallet wouldn't let me do that much shooting. I figure my barrel will last me a lifetime :thumbsup:

 

[gmww]

You ought to contact GM and ask. I'd be interested in hearing what they say. :hmm:

 

[Vbull]

Although I have several muzzleloaders, none of them have the huge numbers of rounds shot thru them as my BP cartridge rifles. 2 of them in particular have had over 10,000 rounds shot thru them. One in particular has had at least 15,000 in 45-70 caliber with heavy 545 gr bullets. This rifle is still accurate but I've noticed a slight opening of the groups. It could also just be my eyes are not what they were when I started shooting it. These rifles have a Badger barrel and a Shiloh.
If I had to say how many rounds, it would be somewhere between 10-15K before accuracy starts to fall off.
I have a long range muzzleloader that has had at least 1500 rounds thru it in a mix of grease groove and paper patch bullets. Other then the paper patches shining up the bore it shoots great. This underhammer rifle has a Green Mountain barrel. I don't shoot this one as often as my BP cartridge rifles so won't know for some time if it will wear out early.
Since the price of lead has gone up so much in the last year, my shooting may have to slow down. Or I'll start shooting lighter calibers. Frank M.

 

[roundball]

Since the price of lead has gone up so much in the last year, my shooting may have to slow down. Or I'll start shooting lighter calibers. Frank M.

I've had similar thoughts...been in a routine for a few years of shooting 50 shot ranges sessions on Saturday mornings...I already mostly limit my volume shooting to .40/.45./50.cals and save the larger .54/.58/.62cal balls...and recently been thinking about rolling back the volume from 50 to 40 shot session (20% reduction)...but then thought...I'm 62...who am I kidding :grin:

 

[Keppy]

Roundball
Sounds like you should be going down range and picking up lead. Selling it to buy new. I have a shooting range on the property and collect all the lead I shoot. I cast my lead. I know your not into that but people will buy scrap lead. I do if I'm sure its not wheel weights.
Hacksaw

 

[roundball]

Roundball
Sounds like you should be going down range and picking up lead. Selling it to buy new. I have a shooting range on the property and collect all the lead I shoot. I cast my lead. I know your not into that but people will buy scrap lead. I do if I'm sure its not wheel weights.
Hacksaw

Man, I've thought of that a few times myself...averaging about 2000 balls a year for 7 years now...plus that big dirt berm has huge amounts of all sorts of other people's projectiles in it too but it all belongs to the range owner of course.

With the price of metals going through the roof, it would be interesting if he tried to make some estimates of possible profit if he were to pay to have the berm dug up, screen the dirt, and and rebuild the berm...probably be a pretty expensive heavy equipment operation though.

 

[Many Klatch]

My friend Lizard did a test on barrels that might apply here. He had a gun that he called "Old Rust Away". He wanted to see how long a barrel would be accurate if it was never cleaned. For years he shot it and put it away without cleaning. Now he was shooting every day, one year he went through about 50 pounds of powder. So the gun never sat in a closet and rusted. If the grime ring in the barrel made it too tough to load, then he would clean it enough to load and keep shooting, but that was all the cleaning that the gun got. He used pre-cut patches and when he opened up a new bag of 100 he would put the empty package in box. After about 40,000 shots he noticed that the gun started to throw fliers on about every third or fourth shot. The rest of the time it was accurate. He then got a new barrel, put it in the gun and cut up the old barrel for spacers on his Harley.

So with that in mind, I am of the opinion that if you clean your gun well after a weekend of shooting and put it away oiled and clean for the next trip to the range, then the barrel will probably last for as long as you will be shooting it. I think it also points out that we don't have to be as scrupulous in cleaning a gun immediately after shooting.

By the way, Lizard set a number of national records with Old Rust Away during this test. I used to enjoy watching shooters with $5,000 guns look surprised when a gun that looked like a rusted P.O.S. beat them at a match.

Many Klatch