I was watching Saving Private Ryan last night and wondered about the life expectancy of gun barrels. In some scenes, the US infantry wait for the Germans to swap barrels on their machine guns so they may attack, supply counter fire, etc. I understand this was done to prevent distortion of the barrel from excessive heat and, once cooled would be re-installed in the gun. While not the same, how long a life is obtainable from, say, a .30 caliber rifle used for deer hunting? Or, something like an M1 Garand or an M1 Carbine?
Barrel life depends on a few factors, not the least of which is thorough cleaning, especially with WWII era corrosive ammunition. The other major factor is sustained rate of fire, the longer you maintain a rapid rate, the more damage you do to the barrel per unit of time and it increases exponentially after a very short time. Hunting rifles generally have a barrel life of 5000-8000 rounds, this is due to less mass to soak up heat when fired rapidly and the fact that most hunters don't really know how to clean the metal fouling from their barrels. Military rifles of the WWI-WWII era generally have a barrel life of 7000-10,000 rounds, soldiers were and are taught how to clean them thoroughly, they are taught fire discipline and the barrels are more massive than sporting rifles (however a Garand for example fired at a rate of over 8 rounds a minute for hours with no breaks longer than needed to insert a new magazine will begin to show extreme barrel wear within 1000 rounds or so, when the handguards start smoking you're literally eating the barrel throat via flame erosion).
Machine guns tend to have heavier barrels and that contirbutes to longer life. The thing to remember is a machine gun is not pinpoint accurate like a rifle and is not meant to be so the accuracy life of the barrel is longer. You can fire an aircooled MG barrle to shit in a very short time if you keep it fed and don't let off the trigger.
Modern military rifles with hard chromed bores have an accuracy life of
12,000-15,000 rounds.
I've forgotten more about this than most folks ever know.
The MG-42 or "zipper" had an exceptionally high rate of fire. The bbl got quite hot and it was notorious for needing frequent changes. The plus factor was that it was quite easy to do (as long as you hadn't lost the asbestos mittin).
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I'm not familiar with the MG-42 but on the MG-3 you only have to open the whatchamacallit on the right side and the barrel is automatically pulled out. Then you just tilt the machinegun up and let the piping hot barrel slide out. No need to touch it at all.
The specification limit for operation of US small arms is generally only
5000 rounds, with the notable exception of the BAR at 10,000. Given the rather broad spec limits on accuracy, you are probably right with those numbers but they represent a severe degradation in actual accuracy.
An MG-3 IS an MG-42, for all intents and purposes. slightly toned down rate of fire...and chambered for 7.62 NATO round, instead of 7.92 Wehrmacht round. *shrug*
Those numbers came from actual data in my own now literally moldy basement boxes and the data of C.E. Harris for rifles used in Highpower competition, "rattle-battle" rifles used for ITT matches have a slightly lower lifespan (about 3/4 of what I stated). When I stopped shooting competitively I sold most of my collection but the 1903A3 was on it's second barrel, the first went 9000 rounds before it needed replacing (all M2-ball in the first barrel, probably 40,000 cast bullet reduced loads through the second barrel and it still measured to within 0.0001" of the original throat dimension), the AR-15A2 original chromed barrel lasted 13,000 or so rounds before it needed replacing (note it was accurate enough for reduced course matches but not full course) then that had 3 different Obermeyer 5R super heavy stainless barrels over the course of 5 years (each went about 9000 rounds give or take 500), the M1 Garand was on its second barrel, the first was the original GI and I might have gotten 2000 rounds use from it before it crapped out, the second barrel had maybe 1500 rounds through it. I got a life of 9873 rounds (looked in the data book I kept) from my 1000 yard rifle, custom K&P stainless "truck axel" barrel for the first and the second barrel had 5588 rounds through it when I sold it (same type of barrel).
Between Ed and I, we had barrel life data on several hundred military rifles, most of which were owned by others but they let us track the barrel life (we bartered the data to a couple barrel makers for new barrels). Ed also had all his data from years at Ruger as QA manager. The primary cause of barrels losing accuracy is throat erosion, mostly from the flame, leading secondary cause is abrasion from cleaning rods at the throat or muzzle (depends on action design), next is corrosion
*under* metal fouling that has not been properly removed, finally is damage to the muzzle.
First, get a rod guide and use teflon coated rods. Bronze brush, patch jag, patches and a bore mop. Then take equal parts DextronII, acetone, aliphatic mineral spirits and kerosene (K-1 or any of the highly refined JP's that are kerosene)....that's your basic cleaner for powder fouling, use a bore mop wet with it and swab, let sit 5-10 minutes and scrub with a wet bronze brush, wet patch on jag then dry patch. Next use Sweet's
7.62 or Shooter's Choice copper remover, bore mop (not the same one as before, keep them separate) and allow to sit 5-10 minutes and no longer, bore mop follwed by patches, repeat the copper remover steps until the patches come out clean. Then another pass with the powder solvent, if the patches come out mostly clean you're good, apply some on a wet patch and you don't need to oil the bore, just dry patch it out before using.
snipped-for-privacy@aol.com (Bill Woodier) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mb-m07.aol.com:
The never-to-be-sufficiently damned M60 I carted everybloodywhere I went in the early 70's came with a asbestos glove so you could change the hot barrel (the idiots who designed it didn't put the carrying handle on the barrel). Naturally, no Digger in their right mind would carry the bloody thing (why take up room in your pack when you could carry a bit of extra tucker or ammo). What we used to do was whip off our hat and use that as padding to stop our hands getting burned. That is one reason you very rarely saw an Aussie with a battle bowler on in those days; those bloody things were heavy as well and the one time I wore it, it tipped forward in front of my face when I hit the ground and I couldn't see a thing. Not too long after I got out the brass came to their senses and ditched most of the M60's in favour of the FN MAG. It at least had a carry handle on the barrel and you could change barrels without burning your hands.
I've got several hunting rifles from the 1930's, well used with almost perfect bores. With proper cleaning and storage these things last many many years. I've fired quite a few original Civil War firearms, and they work just fine today !! :)
The life span of most WW II infantry rifles is more governed by the ammount of cleaning the troops did. ALL ammo was corrosive at the time, and lack of cleaning for a few days (sometimes only
1 day !!!) generally trashes the bore permantly. Gun is still shootable, but loses all accuracy. I shoot a LOT of WW II Russian rifles almost exclusively with corrosive ammo, and they MUST be cleaned same day of shooting !!! Needless to say, I have a supply of Mil bore cleaner from 1944. (it does the best job I've found so far)
A good example of WW II rifle wear, was the 98k I fired all day once with WW II ammo, and forgot to clean that night. The next day there was a beautifull coral reef that was once the inside of the bore !!!!!! (bummer tho)
Or as my friend (VN vet, Marines:) told me. They had a dog who would smell the bore cleaner the VC used and would point. He told me EVERYONE loved that dog !!!!!!!!!
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I've still taken a pass on JB. But then even though I reload and shoot over 30 different caliber firearms, I dont shoot competition anymore....... (hence havnt felt the real need for the most part)
"Only a Gentleman can insult me, and a true Gentleman never will..."
Ian, I've just finished reading 'Shockwave' by Peter Haran. In the book, which is about Aussie Bushanger Huey ops in VietNam, there's a few passages that describe changing the barrel of an M60 (one of a twin installation) on a Bushranger in combat. Gripping stuff.
For the Aussies who might be interested, I picked up my copy at Bookworld for about $20. It's a good read.
Ian Burnley wrote in news:Xns94F6E7FE3C2CDburnleysoptusnetcoma@211.29.133.50:
[SNIP]
As for the carry handle, well a gunner in my section still managed to get third-degree burns when he picked it up the wrong way during a live-fire fire and movement exercise. The MAG really could have used a fore-grip (as per the M60), especially when you had the bipod down and you had to get up from prone and be on your way.
I could never understand how the deigners of the M60 got away with the barrel/bipod design, much less armies actually buying it that way.
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