Original barrel life

[Grizzly Adams]

I recently read on the contemporarymakers website that a rifle's bore had to be freshed out after 80-150 shots. This seems like an awfully small number to me. Is this small of a number due to corrosion, extremely soft iron used for barrels, or is it simply inaccurate?

 

[azmntman]

:bull:

But it can take that many to break it in

 

[Grizzly Adams]

My thoughts as well. I have a hard time believing that a well maintained barrel, even one of iron could last for as few as 150 shots. Maybe add a zero or two on that and we might be in a better ballpark.

Also noted was that the barrels were cut at the breach due to corrosion, and rethreaded when the barrels were freshed out. I find this to be pretty far fetched as well.

 

[bob308]

when the planes rifles were made it was figured they would need to be freshed out every two years. simply from lack of cleaning. that is why there were a lot of odd calibers like 52,53.

 

[Zonie]

Barrels made before the middle of the 18th century were all made of soft iron.

Couple that with the guns often being left poorly cleaned and out in the elements for long periods of time and you have bores that did not stay pristine for long.

The 50 to 150 shot estimate between freshing's sounds way low to me but numbers like 500-1000 shots wouldn't surprise me.

 

[Grizzly Adams]

500-1000 shots probably went a long may with most guns back then, as they were used for hunting, and not so much plinking. We likely put way more lead through our MLs than many originals ever saw.

 

[Eterry]

I have to call BS on that one...even my buddy's 220 swift wouldn't burn out a barrel THAT fast, and he loaded it so fast the bullets came apart before they reached the target!!

Now if they never cleaned the thing, like grew up in town, saw the add recruiting trappers and hit the trail, never knowing how to take care of a rifle, then it could rust out in less that that, I guess. But not from a routine cleaning.
:2

Eterry

 

[smoothshooter]

Even with the softer iron then used, I have to believe that if any barrel needed to be freshed out after less than 800 - 1000 shots, it was due to lack of cleaning more than anything else. There would have been a few truly extenuating circumstances that would have precluded cleaning the bore in a timely manner, especially on the frontier.
Just plain old laziness no doubt figures into the equation as well.
Then, as now, some people who have depended on their firearms for life and livelihood have failed to take proper firearms maintenance seriously.
I can only offer a single anecdotal example from personal experience on this subject. As a younger teenager in the early 1970's I hunted and target practiced extensively with an original Tennessee- type .31 caliber iron barrelled original full stock percussion rifle that may have been flint before it came into the possession of my GG Grandfather as an old gun in the mid- 1880's. The bore was not perfect, but was pretty good, with seven fairly deep square-bottomed grooves (We even had the original bullet mold). And it was pretty accurate. I would guess that I put somewhere between 300 - 500 shots through it myself with no noticeable loss of accuracy. I don't know how many times my ancestors fired it.
According to my great- grandfather (died in 1975 at age 91) the gun was in fairly regular use up through the 1940's, and was never rebarreled or freshed out.

 

[Rifleman1776]

back then

Yep. Not with modern steels. I suppose tests on originals could be done to answer the question. But, what would be the point? With today's rifles, I would venture to say barrel life is nearly infinite. That would be with prb and proper care.

 

[Coot]

Early barrels were made of wrought iron which is softer but more rust resistant than modern mild steel. Then as now, some owners shot more than others and some were more concerned with cleaning & preservation than others. As another mentioned, I would be more comfortable with adding a zero to the estimates of 80 to 150 --- 800 to 1500 sounds more reasonable to me.

 

[Billnpatti]

I have no idea what they are talking about unless what the person meant was that it quite often takes about that many shots to "break in" a barrel. Even with the old metal that barrels were made of "back in the day", a barrel would last for far more than 80 to 150 shots. Just guessing, I would think that the person who wrote that was really taking about how many shots it takes to break in an average barrel. Some barrels, such as Rice barrels, come with the bore already polished and need no breaking in. If the writer really meant that a barrel needed to be freshened out after only 80 to 150 shots, then I am baffeled by that. :idunno:

 

[nwtradegun]

they are referring to the old soft steel and twist barrels. in the 18th and early 19th century stell was of and inferor quality. it eroded very fast. I don't think 80 to 150 shots would have required it unless it was not maintained correctly.

 

[smoothshooter]

True on the rust resistance of wrought iron barrels. And, wrought iron being somewhat porous at a microscopic level, over time after several shots, the bore would absorb a small amount of the lube and retain it almost indefinitely. This is why " seasoning " worked on the older barrels and not so much on the actual high quality steel barrels that started to become available after the development of the Bessemer Process in the 1850's made the mass production of actual steel possible and more economical.